Read: The Independent

The Independent's Jericho Parms sifts through the multitude of programs for aspiring screenwriters and boils down the essentials so you can find the best fit to help you achieve your screenwriting goal, whether that be having as many finished screenplays by the end of the program as possible, or walking away with an education that not only helps you put your ideas on paper, but helps prepare you to sell your ideas to the people who can get them up on the big screen.

Documentary filmmaker, Jeremy Dean, talks about facing a "personal moral dilemma" when Wal-Mart picked up his first film, Dare Not Walk Alone (view trailer here). He discusses his role as a filmmaker in marketing his film and how taking a risk with the subject of racism, and letting the story unfold in a unique and unconventional way, helped propel it into the foreground of films related to the Civil Rights Movement.

Although arts funding is not exactly at its peak, grants remain an essential source of financing for many independent filmmakers. Learning to navigate the fundraising field, of course, can be quite a challenge. So The Independent created this resource to list state government grants in addition to some key private sources for film funding.

The creation of the Independent Television Service in the mid-1990s as a source of funding for independent filmmakers was seen at the time as one of the great successes in the independent film movement. Today, the organization has a budget exceeding $12 million, and provides key funding to hundreds of films each year, including approving many outright grants in the six-figure range. All ITVS projects are supposed to completed and groomed for public television—but, in fact, one in three films funded by ITVS do not make to a major PBS series. Why is that? In more than a dozen interviews with filmmakers and people familiar with ITVS, some complaints emerge: namely, that ITVS is an overbearing funding partner that deploys "bulldog" lawyers and shrouds the funding process in secrecy. The Independent's Michele Meek takes a look at the organization and the independent filmmakers who rely on it, to find out what's going on.

Dogwoof Pictures, a London-based distribution company, is experimenting with modes of distribution with Dogwoof Indie, which allows filmmakers to keep the rights to their film. Dogwoof is currently celebrating their most recent Dogwoof Indie release from filmmaker Franny Armstrong, The Age of Stupid (view the trailer here), starring Pete Postlethewaite as a man in 2055 who looks back on old footage of 2008 and wonders why we didn't stop global warming when we still had the chance. The Independent's Nikki Chase picks the brain of Dogwood release coordinator, Oli Harbottle, to get the scoop on this thriving distribution company.

This month Doc Doctor, Fernanda Rossi, takes a look into Jennifer Venditt's award-winning documenary Billy the Kid (view the trailer here), which gives a portrait of adolescence through the eyes of Billy, an underdog teenager living in a small town in Maine. Veditti shares the successes and mistakes she made during the journey of completing her first film, which has found great success with festivals and critics alike.

We all love film festivals, but do we really know what goes into getting a festival up and running? The Independent takes a look at three young fests to see how they got their start, from the passion behind the festival to the funds that got them on the map.

The new social media center, boxee, aims to change the way you watch TV by bringing all your favorite media into one place, whether it be from the Internet, Hulu or CBS. But, could this mean a change for broadcasting independent films as well?

Withoutabox has prevented a lot of headaches since launching its online film festival submission service in 2000. But lacking any significant competition, prices have gone up, and now the company is owned by a huge corporation. Where does that leave the indie filmmaker and the low- to no-budget festivals, now hooked on the Withoutabox system? The Independent talks to festival directors, including IFFB director Adam Roffman and filmmakers such as Ryan Gielen (see trailer from his film The Graduates) to find out their take on the popular festival tool.