The Moving Picture Institute is now accepting applications for the 2021 MPI Documentary Development and Production Lab. 

MPI’s Documentary Lab is a comprehensive program that provides filmmakers with hands-on training and mentoring to take their initial film concepts through the process of developing, producing, and releasing a documentary film. Filmmakers accepted into the Lab receive a $1,000 fellowship grant and participate in a virtual MPI Documentary Storytelling Workshop led by MPI filmmaker Laura Waters Hinson, director of the award-winning MPI-supported documentaries Dog Days and Mama Rwanda. The Workshop will feature sessions with industry leaders in the documentary space. 

This Documentary Lab connects MPI’s Rising Filmmaker Program to MPI Original Films. Top projects from the MPI Documentary Storytelling Workshop may be acquired and produced by MPI—funded with budgets of up to $500,000. The MPI production team will work alongside the filmmakers, mentoring them in the production and post-production stages. 

While our emphasis will be on feature-length films,  we will accept submissions for short documentaries as well. We will prioritize projects that can be shot, edited, and released within one to two years from the completion of the Lab. 

MPI’s mission is to promote human freedom through film. Though we are willing to consider submissions on a wide range of subjects that advance our mission, we are particularly interested in stories that explore the following themes:

• Exposing hypocrisy and/or confronting corruption of power 
• Individuals fighting against government abuse/tyranny 
• Freedom of speech/expression
• Entrepreneurship success stories and the American Dream 
• Innovations and technology solving problems 

Click here to learn more and apply to the Documentary Lab. The application deadline is March 15, 2021.