The Art of Film Funding

Send us Fan Mail Anabelle Munro is an award-winning writer, producer, director, and singer and owner of Blue Boots Productions whose creative work spans film and music with a deep commitment to socially conscious storytelling. She is the creator and manager of the Ethos Film Festival, a festival designed to celebrate films that embody integrity, purpose, and artistic excellence. Through Ethos, Ana...

Send us Fan Mail Kinema is a technology-driven global screening and streaming platform designed to democratize film distribution and empower independent filmmakers. Before launching Kinema, Rish was a Principal at Human Ventures, where he supported and invested in early-stage startups across a range of industries. Prior to that, he worked in fintech, leading strategic projects at Transactis ahead...

Send us Fan Mail Mark Elias is a Los Angeles-based writer, actor, and independent filmmaker focused on grounded, commercial indie films with bold concepts and strong character work. He is the producer of We Could Be Heroes , a comedy-crime heist rooted in gaming culture. Mark is currently raising the film through WeFunder , allowing the public to invest and follow the project’s real-time journey f...

Send us Fan Mail Christopher Riley is a screenwriter, director, and author with a career spanning award-winning international cinema and major studio assignments. His groundbreaking 1999 German-language courtroom thriller After the Truth earned multiple awards, and his screenwriting work includes projects for Disney’s Touchstone Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Sean Connery’s Fountainbridge Films, Ma...

Send us Fan Mail THE CROWDFUNDING QUEEN ™ is a fundraising expert and innovator, as well as a multi-award-winning European-American film and theater director and producer. She has garnered over 37 awards and accolades and was once an Oscar contender in the “Best Documentary” category for her acclaimed feature-length film, Torn from the Flag. She is also known for her Cannes-award-winning short Bro...

Send us Fan Mail Helen Hall is an award-winning producer, director, and composer whose work explores the intersection of art, science, and energy. With more than 30 years of experience, she creates films that combine original research with cinematic storytelling to explore complex and unusual subjects She is currently completing the feature documentary Pictures of Infinity , based on more than two...

Send us Fan Mail Christine La Monte, producer/director/writer and former film marketing executive at Universal, Disney, and Orion is the founder/president of La Monte Productions where current projects include VIVA VERDI! the feature documentary Shortlisted for Best Song, where she serves as producer, writer and executive producer. Also on the awards circuit, AI WEIWEI’S TURANDOT, a co-production...

Send us Fan Mail Scott Billups is an award-winning cinematographer and visual effects creator who has worked on over fifty motion pictures. As a world leader in the creation of virtual characters for movies and games, Scott went back to school in his forties to study AI as a way to breathe life into his inanimate creations. Armed with an entirely new tool set, Scott was Apple’s first evangelist to...

Send us Fan Mail Our special guest this week is the award-winning filmmaker Ondi Timoner. Timoner founded Interloper Films and is known for movies about visionaries challenging the status quo and personal documentaries that reveal the bittersweet side of facing seemingly impossible challenges. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures and the Television Academy and chairs the Nonfiction Su...

Send us Fan Mail Spade Robinson is an award- winning screenwriter and director, with experience that spans feature film, documentary, television, commercial and theater.  Spade is the owner of full service production company, Spade Ink Media, producing and developing a slate of film, television and podcast projects.  Spade is also the owner of Atlanta Film Project, a screenplay and documentary con...

Send us Fan Mail Description:  We’re joined by Bri Castellini, one of the top crowdfunding experts in the indie film world. While at Seed&Spark, Bri helped filmmakers raise over $25 million—achieving an incredible 85% success rate. Bri is an independent film and screenwriting consultant and a subject matter expert in arts crowdfunding, indie filmmaking, film festivals, podcasting , romance nov...

Send us Fan Mail A master storyteller shares decades of lessons and his newest book. Description - : Paul Chitlik has written for all the major networks and studios in English and in Spanish.  He was story editor for MGM/UA'S "The New Twilight Zone," and staff writer for Showtime's sitcom "Brothers."  He directed episodes and was coordinating producer for “Real Storie...

Send us Fan Mail Our special guest this week is the award-winning documentary filmmaker Jeremy Workman, whose work has been Emmy Nominated and Oscar short-listed. His films include LILY TOPPLES THE WORLD (Discovery) , DECIDING VOTE (The New Yorker) , THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET (Greenwich Entertainment / Kino Lorber) , MAGICAL UNIVERSE (IFC Films) , and most recently SECRET MALL APARTMENT. Secret M...

Send us Fan Mail Today our special guests are Elliot Kirschner and Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse. Elliot Kirschner is a New York Times best-selling author and an Emmy Award-winning news and documentary producer. Elliot began his career at CBS News, reporting and producing for 60 Minutes, Sunday Morning, and The Evening News. Elliot now authors the Through the Fog newsletter. Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse is...

Send us Fan Mail Carole Dean is Founder and President of From the Heart Productions Inc, a 501(c)3 Non-Profit. From the Heart’s mission is to help indie filmmakers and creatives, with unique projects that contribute to society, get funding.  From the Heart accomplishes this through five Roy W. Dean Film Grants a year, fiscal sponsorship, education, mentorship, and free resources.  Since 1993, From...

Send us Fan Mail Mark is currently directing The Baristas vs The Billionaire and Executive Producing, Exiled From Hollywood, Orson Welles’ Lost Masterpiece . His first film , Building Bombs , was an Academy Award nominee, Best Documentary Feature some of his other notable projects include: Kent State, The Day the War Came Home, Emmy Award, News and Current Affairs; Blood Ties the Life and Work of...

Send us Fan Mail “Inside Ukraine’s war zone, a filmmaker captures courage, chaos, and the cost of truth.” Xackery is a New York–based director and producer, drawn to stories that unfold in times of crisis, where resilience and identity intersect. His debut documentary, American Chain Gang , exposed controversial forced-labor prison programs in the U.S. His follow-up, Nothing Without You , explored...

Send us Fan Mail Our special guest today is documentary filmmaker Jonathan Berman, who began his career as a stock footage researcher and assistant editor. He is director and producer of The Shvitz, a film about the last traditional steambaths in New York. His film My Friend Paul , about his relationship to his bipolar best friend, was produced for public television. Calling All Earthlings is an e...

Send us Fan Mail Our special guest this week is Lisa D’Apolito, an Emmy nominated producer and director who is also a dual citizen of the United States and Italy. She started as an actress in film, theater and television, and her roles included a part in “Goodfellas.”  She went on to producing and directing in advertising. Lisa’s documentary, “Love, Gilda,” was nominated for 2 creative Emmys. Lisa...

Send us Fan Mail Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark , a platform that makes entertainment more diverse, inclusive, connected and essential. Seed&Spark’s platform and national education program have helped thousands of bold storytellers raise millions to bring to life entirely new stories, and Seed&Spark delivers those stories into workplaces for employee training, engageme...

Send us Fan Mail Jeff Annison is the co-founder and President of Legion M, the world's first fan-owned media company that is using new equity crowdfunding laws enabled by the JOBS Act to create a film and television company built from the ground up to be owned by fans. He was also the co-founder and CEO of Underground Labs, a product development studio that built mobile apps, websites, and en...

Send us Fan Mail Our special guest today is the award-winning documentary filmmaker, Philip Shane. A few of his career highlights include co-directing, writing, and editing BEING ELMO, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. For his editing work on DANCING IN JAFFA, which had its World Premiere at the TriBeCa Film Festival, Shane won the Best Editing Award at Israel&ap...

Send us Fan Mail Jilann Spitzmiller is a veteran filmmaker with over 20 awards for her documentary and multi-media work. For more than three decades, she has honed a mastery in long-range, character-driven, cinema verité storytelling, supported multiple times by funders such as Sundance Institute, ITVS and George Soros’ Open Society Institute.   She has been a Sundance Documentary fellow and was s...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is especially important because I’m sharing the opening chapters of my new book, Creating your Future: The Difference between normal and genius is your connection to the field. I’ve written to empower filmmakers—not just with funding tools—but with access to the quantum field. I want to hear what resonates with you. Your feedback will help shape the rest of this bo...

Send us Fan Mail Chance McClain is a creative powerhouse, blending a rich background in filmmaking, radio, and theater with a passion for storytelling. As the founder of Heritage Films, Chance has created more than 800 feature-length documentaries, celebrating family stories and life legacies. His work has connected generations, preserving the essence of individuals and families through visually s...