Tribeca Film Institute® Hosts Fourth Annual TFI/A&E IndieFilms StoryLab

We’re excited to announce the fourth annual TFI/A&E IndieFilms StoryLab for documentary filmmakers! StoryLab is made up of one-on-one mentorship, master classes, industry discussions, and networking opportunities for five selected filmmaking teams with documentaries in production or post-production. The invite-only workshop is designed to help documentary filmmakers who are preparing to submit their projects to major film festivals and are currently working on story structure and character development.

Molly Thompson, Senior Vice President of A&E IndieFilms, is enthusiastic about the benefits of the program and how it helps launch careers.

“Filmmakers need every advantage in crafting the most powerful stories they can. This workshop has been incredibly successful at offering talented filmmakers tools and insights that help catapult their careers. It is truly an honor to be able to mentor this year’s gifted teams.”

Notable filmmakers including Looking Glass Films founder Richard Hankin (Capturing the Friedmans, The Jinx), Axis Films’ Amir Bar-Lev (Fighter, My Kid Could Paint That, The Tillman Story), and Motto Films’ Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, and Carolyn Hepburn will lead this years master classes. Additionally, StoryLab alumni Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg will share stories of their success and struggles from the feature documentary Weiner (2016 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner), which they co-directed and produced.

The participants in the Fourth Annual TFI/A&E IndieFilms StoryLab are:

DID IT! FROM YIPPIE TO YUPPIE: Directed and Produced by Paul Lovelace and Jessica Wolfson; The documentary is an exploration of 1960's activist Jerry Rubin.  A radical, yogi, social networking pioneer, and capitalist: his story is one of constant reinvention.

FIRE ON THE HILL: Directed and Produced by Brett Fallentine, Produced by Jenna Cedicci; Three black cowboys from Compton, California share their stories in the wake of a mysterious fire that burnt down the community's stables, leaving the fate of the culture in question. 

MY COUNTRY, NO MORE: Directed and Produced by Rita Baghdadi and Jeremiah Hammerling; Three generations of family farming tradition go up in flames as the North Dakota oil boom leaves human memory, culture and identity scorched in its wake. 

UNTITLED CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROJECT: Directed and Produced by Stephen Maing, Produced by Ross Tuttle; This project is an in-depth and cinematic look at a series of convergent criminal justice stories in New York.

WHIRLYBIRD: Directed by Matt Yoka; Through an aerial reporting of Los Angeles, Zoey Tur revolutionized news media and defined our recorded memory of the city. Her eye-in-the-sky video archive captured the spectacles of 1990s L.A. and revealed her own personal complexities. The film weaves intimate interviews with stunning archives, illustrating a person as fascinating as the city she flew above. 

StoryLab is one of several labs and workshops TFI hosts each year as part of its mission to empower exceptional storytellers. Other such events include the Camden/TFI Filmmaker Retreat, in partnership with the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) and CNN Films, which takes place each June, and THROUGH HER LENS: The Tribeca Chanel Women's Filmmaker Program, which was held this year from October 25-27.