Paula Hammond - Features EditorFilm agency Just So, in association with the Sheffield Doc/Fest, is launching a new online platform ‘Postcards’ and the Just So Film Fund to support the next generation of filmmakers and champion creativity and experimentation within short form documentary.
During 2016 the Fund will award 12 grants of up to £5,000 to filmmakers with untold stories and will also provide those films with a home on the Postcards platform. Three will be green-lit at Sheffield Doc/Fest in June 2016 and the remaining will be commissioned over the course of the year from online submissions.
The Postcards dedicated site – accessible on postcards.justsolondon.com – launches with six shorts: Five Stone Of Lead, Aka Chan, Funabashi Dreams, Rocket Wars, Stopping Time and Soft Serve. The films, or ‘Postcards’, cover true life subjects ranging from a century old rocket-launching tradition on a Greek island to the next generation of Japan’s martial artists.
This platform will not only provide filmmakers with the opportunity to make films but also to get them seen on a dedicated online platform in partnership with one of the key global voices in documentary, Sheffield Doc/Fest.
Jono Stevens, Co-Founder of Just So said: “There has never been a better time to be a documentary filmmaker. Short documentaries are on the rise and we started Postcards to stoke the fires of the genre. In 1925 Grierson defined documentary as ‘creative treatment of actuality’ and we want to give filmmakers the opportunity to explore the limits of documentary and make films with as much focus on form as on content.”
Liz McIntyre, CEO & Director of Sheffield Doc/Fest said: “Sheffield Doc/Fest is thrilled to support Postcards, celebrating boundary-pushing experimentation in the distinct and increasingly significant genre of short form storytelling. Postcards is a thrilling new platform that emboldens emerging and established filmmakers to experiment with new techniques in this thump-to-the-heart genre of documentary making.”
For information about Postcards, the Fund and how to submit go to:
Deadline for 1st round of submissions is 31st January 2016.
