Silver Sessions
Silver Sessions are small group meetings with international development, programming and acquisition executives; theatrical, DVD and international broadcast distributors and industry leaders. Industry Pass holders may pre-register for six Silver Sessions in advance. Once registered, please e-mail your top eight choices in order of preference to conference@silverdocs.com and six will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. One-day Pass holders may pre-register in advance for two Silver Sessions for the day of their pass, please e-mail your top three choices to conference@silverdocs.com. All registered attendees may sign up on-site during the conference for Silver Sessions depending on space availability, however, SILVERDOCS Filmmakers and Platinum Package and Sterling Access Pass holders have priority access. Sessions are limited to 15 participants. Student pass holders may not sign up in advance. A wait list will be available. Please note:
The following schedule will be updated as sessions are added. Silver Sessions take place in the Lee Building and at Discovery World Headquarters. Please, check the schedule carefully.
*NOTE* The Silver Session advance sign-up period is now over. Sign up for Silver Sessions will continue on-site at the Lee Building, which is located at 8601 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, Maryland. See the Conference Desk for more details.
Tuesday, June 12
4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 12
Nancy Abraham
Vice President
HBO
Venue: Discovery
Wednesday, June 13
9:30—10:00 a.m. Wednesday, June 13
Donald Thoms
Vice President
Production
Discovery Health Media and Fit TV
Venue: Discovery
10:15 – 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, June 13
Jesse Epstein
New Day Films
Venue: Discovery
10:15 – 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, June 13
Jonathan Miller
President
First Run Features/Icarus
Venue: Discovery
11:00-11:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 13
Julian Hobbs
Senior Director of Development
Discovery Channel
Venue: Discovery
11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
Nancy Abraham
Vice President
HBO
Venue: Discovery
11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
BUSINESS OF THE BUSINESS
Mat Tombers
Managing Director
Intermat, Inc.
and
Clark Bunting
President
Discovery Studios
Venue: Discovery
- It’s not enough just to be a GREAT producer…to succeed in this business as an independent, you also need to be a GREAT business person. It means you have to know the business of what you are doing and how to keep it going. The world of television production is littered with production companies that have bit the dust because they didn’t know how to handle their finances, manage their people, or develop enough projects to keep them going when one production ended. THE BUSINESS OF THE BUSINESS will have to do with the hard, cold realities of what it takes to be a successful production business, whether you are one man or twenty or two hundred – and it will help you soften the hard edges of the cold reality with good advice and tips.
12:30 – 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
WGBH
Charles Schuerhoff
WGBH
Venue: Lee Building
- What sort of documentaries sell to foreign broadcasters?
2:30 – 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
PUMP AUDIO
Larry Mills
Director of Marketing
Pump Audio
Venue: Discovery
- Finding and using the right song can be the difference between what is deemed good, and what is deemed great. We here at Pump Audio believe that with our Soundtrack Tool, we are now able to provide something great - giving filmmakers the ability to find the best independent music in the world, and have a system that facilitates the licensing and implementation of that music into your work easily and reasonably priced.
With the Soundtrack Tool, users from the largest advertising agencies to independent filmmakers to bloggers and everyone in between can add legally licensed music to their video content. Users can browse the Pump catalog online and purchase licenses for those the songs instantly.
As the #1 licensor of independent music in the world, we are committed to independent artists and independent filmmakers. Come by our session and let us show you our Soundtrack Tool and how it can work for you.
2:30 – 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
INCEF
Jéhu Olivier Bikoumou
Principal, Republic of Congo
INCEF
Venue: Lee Building
- When it comes to promoting wildlife conservation in Central Africa through media production and exhibition, the answer to the question, “Who’s the Audience?” is, “The people living right in the villages where the biggest problems related to threatened and endangered species are manifest.” So thought Cynthia Moses in creating the International Conservation and Education Fund (INCEF) in 2004 to bring the power of media directly to the people via screenings held village-by-village. And, to succeed in the mission to reach the most critical populations where they live, it was determined that the films had to be produced in local languages, in culturally-appropriate styles, on issues that are locally determined and, especially, by African filmmakers. Come meet and see the work of one of INCEF’s key production partners, Jéhu Olivier Bikoumou, a producer/editor/composer of the fourteen short films in the most recent award-winning (IWFF 2007) INCEF project produced entirely in and for the Republic of Congo.
Resource Room:
www.incef.org
3:15 – 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
BUSINESS OF LICENSING IN THE DIGITAL ERA
Max Segal
HBO Archives, ACSIL
and
David Sheehan
Director
ABCNEWS VideoSource
Venue: Discovery
- It’s not enough just to be a great story-telling producer, to succeed in this business, especially as an independent, you also need to be a great business person. The digital age is riddled with new media minefields. If you don't understand and handle your legal, business, financial affairs, no matter how compelling your film, you could end up as another out-of-biz casualty.
Members of the Association of Commercial Stock Footage Licensors (ASCIL) present to SILVER DOCS an innovative new footage licensing model of all rights holders to consider. Whether you are new to licensing or been active for decades, everyone must deal with the confusion and uncertainty of licensing in the fast-exploding digital era.
ASCIL's goal is to take the technical guesswork out of licensing and establish a model that will be forever future-proof, always ahead of technology.
3:15 – 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
OPEN MEDIA NETWORK
Linda Lawrence
Vice President
Open Media Network
Venue: Lee Building
- Open Media Network (www.omn.org) is a non-profit organization dedicated to offering high-quality video and audio programming created by public broadcasters and independent producers in order to deepen community service. OMN collaborates with technology partners to build a powerful, legal, cost efficient online platform that enables public media partners to collect, curate and distribute DVD and HD quality programming. With OMN, innovative educational, community and non-profit organizations can use social networking techniques to maximize revenue and reach new audiences.
Resource Room:
www.omn.org
4:00 – 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
Liz Ogilvie
Head Programmer, Docurama
New Video
Venue: Lee Building
4:00 – 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
David Garber
President/CEO
Lantern Lane Entertainment
Venue: Discovery
4:45-5:15 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
Julian Hobbs
Senior Director of Development
Discovery Channel
Venue: Discovery
Thursday, June 14
9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Thursday, June 14
Lois Vossen
Independent Lens Series Producer
ITVS
Venue: Discovery
10:15 – 10:45 a.m. Thursday, June 14
Bridget Whalen
Director of Development
National Geographic Channel
Venue: Discovery
11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Thursday, June 14
Josh Braun
Submarine Entertainment
Venue: Discovery
11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Thursday, June 14
Mike Haney
Content Acquisitions
CustomFlix
Venue: Discovery
12:30 – 1:00 p.m. Thursday, June 14
Richard Lorber
President
Koch Lorber Films/Lorber H/T Digital
Venue: Lee Building
12:30 – 1:00 p.m. Thursday, June 14
Kim Spencer
President
LinkTV
Venue: Discovery
1:30-2:15 p.m. Thursday, June 14
Cara Mertes
Director
Sundance Institute Documentary Fund
Venue: Discovery
4:00 – 4:45 p.m. Thursday, June 14
THE NEW, ONLINE PRODUCER
Len Sitomer
President and co-founder
PortalVideo
and
Adam Mosston
Vice President and co-founder
PortalVideo
Venue: Discovery
- A new, internet-based workflow makes a critical difference for producers attempting to navigate the changing media production landscape. When you can work from virtually anywhere, involve almost anyone in your story creation process, and in any time zone, a whole new world of possibilities emerge. Edit without being an editor, instantly share with others for review and approval, and then export edit decision lists to your editor.
Friday, June 15
9:30 – 10:00 a.m. Friday, June 15
WITNESS
Matisse Bustos
Communications & Outreach Coordinator
WITNESS
and
Gillian Caldwell
Executive Director
WITNESS
Venue: Lee Building
- WITNESS is a nonprofit organization that uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. We empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice and to promote public engagement and policy change. Now in our 15th year, WITNESS is expanding its model of training human rights defenders to use video as an effective advocacy tool. Through a new initiative known as The Hub, we are taking advantage of the opportunities provided by Web 2.0 to create a participatory media site dedicated to human rights- a YouTube meets MySpace meets wiki for activists all over the world to do more than just upload videos. We're asking people to participate and change the world.
Resource Room:
www.witness.org
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Friday, June 15
THE GREENCODE PROJECT
Peter Wintonick
Co-founder DocAgora; GreenCode Project
GreenCode Project; DocAgora
and
Marie-France Côté
Acting Executive Director
The GreenMedia Institute
Venue: Lee Building
- Come meet face to interface with Marie-France Côté and Peter Wintonick, guests of SILVERDOCS and part of the conspiracy which has established the Greencode Project for the Media Industries. Following the earlier Greencode panel, this interactive brainstorm session seeks your input and experiences on how to envision, build and finance practical, economically-sustainable greenmedia organizations. And, by extension any citizen-based, educational, civil society, peace or social justice organization. An exchange of ideas, contributions, advice, dreams, contacts, (ad)venture greencap dollars and foundational support most welcome. An important connector in the world effort to green the screen industries, including SILVERDOCS own green policies, the Greencode is a set of voluntary, environmentally-friendly guidelines, standards, eco-actions, certifications, research and principles to encourage practical ecological processes and sustainability in media workplaces and productions. www.greencodeproject.org.
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Friday, June
Michael Burns
Director of Programming
The Documentary Channel
Venue: Discovery
2:30 – 3:00 p.m. Friday, June 15
Sam Paul
Director, Original Programming
Sundance Channel
Venue: Lee Building
2:30 – 3:00 p.m. Friday, June 15
ITVS
Dennis Palmieri
Director of Communications
ITVS
Venue: Discovery
- Focus on ITVS' national outreach methodology, including collaboration with leading non-profit and community-based organizations in ITVS' flagship outreach program Community Cinema and its landmark Community Engagement Campaigns which support programs coming to broadcast on Independent Lens, along with other ITVS-funded content.
3:15 – 3:45 p.m. Friday, June 15
WE: Women’s Entertainment
Steve Cheskin
SVP Programming
WE: Women’s Entertainment
Venue: Lee Building
- Steven Cheskin is the Sr Vice President of Programming for WE TV, the only cable network devoted to helping women connect to one another and the world around them. With quality original programming including the hit series Bridezillas, unique movie packages and topical specials, the network appeals to women's interests in pop culture, relationships and personal style. Steve previously was at Discovery Communications for 18 years including stints at Discovery Channel, TLC and as GM of the Travel Channel.
3:15 – 3:45 p.m. Friday, June 15
Jean Garner
Producer/Witness
Programming Department
English Language Channel
Al Jazeera
Venue: Discovery
4:00 – 4:30 p.m. Friday, June 15
Yance Ford
Series Producer
American Documentary | P.O.V.
Venue: Lee Building
4:45 – 5:15 p.m. Friday, June 15
Cynthia Fenneman
President & CEO
American Public Television
Venue: Discovery
Saturday, June 16
10:15 – 10:45 a.m. Saturday, June 16
Julie Goldman
Executive Producer
Cactus Three
Venue: Lee Building
11:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Saturday, June 16
Karen Miles
Senior Program Officer
National Endowment for the Humanities
Venue: Lee Building
Contact: Conference@SILVERDOCS.com
