Cynthia Close

Cynthia Close, Executive Director and currently President of Documentary Educational Resources, (DER – for over 43 years, a successful distributor of documentary film to the international broadcast, educational and consumer markets) has conducted workshops, served on pitch panels and festival juries, worldwide and mentored many filmmakers through the difficult and often confusing process of taking an idea and turning it into a successful, feature documentary film. She will discuss the process of presenting yourself and your project to funders while also building an audience. She is currently acting as fiscal sponsor for over 40 projects that are “in production” and managed grants from major funders including the NEA, NEH, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ITVS, LEF Foundation, Sloan Foundation and many others.