DEADLINE: Documentary 3.0

Event Date:

July 22, 2019

The Social Documentary Network's Documentary 3.0 is a new learning experience designed as a laboratory for documentary photographers to learn concepts and skills to make a project come alive and increase audience engagement. The laboratory will be directed by Glenn Ruga, founder of the Social Documentary Network and Executive Editor of ZEKE magazine. Ruga is also the founder of LiveZEKE — launched at Photoville in 2016 — a concept that for the first time brought subjects of a documentary photography project into real-time conversation with gallery viewers. In this case, the subjects of the documentary were in the South Caucasus, 6,000 miles and eight time zones away from Photoville in Brooklyn, NY.

This laboratory will begin where traditional still-based documentary ends. You have terrific photos exploring an important theme. You have extensively researched the topic, you have testimony, maybe audio or video. Now you want people to not only see your project, you want people to gain awareness, become motivated, to act, and make change. This laboratory will help you develop new concepts and skills to achieve that.

The lab will bring together a diverse group of creative visual storytellers with the goal of developing the tools to bring still-based documentary to the next level. All options are on the table for exploration and mastery; sound, video, drones, web applications, exhibitions, publications, community and political advocacy, media, social media.

Lab participants will help each other by passing on the skills that they are expert at with other participants. Glenn Ruga, the lab director, brings expertise in only some of these areas. Skill development will be achieved by all participants working both independently and together and by outside experts being brought into the lab as needed.

Dates: Sep 10-Dec 31, 2019. The lab will meet a minimum of once a week via remote conferencing and once a month in-person in the Boston area (one meeting may be in NY). Frequent communications among participants is expected using remote communications.