NETA Documentary Winners Prepare TV Cutdown

Happy Spring! Last month several filmmakers whose films we helped edit emailed me excitedly. Each of their films had been accepted by NETA (National Educational Telecommunications Association):  The Lodge, We Said No! No!, The Coop Wars and Baba Babee Skazala!

As NETA recipients, they will all have their films packaged into acceptable PBS lengths, promoted to target audiences, and then made available on American Public Television stations.

El Susto will be released digitally on April 5, 2002. Watch it on Amazon Prime, along with another documentary we helped shape, Citizen Ashe, about the life and work of Arthur Ashe.

Converting a beloved feature-length documentary into a 56:46 TV Cutdown can be too painful for producers and directors to do themselves.

“I was way too close to it to see how we could possibly make our story work with 37 fewer minutes,” said Emily Branham, producer of the festival-favorite Being BeBe. “Karen’s system made it very easy for me to execute her suggestions myself in Premiere. She’s clearly an expert in structure, and I felt that she really took to heart our priorities when she made her cuts.” 

“My producers [including Emmy-nominated Marc Smolowitz] were impressed at how solid the first pass was after following her notes faithfully, and we are very happy that we’ve chosen to create this TV-hour version. Her guidance saved us a lot of time.  ”

Thank you, Emily. And big props to all these hard-working filmmakers who found collaborators to make their visions come true!

For more info on TV Cut Downs, click here.