SOCIAL MEDIA AND NON-FICTION FILM PRODUCTION PANEL:

SOCIAL MEDIA AND NON-FICTION FILM PRODUCTION PANEL:

Thursday, May 6

MPE Penthouse

432 West 45th St. btwn 9th & 10th Aves

7:00pm - Doors Open

7:30pm - Panel Begins

Refreshments will be served

PGA members only
(to become a member of PGA please go to producersguild.org)

Social Media is omnipresent, but is it the new marketing wonder weapon? This panel discussion with

documentary filmmakers and experts in social media will show and tell how filmmakers can use social

media to market and promote their films at all different stages of production.

A social media consultant will provide a brief 101 of social media, including the most important

social media sites, demographics and statistics, and offer some tips and tricks to set the scene for

the panel discussion to follow.

Using examples from different documentary and non-fiction productions, the audience will hear first

hand how filmmakers:

Tap into existing fan bases, create new fans, and build engagement and awareness.

Help find financing for their film and reach out to potential audiences.

Get the message of their film out across the country and into the world, beyond the traditional film community.

Create buzz and revenue opportunities.

Moderator

CRIS POPENOE: Producer, New Media Council

Cris Popenoe is a creative executive and entrepreneur who over more than 30 years, has innovatively combined content, commerce, and social engagement into media. She has produced numerous award-winning digital media projects, including online videos, mobile and online apps, and games. She's been a digital media maven for as long as there's been digital media and in recent years has focused on the intersection of video, social media, and monetization. See her website, www.dawn-productions.com, for details.

Panelists
AMY KALAFA: Filmmaker, Producer
Amy Kalafa is an award-winning filmmaker specializing in health and wellness communication. She's also a certified health coach, organic farmer and mother of two. Amy's production credits include Dr. T. Berry Brazelton's parenting show, "What Every Baby Knows", PBS specials, "Our Nation's Health: A Matter of Choice" and "Healthy Aging", as well as the Reiner Foundation's, "The First Years Last Forever". She has produced food and health segments for the Emmy nominated "Martha Stewart Living" series and has appeared as a guest chef on PBS's, "Cultivating Life." 
She also worked as a writer / producer / editor on the past three seasons of the James Beard award-winning series, "Lidia's Italy". Since 2005, she has spent her "spare time" spearheading a project that is both a movie and a movement, "Two Angry Moms," a documentary about greening the school food environment that has received numerous festival awards and major national media coverage. www.angrymoms.org, www.angrymoms.groupsite.com

SHALINI KANTAYYA: Filmmaker, Producer
Combining biting social commentary with a dash of commercial appeal, filmmaker and eco-activist Shalini Kantayya finished in the top 10 out of over 12,000 filmmakers ON THE LOT, a Steven Spielberg Fox television show in search of Hollywood's next great director. The mission of her production company, 7th Empire Media, is to create a culture of human rights and a sustainable planet through a wildly imaginative media of the highest professional quality. A William D Fulbright Scholar, her award-winning film, a DROP of LIFE, a futuristic sci-fi flick about the mounting global water crisis, has been used as an organizing tool in over 40 villages across Africa. www.7thempiremedia.com

MARK MORI: Filmmaker, Producer
Mark Mori is an Academy Award® nominated documentary filmmaker and Emmy Award® winning TV producer. Through his shingle, Single Spark Pictures, Mori has produced hard-hitting and memorable documentaries and television series, garnered film festival screenings, theatrical distribution and television broadcast worldwide. Mori's latest project, the documentary film Bettie Page Reveals All is the authorized bio of the pin-up legend and is currently in post-production. Mori is using Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, myspace, flickr and other social media sites to reach Bettie Page fans worldwide, drive traffic to his website and build an audience for and monetize the film. He’s also using social media and online distributors including Amazon, iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, Neoflix, Indieflix to advertise and distribute his Emmy winning doc, Kent State: The Day The War Came Home and his Academy Award nominated doc, Building Bombs. www.bettiepagemovie.com

MARISELA RIVEROS: Multimedia Producer, Social Media Consultant
Marisela Riveros is an award-winning producer with ten years of experience in broadcast journalism. She transitioned into developing social media strategies through her company, Reverie Media, when colleagues asked her to better understand Facebook, Twitter, Digg, blogs, etc., and build their online presence. She is a twitterer with a strong know-how of building communities and engaging audiences online. Her social media work focuses on designing social media strategies for clients like journalists, musicians, non-for-profits and small business, to maximize ROI and build brand equity. www.mariselariveros.com