Non-fiction financing body Doc Society has launched a unit to support films that help combat the global ecological crisis.
The Climate Story Unit is dedicated to “stories and impact campaigns”, including features, shorts and episodic documentaries, as well as podcasts and alternate and virtual reality projects. It will be run by producer Megha Agrawal Sood, former director of programs at US production company Exposure Labs, known for Chasing Coral and Chasing Ice.
The Unit is “dedicated to transformative storytelling to advance a just climate future” according to Doc Society.
Its first programme is the Climate Story Fund, which has two application rounds for 2021.
The first is open until March 4, and has $800,000 available to support six to eight projects from anywhere in the world, with grants of between $20,000 to $100,000 per project. Projects must be able to complete production in 2021, with the Fund’s support.
The second round will open in autumn.
Selected projects will be invited to participate in a lab alongside climate scientists, producers and leading figures from the climate change movement.
The Fund is backed by Doc Society’s network of donors, which includes the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, social and economic justice organisation CrossCurrents Foundation and philanthropist Beth Braun.
“Storytelling is how we will understand the extent of the climate emergency, and the required solutions. We need to move beyond the monoculture of past climate narratives, and support a wave of both climate stories that center the voices of those on the frontlines and strategic impact campaigns that can activate audiences who have often been ignored,” said Sood.
Doc Society is based in Europe, the US and Australia. In the UK it is the British Film Institute’s delegate partner, managing the UK’s £1.2m documentary film fund
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