about

Our Partners

The Association of Independent Video & Filmmakers (AIVF) is the membership organization of independent video and filmmakers. Their mission is to increase the creative and professional opportunities for independent video and filmmakers and to enhance the growth of independent media by providing services and resources, including informative seminars and networking events, access to group health and production insurance, advocacy for media arts issues, a public resource library, and publication of books and directories. They are one of the largest organizations serving and representing independents across the country.

The Bay Area Video Coalition is the nation's largest noncommercial media arts center. Their mission is to address social issues, promote artistic expression, and support underserved populations by providing access to advanced media technology for the expansion of civic dialogue and equal opportunities in an era of ever increasing media consolidation and commercialization. They offer high-tech training and post-production facilities to help create cutting-edge, independent media.

Since 1981, the Benton Foundation has worked to realize the social benefits made possible by the public interest use of communications. Through its own projects, the foundation seeks to shape the emerging communications environment in the public interest. Bridging the worlds of philanthropy, public policy and community action, Benton demonstrates and promotes the use of digital media to engage, equip and connect people to solve social problems.

The International Human Rights Watch Film Festival is the world's leading showcase for distinguished fiction, documentary and animated films and videos that incorporate human rights themes. With yearly festivals in New York and London, the Festival presents works that give a human face and personal viewpoints to threats against political and individual freedom.

IFP (Independent Feature Project) was founded in 1979 on a belief that a truly vital American cinema must include the personal, idiosyncratic, and sometimes controversial voices of filmmakers working outside of the established studio system. As a not-for-profit organization, its mission is to foster a more sustainable infrastructure that supports independent filmmaking and ensures that the public has the opportunity to see films that more accurately reflect the full diversity of the American culture.

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) was established by Congress "to fund and present programming that involves creative risks and addresses the needs of underserved audiences." While granting artistic control to the independent filmmaker, ITVS solicits, funds, packages, promotes and distributes work for broadcast primarily on American public television.

OneWorld US is the United States-based center of OneWorld, the largest international network and web presence devoted to sustainable development and human rights. OneWorld US produces the OneWorld US edition, a country-based site that seeks to enhance the knowledge of U.S. citizens about international affairs/development. In so doing, OneWorld US hopes to stimulate discussion and debate about international affairs and policy alternatives in the United States and encourage action leading to greater peace, justice, and equality at the global level.

Paper Tiger TV is a non-profit volunteer collective that has been pioneering media criticism through video since 1981. Paper Tiger TV works to illuminate the role of media in our society, through the production and distribution of the Paper Tiger public access television series, as well as through media literacy and hands on video production workshops and through various advocacy and coalition work.

Witness has pioneered the use of video and technology to fight for human rights. WITNESS provides human rights activists throughout the United States and around the world with video cameras and technical and strategic guidance to incorporate video into their advocacy campaigns. Witness also assists activists in video productions, and ensures that the evidence generated gets international attention through courts, the media and the United Nations.

Working Films is a new outreach and education organization that links independent filmmaking to citizen action. Their mission is to make award-winning film, video and multimedia production a key resource for national, statewide and local initiatives that expand economic opportunity, improve environmental quality and achieve social justice.