PROJECT SUMMARY

Club CDoc is a year-round program of mentoring, skills-based workshops and presentations, that encourages and supports amateurs and seasoned filmmakers alike. The program enables the supply of fresh new work to be submitted to our “LOCALS” film showcase at the Castlemaine Documentary Festival each year, as well as creating career pathways within our region that otherwise do not exist.

Activism, impact and our sense of meaning, purpose and motivation through difficult times have been recurring themes across the Festival program since its inception. Club C-Doc mounts pop-up events around the year in Castlemaine (Victoria) to exchange ideas and ferment community collaborations in regional film and story-telling.

Through our Club CDoc activities to engage and support film practictioners, we have built a dedicated audience-base the within our region, and are building the connective tissue that is so needed for a vibrant, collaborative creative scene in the regions.

“LOCALS” – now in its third year, was introduced in 2022 as the Opening Night event to showcase local and regional short work. In total, 37 submissions were received and 18 films screened, with the Audience Favorite Award given to a 10 year old for her film, ” Dogs!” Mentoring, skills-based workshops and presentations occur across the year to encourage and support amateurs as well as more-seasoned Practitioners.

These new initiatives also build upon our connections with the schools in our region, our – young families and youth. In turn this engagement becomes the catalyst to encourage further involvement across CDoc’s annual suite of programs, and inspires the next generation of storytellers.

The Festival and Club CDoc’s annual Networking Lunch is now also in its third year is one of these pathways. This opportunity brings together regional and metro practitioners during the festival weekend. It is also attended by festival filmmaking guests. In 2024 the lunch will be attended by a high level representative from Screen Australia – the peak national financing agency – as well as several people from VIcScreen, the state funding agency.   

The networking opportunities provided across the year and including the industry Lunch held during the festival weekend is an additional opportunity for collaboration  between practitioners with different skill-sets  to connect. That it provides a pathway for people whose films have been selected into LOCALS to Club CDoc’s activities is essential to C-Doc Ltd’s vision and mission. 

Now operating year round Club CDoc requires considerable expertise – both curatorial and administrative – to mount bi-monthly workshop events to build skills for our practitioners  In June 2024, C-Doc Ltd will be launching a membership drive to go some way to supporting our operations.

C-Doc’s programs strive to create relationships which lead to mutual and/or reciprocal action. Our programs spring directly from our historical and evidence-based knowledge and understanding within our regional community of how activating connections works successfully. These funds will support the development of Club C-Doc, helping to grow the capacity and skills of both emerging and experience regional filmmakers.