True calling Grants Program
Welcome to the True Calling Grants Program. Each year, we put out the call for filmmakers to send us their best stories on human ambition. From hundreds of submissions we fund the best 30 concepts that turn into 3min micro docs. The top 10 filmmakers get their film in front of a jury comprised of panelists from Sundance, TIFF, Tribeca, HotDocs & Amazon Prime. Visit our Facebook page, where every like, share, and comment on each film will count towards the Viewers’ Choice competition. Watch our previous grant program films on Amazon Prime today.
WATCH OUR PREVIOUS GRANT FILMS
Brendan McCrann
Filmmmaker
Using Social Media to Become One of the World’s Most Known Calligraphy Artists
Brina Romanek
Director / Editor
What’s so Cheesy About Love: Changing the World One Sandwich at a Time
Dimistris Matsroyiannis
Producer / Editor
Savoy Boxing Gym
Haya Waseem
Director / Editor
Karolina Kuras: National Ballet Photographer
Ian MacDougall
Cinematographer
Rod the Piano Man
JURY PANEL
Welcome to the stage, the True Calling Grants jury. We are honoured to have these seven panelists from highly esteemed global film and media organizations join us on the grants program. Each panelist has lent their depth of documentary knowledge, international festival experience, and industry expertise, as they watch the Top 10 film submissions and ranked their favourites.
One Top 10 episode will be released every week on our website and Facebook page, where each like, comment, and share counts as votes towards the Viewers’ Choice award.
Chris Burkard
Adventure Photographer & Filmmaker
Chris is a self-taught adventure photographer, Tribeca Film Fest filmmaker and influencer. Burkard’s images are punctuated by energized landscapes and moments of bliss, through adventure-seeking and the lifestyle that ensues.
Liz Manashil
Sundance Institute, Manager of Creative Distribution
Liz is a filmmaker, ex-film critic and manager of Sundance Institute’s Creative Distribution Initiative. Liz earned her B.A. in Film and Media Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, and her M.F.A. from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.
Dorota Lech
TIFF, Industry Programming
Dorota holds a double M.A in Political Science and Gender Studies from McGill University. She is the Industry Programmer at Hot Docs, and the Doc Conference Programmer at TIFF. She speaks English, French, German, Spanish, and Polish.
Jerry Rothwell
Sundance Award Winning Documentary Filmmaker
Jerry Rothwell is a documentary filmmaker whose work includes the award-winning feature films: How To Change The World, about the founders of Greenpeace, Town of Runners, about two girls in an Ethiopian village who aspire to be athletes and the documentary Sour Grapes.
Ezra Winton
Cinema Politica, Co-founder & Curator
Ezra co-founded Cinema Politica, a non-profit media arts organization that is the world’s largest campus and community based documentary screening network. He has PhD in Communications focused on documentaries, writes for POV Magazine and lives in Montreal.
José Rodriguez
Tribeca Film Institute, Director of Documentary Programs
José manages the Documentary Programming department at the Tribeca Film Institute, which encompasses: the Tribeca All Access Program, the TFI Documentary Fund, the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund and the TFI Latin America Media Arts Fund.
Adam Cook
TIFF, Programming Associate
Adam Cook is a film programmer and critic based in Toronto. He is currently a Programming Associate at TIFF, Programming Consultant for Hot Docs, and the curator of Future//Present. Adam has bylines in The Globe & Mail, The New York Times, VICE, amongst other publications.
Derrick Liu
Amazon, Content Acquisition Manager, Prime Video
Derrick is the content acquisitions manager for Prime Video Direct at Amazon. He studied at Northwestern University and worked at Bloomberg and the Associated Press before joining Amazon. He lives in Seattle.Our best content, delivered monthly.
ABOUT
True Calling is a media company based in Canada dedicated to sharing stories about human ambition
500 - 68 Water Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1A4
8 Waterloo Terrace
Toronto, On M5V 3S4
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