Reinvention for Disruptive Times Seminar 2

Fundraising Redux

Tue, July 28, 11am PT / 2pm ET

Virtual | 90 Min

Registration for the live event has closed.
Recording access is still available by getting a Series Pass or becoming a FCSF member.

If you registered and have not received the Zoom link email from no-reply@zoom.us, please email info@filmmakerscollaborative.org for assistance.

 
Buy a Series Pass - ($15)
Become a member
 

Co-Presented by Filmmakers Collaborative SF and Re-Present Media

This seminar will address current financial challenges, funding opportunities, and creative approaches to retooling your project development and funding. We will highlight creative strategies used by filmmakers to fundraise during these challenging times.

Our panel will discuss:

  • Trends in indie film budgets, revenue sources, and fundraising.

  • How can filmmakers sustain themselves in this climate?

  • Playing the long game by aligning your work lifestyle with long-term goals and strategies.

Guest Panelists:

Emily Best, Founder/CEO, Seed&Spark

Ginger Yifan Chen, Filmmaker in Residence at SFFILM

Theresa Navarro, Co-Director/COO, Catapult Film Fund

Cost:

Recordings:

  • Registrants will have access to a recording for the purchased session for 7 days. The recording will be sent in a follow-up email, along with slides and downloadable resources, after the event.

  • You will also receive a recording of Session 1 for a limited time.

  • FCSF members will have continuing access to the recordings through their membership. Members can access our recordings library via the member portal on the FCSF website.

Guest Panelists:

Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, the #1 crowdfunding platform in the world for storytellers on a mission to make entertainment more diverse, inclusive, connected and essential. Seed&Spark’s platform and national education program have helped thousands of bold storytellers raise over $93M and counting. Emily is dedicated to making the resources for creators to build independent, sustainable careers free and accessible: Seed&Spark launched The Crowdfunding Playbook and alongside Kinema also launched The Distribution Playbook, free and open- sourced field guide for independent filmmakers to succeed from funding to distribution. She has produced films, VR, shorts and series that have premiered at Sundance, SXSW, Slamdance, Tribeca and more. She produced RATIFIED, a feature documentary about the 100+ year struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment, which premiered on Independent Lens October 20, 2025 and her new film MR JESUS is about to hit festivals. Both were crowdfunded.

Ginger Yifan Chen (they/them) is examining structures of power. They create stories of politically-conscious sci-fi, anti-capitalist horror-comedies, immigrant narratives, and liminal spaces. They are a writer, director, and community organizer from San Francisco by way of Shanghai. Currently, they work as a director, photographer, and script reader in the Bay Area. Their films and screenplays have been showcased at SF IndieFest, Beverly Hills Film Festival, Los Angeles CineFest, and many more.

Theresa Navarro is a Pinay cultural worker and working mama whose career in media arts spans two decades. She is the Co-Director and Chief Operations Officer of Catapult Film Fund. Prior to Catapult, she served as vice president of external affairs at American Documentary, the New York-based nonprofit behind Emmy Award-winning series ‘POV’ on PBS. An Independent Spirit Award-nominated producer, her credits include Chinatown sports documentary 9-Man (director Ursula Liang), Peabody Award-winning anthology series ‘America Reframed’ on WORLD Channel (supervising producer Carmen L. Vicencio), and sci-fi feminist feature Advantageous (director Jennifer Phang, producers Robert Chang, Jacqueline Kim, Ken Jeong, Moon Molson), which won the Special Prize for Collaborative Vision at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Moderators:

Jennifer Crystal Chien is a documentary filmmaker with a focus on personal storytelling from immigrants and people of color. In 2017, she co-founded Re-Present Media, a grassroots nonprofit that advocates for personal storytelling in documentary film and nonfiction media. In addition to presenting films with community dialogues by established filmmakers, Re-Present Media also offers professional development for emerging filmmakers and coordinates field-wide advocacy campaigns to support and elevate voices from communities not often seen in media. Jennifer was named a DOC NYC Documentary New Leader in 2022. Jennifer also serves as the Board President of Filmmakers Collaborative SF.

Kevin White is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with a focus on environmental and social issues. He has more than a dozen films that are in distribution, including his most recent film, Wilder than Wild: Fire, Forests and the Future, which has had 450+ community screenings and more than 850 broadcasts on PBS, plus educational distribution with Video Project. Kevin is the Co-Founder and Executive Director for Filmmakers Collaborative SF, and frequently consults with filmmakers on story approach, fundraising, and distribution. He is also on the Board of several media nonprofits.

For questions and accessibility requests: email info@filmmakerscollaborative.org

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