New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) is pleased to announce that it will provide film production grants to El Pueblo vs. Austeridad / The People vs. Austerity and Coquito. The projects come from two of the 12 media making teams selected for Good Pitch Local Puerto Rico, where they pitched live from Puerto Rico via webcast to a robust group of advisors, with connections to NGOs, distributors, and foundations. Prior to pitching, selected projects underwent an intensive professional development workshop series and received one-on-one mentorship from industry professionals as part of the program. The program was produced by NYWIFT, ADocPR, the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival (PHLAFF), and Doc Society.
Shannon Thomas, program manager for Doc Society, told PhillyVoice that the pitches go both ways. Content creators in Philadelphia can pitch their story idea to community activists and organizations for financial support, resources and more, while organizations themselves can present their cause for local producers to help tell their own story. The cheesy kind of Good Pitch tagline is Helping the film go further Thomas said. Basically, some films aren t even finished, but they are coming here to find community partners … and work with other organizations that might need to show a movie to get people s heartstrings going when they are talking about their issue.