Workshops
Learn from industry professionals
2023 workshop details
Admission is free!
Pre-Registration Required Limited to 50 places per workshop
Attend at the NCFF Headquarters, 110 Union Street Alley, Nevada City, CA 95959
the workshops
Horror has long been an outlet for social commentary and is now the genre for the fastest greenlit projects in Hollywood. Join Kimberly Parker Zox, the Horror Program Director of Blumhouse & K Period Media’s Screamwriting Fellowship, for a discussion on how horror films are impacting the marketplace and giving underrepresented voices a platform.
“As a self-identified ‘Final Girl,’ I have always been drawn to horror, and I take pride in our mission of elevating diverse voices in the genre. Supporting underrepresented filmmakers is a concrete way to help even the playing field–and to find bold, exciting stories in the process.”
Kimberly Parker Zox is the Horror Program Director of Blumhouse & K Period Media’s Screamwriting Fellowship, a new initiative formally advised by Sundance Institute. Prior to her work in the horror space, Zox produced IFC’s CATCH THE FAIR ONE, (Audience Award, Tribeca 2021), executive produced by Darren Aronofsky and Protozoa. She was an Executive Producer on A24’s THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO (Best Director, Sundance 2019), executive produced by Brad Pitt and Plan B. Her prior producing work includes “I Am My Own Mother,” one of two American shorts in Cannes Cinéfondation 2018; dramatic feature KATIE SAYS GOODBYE (TIFF 2016), starring Olivia Cooke and Christopher Abbott; and an interactive, gaze-controlled virtual reality film, “Broken Night,” starring Emily Mortimer (Tribeca, Cannes Next 2017).
Her first feature as a producer, THOSE PEOPLE, won Audience Awards at Outfest and NewFest. Kimberly was a 2016 San Francisco Film Society/KRF Producing Fellow and a 2019 Nevada City Film Festival Creative Producing Resident. She has participated in SFFILM Invest, Berlinale Talents, Film Independent’s Fast Track, the Sundance Women in Film Financing Intensive, IFP’s Narrative Lab, and EPI’s Trans Atlantic Partners. Zox is a member of the Producers Guild of America. She graduated with a Film M.F.A. from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a B.A. in Writing Seminars and Film and Media Studies from Johns Hopkins University.
Whose Life Is It Anyway?
Ethical Responsibility in Documentary Filmmaking
with Jameka Autry
Saturday, June 24th at 3:30pm
Generally, discussions of ethics in documentary filmmaking have been narrowly focused on the invasion of privacy or, sometimes, exploitation. Asking the question, “Whose life is this anyway?” tries to broaden the discussion of relationships among filmmakers, the people about whom they make films and others involved in the collaboration. We need to consider a number of relationships and to recognize that ethics deals with making choices among acceptable alternatives. What these decisions are can often hinge on one’s morality.
Join producer Jameka Autry for a round table discussion on the ethics and responsibilities in documentary filmmaking with representatives from Peace is Loud, an organization that collaborates with women-identified and gender expansive changemakers to advance transformative peace and social justice through storytelling, along with the filmmakers of Subject, a documentary screening at NCFF (Saturday, June 24, 1pm at the Nevada Theatre) which explores the life-altering experience of sharing one’s life on screen through the participants of five acclaimed documentaries. As tens of millions of people consume documentaries in an unprecedented “golden era,” the film urges audiences to consider the impact on documentary participants – the good, the bad, and the complicated. Plus special guests. Whether you’re a filmmaker, distributor, funder, viewer or any other part of the documentary creation and consumption pipeline, this discussion will offer new perspectives on how we can share others’ experiences through this storytelling medium with greater care.
Episodic Filmmaking
with the Filmmakers of Bloomberg’s Hello World Series
Sunday, June 25th at 10am
Hello World invites the viewer to come on a journey. It’s a journey that stretches across the globe to find the inventors, scientists and technologists shaping our future. Each episode explores a different country and uncovers the ways in which the local culture and surroundings have influenced their approach to technology. Join journalist and best-selling author Ashlee Vance on a quest to find the freshest, weirdest tech creations and the beautiful freaks behind them. Filmmaker and NCFF co-founder David Nicholson will present a talk on the ups and downs of creating this hit series for Bloomberg on Hulu.
Please join a discussion about the vibrancy of the filmmaking community in Northern California and the means by which the SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreements allow access to professional talent for productions of every budget, while providing performers a stable livelihood working in the SF Bay Area.
Panelists including local SAG-AFTRA member, Rocky Capella and SF-NC Local Board President, Kathryn Howell, along with SAG-AFTRA Franchised Talent Agent, Calum Grant and SF-NC Local Executive Director, Sean F. Taylor. Together they will provide step-by-step guidance for signing a project to a SAG-AFTRA contract as well as advice for prospective members on the process and benefits of joining the union of professional recorded and on-screen performers.