Getting Grants to Make a Documentary with Michael Singh

Most documentary filmmakers rely in whole or in part on grants to fund their film projects. Grants, unlike equity investments, allow filmmakers to retain full ownership and control of the content they create. But almost every grant requires filmmakers to apply for funding, meet grant requirements, and provide reports on their progress over time. This workshop features award winning documentary producer Michael Singh, recipient of IDA’s Kodak Award, presented annually to the filmmaker who has raised the most funds for his/her project. In this workshop you will learn:

• Where to find documentary film grants to apply for
• How to identify the grants that meet your requirements
• The process of writing a grant including where to find, or how to create, the project description and supporting information most grantmakers demand
• Providing supporting documentation and footage links as part of your grant application
• What happens after you get your grant.
• Common grant reporting requirements and how to meet them.
• Why one grant often leads to another

TO GET THIS RECORDED WORKSHOP: Just click I Want This, provide the requested information, then click View Product in the Confirmation Email. You will find a link to the 90+ minute video and another hour video covering Legal Issues Involved in Telling True Stories featuring Attorney Justin Sterling. 

Immediately after signup you receive Getting Grants to Make Your Documentary and Legal Issues Involved in Telling True Stories Videos recorded workshops. 

Michael Singh (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0802172/) is an award winning writer, director, and producer currently finalizing RIDING THE TIGER: SURVIVING THE SIKH MASSACRE OF 1984. This is a first-person documentary film account of a 1984 massacre that injured and killed thousands of Sikh men, women and children, in New Delhi, India. It explores Michael’s bi-racial and bi-cultural identity, and his Sikh heritage, and how his ability to pass for “American” helped him to survive and record an atrocity. It includes 16mm color footage and live audio Michael captured during three days spent protecting 23 Sikh women and children housed in a Christian Bishop’s home. It helps people worldwide understand what triggers and enabled mass violence and ethnic scapegoating.

Michael’s previous film, the award winning VALENTINO’S GHOST (valentinosghost.com), was narrated by Michael Farrell, and documents the politics behind images and role they have played in exacerbating racism directed toward Muslims in the United States. It was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting affiliate CAAM, California Council for the Humanities, Park Foundation and others, and called “…the decade’s most important film’ by The Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs in March/April 2016. “Valentino’s Ghost is both sobering and illuminating, and it’s execution is thrilling.” – Ernest Hardy, The Village Voice, reviewed May 16, 2013.

• Shown on PBS stations nationwide as a NETA release
• Premiered at La Biennale (Venice Film Festival) to a standing ovation.
• International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA), Amsterdam, which awarded the film with an Extended one-hour Q&A with fellow panelist Petra Steinen and moderator Ozge Calafato.
• Doha-Tribeca International Film Festival, Qatar (#1 Box Office)
• It's All True Documentary Festival, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• International Madrid Documentary Festival, Spain
• United Nations Association Film Festival, Stanford
• IDA’s Kodak Award, presented annually to the filmmaker who has raised the most funds for his/her project.
• Jury Award, Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival
• Special Jury Award, Bi-National Independent Film Festival, El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico.
• Voice of Courage and Conscience Award, The Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles.

Other award winning productions include: THE VISIONARY, REBEL QUEEN, THE PRISONER’S SONG, CHICAGO’S LIFELINE for Discovery Health Channel, MAHALIA JACKSON: THE POWER AND THE GLORY. Michael also has numerous credits and awards for documentary film and television writing. He has taught Film editing, film post-production, for Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.

You can reach Michael Singh directly through ValentinosGhost.com or by emailing turbancowboy@gmail.com.

If you have questions about this recorded workshop, please email nancy@nancyfultonmeetups.com.