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Inclusive & Socially Conscious Filmmaking Lab
![FilmNorth-Lab-Banner "If we as storytellers aren't uplifting the most marginalized members of our communities, then we're actively adding to their oppression." - Sheila Wilson, Screenwriter](https://filmnorth.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/FilmNorth-Lab-Banner.jpg)
Date & Time
Location
Description
The FilmNorth Inclusive and Socially Conscious Filmmaking Lab is a six-week virtual course designed to help filmmakers at any stage of their career practice greater inclusive and socially responsible filmmaking and become leaders of change in our field.
Bringing together leading industry professionals throughout America, including NYC, LA, and the Twin Cities, the lab focuses on the entire filmmaking process, from conception to finding an audience. Throughout this lab, each filmmaker is asked questions about representation. What are the stories we see or don’t see on-screen? Who is telling them and why? And what impact do they have?
Recognizing there is no “one size fits all” solution in changing our industries and communities, each participant will utilize a personal project to model a more comprehensive approach in their filmmaking. The lab concludes with each participant being paired with an industry professional for a one-on-one mentorship session tailored to their interests and work. Additionally, for the first time, participants will gain access to a resource hub to support their work now and in the future.
Whether you are a director, a cinematographer, a PA, or anyone else involved in the filmmaking process, we have the individual capacity to change how films and media are made. The FilmNorth Inclusive & Socially Conscious Filmmaking Lab seeks to empower each participant to be a greater force for change.
Lab Information
- 10 participants are selected from a free, open call.
- The Lab is open to individuals worldwide working in any positions within film and media.
- All filmmaking practices are encouraged to apply (narrative, documentary, animation, etc.).
- Both the Lab and application are free of charge.
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The Lab meets virtually on Zoom for six weekly sessions.
- One-on-one Mentor Sessions will take place virtually in early December, 2024.
Application Materials
- Two-sentence description of your background and how it influences your filmmaking.
- One-sentence description of your goals for participating in the lab.
- One-sentence description of your goals for your career and/or filmmaking practice.
- One-sentence synopsis of your current or upcoming project.
Complete and submit your application. The application deadline is 11:59 pm CST, Monday, September 9, 2024. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance status in late September.
The 2024 FilmNorth Inclusive & Socially Conscious Filmmaking Lab is made possible by:
Tuition
Free
Instructor
![Jake Yuzna's headshot](https://filmnorth.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Jake-Yuzna.jpg)
Jake Yuzna
Hailing from a family of genre filmmakers, Jake Yuzna is a Minneapolis-based writer, director, and genre curator. Their films have screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, London Film Festival, New Museum of Contemporary Art (NYC), and the British Film Institute, among others.
Yuzna is the first American feature director to win the Teddy Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and has received additional awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital Foundation, Frameline Foundation, McKnight Foundation, IFP, and FilmNorth, as well as a Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Film Institute.
Yuzna founded the cinema program at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC where they curated the first American retrospectives on Italian Zombie Films, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Dario Argento, Sion Sono, and the medium of VHS. In addition, Yuzna has curated retrospectives on Andrei Tarkovsky, Crispin Glover, H.R. Giger, and Science Fiction cinema of the 1990s. Their curatorial work on genre filmmaking has been collected by the libraries at Yale University and NYU.
![Farida Rafique headshot](https://filmnorth.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Farida-rafique-1.jpg)
Farida Rafique
Farida Rafique is an impact producer and storyteller who graduated from California State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Management.
Farida’s passion for stories is fueled by human rights advocacy and community building. She has produced social impact videos and art installations, including “Love Letters to an Addict” (Recovery and Hope for Opioid Addicts), documentaries for Human Rights Initiative, and co-produced a documentary on the family separation crisis on the Border of Texas and Mexico. She developed and directed a short film, “Ojo,” about a son leaving his family’s hidden history of white supremacy and confronting his old demons upon his mother’s death.
Farida produced impact campaigns in narrative films with intrepid female writer/directors, served on the board of a community arts organization, and is an active member of the United Nations Association Human Rights Organization. She participated in the FilmNorth’s Inclusive and Socially Conscious Filmmaking Lab (’20) and Women in Media’s Cameraderie Accelerator (’21).
Questions
If you have any questions regarding this class, please send us an email or call (651) 644-1912 ext. 2.