MISSION & OBJECTIVE:
NHdocs: The New Haven Documentary Film Festival was created to bring filmmakers and cinephiles together. We promote local directors, editors, and cinematographers by showcasing their work and creating a collaborative space for the community and artists to share, all the while fostering the next generation of filmmakers. NHdocs’s goal is to bring together film enthusiasts and the people who’ve made the films to interact as well as to showcase local films. We are resolutely democratic in our embrace of the documentary tradition from the local to the international level.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL:
While we love showcasing Connecticut filmmakers and their work, we are a documentary film festival with a world-class twist. We solicit material by filmmakers from around the world. We are looking for films that are superbly made, relevant, and will engage our visitors. If your film is amazing, we will most likely program it, no matter where you're from.
Our student competition is open to students who have either grown up in Connecticut, or who attend school in the state. We have expanded our student workshops to include middle school, high school, and college students.
We offer works-in-progress screening for local filmmakers to get peer-to-peer and audience feedback. We also curate a series of panels for both aspiring and experienced filmmakers, each year bringing new topics along with local and national experts in the field.
The majority of our screenings are within a 5 minute walk from one another. Screenings take place at the New Haven Free Public Library, Cafe 9, the Bow-Tie Criterion Cinemas, popup venues and other theaters. We promise a first class and fun screening experience.
OUR PHILOSOPHY:
NHdocs seeks to build a sense of community among documentary filmmakers from the greater New Haven area, around Connecticut, and the world.
Many area filmmakers work as independents, some teach at local universities, while others rely on various kinds of day jobs. We look forward to screening work that has been or will be shown at prominent International Film Festivals, but we also show work being done by local filmmakers whose work has not found the kind of recognition it deserves. We also look to faculty and students in the city’s schools and nearby universities to bring us new filmmakers.
OUR ORIGINS:
NHdocs came together in 2014 when four filmmakers from New Haven gathered together for the first time . . . in Missoula, Montana. That’s right: The Big Sky Documentary Festival in Missoula. And despite being from the same town, a few of us had never met before. We realized how desperately New Haven (and Connecticut) needed a film festival that could bring filmmakers together and help build community.
In 2019 The New Haven Documentary Film Festival screened 117 documentary features and shorts, and our guest of honor was Michael Moore, showing the first ever retrospective of his film work. In 2022, after two years of covid, we returned to all live screenings, 116 films in all, 35 attending filmmakers, and our biggest student competition yet!
THE ORGANIZERS:
Gorman Bechard (Executive Director/Lead Programmer) has directed 20 feature films (documentaries and fiction) since 1983, including Color Me Obsessed: a film about The Replacements, Pizza A Love Story, and Old Friends A Dogumentary.
Katherine Kowalczyk (Director) has been making art for the over 30 years including photography, installations and paintings.
Tony Sudol (Director of Technology & Media) has been involved in film & video production, projection of various formats of film, film archiving, and been involved in numerous film festivals.
Programmer's Award
The Golden Slice award will be given for the best documentary feature and short, as well as best editing and best cinematography, as voted on by our directors.
NHdocs Student Competition 2023
Rules:
1. Student must be a resident of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, or New York state, or attend a school in that state, for their documentary to be eligible. NOTE: Students who attend schools in New York City or Boston are NOT eligible to submit.
2. Documentaries must be completed after January 1, 2022.
3. For university students, they must have begun their documentary before graduation and completed it within six months of graduation. Collective efforts (multiple producers, directors, etc) are encouraged but the submitted documentary must be made predominantly by a student or students who meet the criteria for eligibility.
4. There are three prizes each for college students and middle/high school students. A first prize, second prize, third prize as well as a runner up. All films screened at the festival will receive a certificate of participation. An awards ceremony will follow the screening of student films.
5. Documentaries will only be officially accepted once the requisite media for the screening has been received.
6. Works-in-Progress at an advanced stage may be considered. Acceptance is contingent upon the final documentary being completed two weeks before the festival begins.
Prizes:
First Prize: Gear, cash, gift certificates and swag!
Second Prize: Cash, gift certificates and swag!
Third Prize: Cash & Swag!
Honorable Mentions: Swag!
