Optimizing your film for uploading

Read about the best format to output your film and upload to YouTube.

Finding music for your film

Music adds a whole new dimension to a film, but be careful that you don’t use copyrighted material that you don’t have permission to use. It’s illegal and YouTube may remove your film—disqualifying you from the Film Festival. Friendly Music is an affordable, easy way to get licensed music for your film.

Adding captions to your film

Adding captions will allow YouTube to automatically translate into dozens of languages, getting your film seen by that many more people. It’s very easy using free, online software. See YouTube’s Help Center for online captioning resources.

Cinereach Grants

Large granting program for emerging and established filmmakers. There are 2 letter of inquiry deadlines annually for the program, June 1 and December 1. Grants range form $5,000 - $50,000 for feature and documentary films in all stages of production. Cinereach also offers The Reach Film Fellowship for filmmakers who have recently completed a film studies program and are producing socially relevant short films. The fellowship provides a $5,000 grant, production support, mentorship, workshops, career coaching, and industry exposure. Annual deadline in July.
Website: http://www.cinereach.org/grants/

Ford Foundation

Media, Arts and Culture Grants - 
Supports public broadcasting and the independent production of film, video and radio programming; and supports efforts to engage diverse groups in work related to the media and to analyze the media’s effect on society. A letter of inquiry is advisable to determine whether the foundation’s present interests and funds permit consideration of the request.
Website: http://www.fordfound.org

MoxieDocs Co-production Award

Provide the means for complete production, post-production, and theatrical distribution to the selected documentary proposal. Projects considered are those in work-in-progress stages. The award provides over $150,000 in products and services.
Website: www.moxie-films.com

Chicago Underground Film Fund

Grants awarded to selected film or video makers for post-production on works-in-progress that are in keeping with the festival’s mission to promote works that push boundaries, defy commercial expectations and transcend the mainstream of independent filmmaking.
Grants: between $500 and $2,000
Website: http://www.moxie-films.com

From the Heart Productions


We fund shorts, docs and independent features under this amount. We want films that are unique and make a contribution to society. We fund compelling stories about little knownn subjects, historical films and films that touch hearts. We like films that expose and bring important information to light, we like films on little known people when there is a good story. We are story-tellers and that is the main criteria for entering and winning our grants, stories that can change and stories that can heal and enrich our lives.
Website: http://www.fromtheheartproductions.com

Paul Robeson Fund

For Independent Media 
Film/video projects that will reach a broad audience with an organizing component and can demonstrate that the production will be used for social change organizing. 
Grants: Up to $15,000; most $3,000-$6,000

Website: http://www.fex.org

Creative Capital

Provides grants to individual artists for specific projects, with an emphasis on experimental work. Disciplines rotate, meaning that media grants are given every other year.
Grants: up to $20,000
Website: Creative Capital

Sundance Documentary Fund

Supports U.S. and international documentary films and videos focused on current and significant issues and movements in contemporary human rights, freedom of expression, social justice, and civil liberties.  In supporting such works, the Sundance Documentary Fund hopes to give voice to the diverse exchange of ideas crucial to developing an open society, raise the public consciousness about human rights abuses and restrictions of civil liberties, and engage citizens in a lively, ongoing debate about these issues.
Grants: Development funds up to $15,000 and Production/Post-Production to $75,000, though most will be from $25,000 to $50,000.  No deadline.
Website: Sundance

The Puffin Foundation

Grants that encourage emerging artists whose works, due to their genre and/or social philosophy might have difficulty being aired.
Grants: up to $2,500
Website: www.puffinfoundation.org

The Lucius & Eva Eastman Fund

Supports film/video on social issues.
Website: http://www.leefund.org/

John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Grants support public interest media projects, including independent documentary film, to help ensure a diversity of viewpoints, expand the availability of high-quality content, and advance the broad purposes of the Foundation: Human and Community Development and Global Security and Sustainability.
Website: www.macfound.org

Arab Fund for Arts and Culture

AFAC’s General Grant funds projects in cinema, performing arts, visual arts, literature, music and research, training and regional events. In addition, the fund has designed specific programs, such as the Arab Documentary Film Program, in partnership with the Sundance Documentary Institute, to address current topics and respond to specific areas in need of support.
Website: http://en.arabculturefund.org/

A few reasons to join the struggle for gender equality:

70% of women across the globe experience some form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.

Women perform 66% of the world’s work, produce 50% of the food, earn just 10% of the income and own only 1% of the property.

An estimated 120 to 140 million women have been subject to the harmful and dangerous practice of female genital cutting and 3 million girls continue to be at risk each year. The practice persists because it is sustained by social perceptions, including that girls and their families will face shame, social exclusion and diminished marriage prospects if they forego cutting.

According to a 2002 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, “honour killings” take place in Pakistan, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Morocco and other Mediterranean and Gulf countries. It also occurs in countries such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom within immigrant communities. It is not only in Islamic countries or communities that this act of violence is prevalent. Brazil is cited as a case in point, where killing is justified to defend the honour of the husband in the case of a wife’s adultery.

Of 130 countries rated in 2008 by the World Economic Forum according to the status of women, 8 of the bottom 10 were majority Muslim. Yemen was in last place, with Chad, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan right behind it. No Muslim country ranks in the top 40. Kazakhstan ranks highest, at number 45, followed by Uzbekistan, at 55.

Trafficking women and girls is often connected to organized crime and has developed into a highly profitable business that generates an estimated US$7-12 billion per year.

Young women generally know significantly less about HIV/AIDS than their male counterparts. Just 1 in 5 married women in Bangladesh had heard of AIDS; in Sudan only 5 percent of women knew condom use could prevent HIV infection. Both realities — lack of knowledge and lack of power — obliterate women’s ability to protect themselves from infection.

The victims in today’s armed conflicts are far more likely to be civilians than soldiers. Some 70 percent of the casualties in recent conflicts have been non-combatants — most of them women and children. Women’s bodies have become part of the battleground for those who use terror as a tactic of war — they are raped, abducted, humiliated and made to undergo forced pregnancy, sexual abuse and slavery.

For women aged 15 to 44 years, violence is a major cause of death and disability. In a 1994 study based on World Bank data about ten selected risk factors facing women in this age group, rape and domestic violence rated higher than cancer, motor vehicle accidents, war and malaria.

But all across the globe, men and women alike are pressing for change and rallying for gender equality. Now is the time to give voice to those unheard.

[Sources: UNFPA, UN Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, World Bank, Amnesty International, World Economic Forum, ILO]

“Oh ye who believe! Stand out firmly For Justice, as witnesses To God, even if it may be against Yourselves, or your parents Or your kin” -Al-Nisa: (The Women), Quran, 4:135

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi

“The dogma of woman’s complete historical subjection to men must be rated as one of the most fantastic myths ever created by the human mind.” - Mary Ritter Beard

“It is impossible to realize our goals while discriminating against half the human race. As study after study has taught us, there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women.” - Kofi Annan, The UN Secretary-General, 2006

“The connection between women’s human rights, gender equality, socioeconomic development and peace is increasingly apparent.” – Mahynaz Afkhami  

“The mechanism of violence is what destroys women, controls women, diminishes women and keeps women in their so-called place.” - Eve Ensler, A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer

“There’s a tremendous amount of anxiety among religious traditionalists that when you take one step toward egalitarianism, the floodgates are open and everything that seemed self-evident will no longer be.  Men go to work, and women raise children.  If you undermine that, you have lost your whole universe.”  - Rabbi Shai Held, dean of Yeshivat Hadar in Manhattan

“What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, might scarce.” - Mark Twain

“Women might just have something to contribute to civilization other than their vaginas.” - Christopher Buckley, Florence of Arabia

“We want that dark thinking to turn bright.” - Host of Afghan Star Daoud Sediqi

“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.” - George Bernard Shaw

“If a man takes a wife and, after lying with her, dislikes her and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying ‘I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,’ then the girl’s father and mother… shall display the cloth [that the couple slept on] before the elders of the town… If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of the town shall stone her to death.” - Deuteronomy 22:13-21

“Would the world stand by if it were men who were dying just for completing their reproductive functions?” - Asha-Rose Migiro, UN Deputy Secretary General, 2007

“A majority of the dwellers of hell will be women, who curse too much and are ungrateful to their spouses.” - Muhammad Imran, Ideal Woman in Islam

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” - Derek Bok

“Are women human yet? If women were human, would we be a cash crop shipped from Thailand in containers into New York’s brothels…? Would our genitals be sliced out to ‘cleanse’ us…? When will women be human? When?” - Catharine A. MacKinnon, Are Women Human?

“The economic implications of gender discrimination are most serious. To deny women is to deprive a country of labor and talent, but—even worse—to undermine the drive to achievement of boys and men. One cannot rear young people in such ways that half of them think themselves superior by biology, without dulling ambition and devaluing accomplishment. One cannot call male children ‘Pasha,’ or as in Iran, tell them that they have a golden penis, without reducing their need to learn and do…  In general, the best clue to a nation’s growth and development potential is the status and role of women. This is the greatest handicap of Muslim Middle Eastern societies today, the flaw that most bars them from modernity.” - Harvard historian David Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations

“Simply meaning that women’s rights activists should not look at the region as a monolith, but rather disaggregate it into separate entities.” - Al Lissan

Even though they make up half the population, women and girls have endured discrimination in most societies for thousands of years. In the past, women were treated as property of their husbands or fathers - they couldn’t own land, they couldn’t vote or go to school, and were subject to beatings and abuse and could do nothing about it. Over the last hundred years, much progress has been made to gain equal rights for women around the world, but many still live without the rights to which all people are entitled.  Robert Alan

“The day will come when men will recognize woman as his peer, not only at the fireside, but in councils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will there be the perfect comradeship, the ideal union between the sexes that shall result in the highest development of the race.” - Susan B. Anthony

“If society will not admit of woman’s free development, then society must be remodeled.” - Elizabeth Blackwell

“It will not do to say that it is out of woman’s sphere to assist in making laws, for if that were so, then it should be also out of her sphere to submit to them.” -Amelia Bloomer

“All oppression creates a state of war.” -Simone de Beauvoir

“By meeting women leaders, hearing about their lives and understanding the value that women bring to our world, I see a new future for myself, one where so much more is possible.” - Girl in Vital Voices mentorship program

Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women’s lives, on their families, and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence — yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned. — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, 8 March 2007

When was Women’s Voices Now founded?

WVN was founded in January 2010 based on the idea of using the medium of film to empower women by giving them a voice with which to reach an international audience and tell stories about the challenges and successes they face in the struggle for gender equality and the freedom to enjoy basic human rights.  The project took form after several months of research and discussion with philanthropists, scholars, activists and other passionate individuals.  Thus, the on-line platform model was born.

Is Women’s Voices now a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization?

Yes, WVN is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt public charity as of May 17, 2010. Our Tax ID Number is 27-2779043. All donations made to WVN are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Confirmation of status is available upon request. All donations will be closely followed by a thank-you and tax receipt letter for your records.

When I donate, where does my money go?

100% of donations go to support the work of Women’s Voices Now. Money is split between operating costs and project costs. Project costs include expanding the on-line platform to reach further into remote areas of the world; providing scholarships and awards for the brave filmmakers making their voices heard; organizing educational events of screenings and panel discussions around the world to educate even the most neglected of people; and creating educational materials to be spread around the world. As WVN expands, funds will be allocated to the development of WVN’s second project: A film lab which will arm underprivileged women with the tools needed to make films so their voices can be heard on an international platform.

What is Women’s Voices Now’s political stance?

WVN is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that focuses on giving voice to individuals and organizations who are working to expand the rights of women around the world.  We support those political views which support the expansion of women’s rights.  Apart from this focus, we do not ascribe to any political agenda. WVN does believe that changing perceptions in the western world is equally important to changing the lives of people in the rest of the world.

Does WVN or the Short-Film Festival carry a religious message?

WVN is a secular human rights organization that is not affiliated with any religion and does not promote a religious message. WVN focuses on women of all faiths in all corners of the world, and our first project, the Short-Film Festival, focuses on the 48 Muslim-majority countries as a socio-political region - not a religious one. We look forward to hearing the stories of all women in these countries regardless of religious conviction or faith. That said, if filmmakers choose to focus on religion as a theme, they are free to do so.

Why the Muslim World?

We see significant work being done for women’s rights issues in Muslim-majority countries and in Muslim communities around the world.  There are countless very important stories to be told and these women, both those for whom the work is done and those doing the work, should have a direct and unfiltered voice when speaking to the international community.  This Festival provides the platform for such a free and unencumbered voice.

Who can submit a film to the WVN Short-Film Festival?

Anyone can submit a film. We invite filmmakers of any gender, ethnicity, nationality or faith to submit films that speak to the spirit of the Festival and fit within the Festival’s scope of subject matter.

When is the WVN Short-Film Festival taking place?

The purpose of the WVN Festival is to inform and educate audiences around the world; thus its on-line component is critical to the WVN mission.  Many of the films submitted to the Festival are available for viewing on the WVN site.  Winning films will be chosen by a panel of expert judges and announced in March 2011.  A physical incarnation of the WVN Festival will be held March 17-19, 2011 at the Los Angeles Film School Theater in Los Angeles, California. Please see our timeline for a list of important dates and deadlines.

Can I submit a film without paying a fee?

Yes, WVN believes that a filmmaker’s finances should not be an impediment to submitting a film to the Festival.  Each filmmaker may submit one film without paying a fee as long as that film is submitted by the initial deadline of November 1, 2010. 

Note:  We are a not-for-profit organization that operates solely on public and private funding, and if the filmmaker has the means, we request a $20 donation to accompany a filmmaker’s first submission.
Additional submissions: Filmmakers who submit multiple films must pay a $20 fee for each additional film.
Late entries: Films submitted after the deadline (November 1, 2010) require a fee of $25.

How can I help?

Women’s Voices Now welcomes in-kind donations of advertising and event space. You can advertise our call to submissions on your website, your facebook page or by word of mouth, or host a screening at a venue or in your own home. Help by spreading the word about our mission and our Festival, and help us increase the number of Festival viewers. WVN also welcomes monetary donations by check or via PayPal. Please visit our donate page for more information.