Workshops & Panels | Detroit Documentary Film Festival 2026

The Detroit Documentary Film Festival's educational programming centers practical skills development within a framework of political education and community organizing. Our workshops and panels connect technical training to broader questions of media justice, economic democracy, and social transformation. We prioritize sessions led by practitioners from marginalized communities who combine artistic excellence with sustained political commitment.

Educational Approach

We reject the liberal arts model that separates technical training from political analysis. Our programming assumes that documentary practice is inherently political and that filmmakers bear responsibility for understanding how their work contributes to or challenges existing power structures. All sessions emphasize collective learning, resource sharing, and long-term relationship building among participants.

Technical Skills Development

Clandestine Documentation Techniques

Led by: Chen Wei-Li (via encrypted connection)

Duration: 3 hours | Limited to 20 participants

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

This intensive masterclass covers security protocols for filming in hostile environments, including authoritarian contexts, workplace organizing, and police surveillance situations. Participants will learn equipment concealment techniques, data encryption methods, secure communication protocols, and legal protection strategies.

Chen will share techniques developed during her documentation of labor conditions in China's Pearl River Delta, emphasizing how security considerations shape both filming methods and narrative structure. The session includes hands-on practice with hidden camera equipment and digital security tools.

Topics Covered:

Risk assessment and threat modeling for documentary projects
Equipment selection for covert filming situations
Digital security: encryption, secure communication, data protection
Legal frameworks and rights in different jurisdictions
Ethical considerations in clandestine documentation
Building trust networks with subjects in high-risk situations

Prerequisites: Basic camera operation, understanding of digital file management

Materials Provided: Practice equipment, encryption software, legal resource guide

Community-Controlled Media Production

Led by: Detroit Media Collective

Duration: 4 hours | Open enrollment

Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Learn collaborative production methods that center community ownership and shared decision-making. This hands-on workshop teaches technical skills within a framework of media democracy, emphasizing how production processes can embody the political values that films advocate.

Participants will work in teams to plan, shoot, and edit short documentary segments about Detroit community organizations. The workshop emphasizes consensus-based decision making, revenue sharing models, and long-term relationship building between filmmakers and communities.

Skills Development:

Participatory planning and pre-production methods
Multi-camera collaborative shooting techniques
Community-controlled editing and approval processes
Resource sharing and equipment cooperatives
Funding strategies independent of corporate sponsorship
Distribution models that maintain community control

Community Partners: Detroit Food Policy Council, Michigan Urban Farming Initiative

Equipment Provided: Digital cameras, audio recording equipment, editing software access

Mobile Documentary Production

Led by: Maria Santos (Filmmaker & UAW Organizer)

Duration: 2.5 hours | Maximum 25 participants

Level: Beginner

Master smartphone-based documentary production for rapid response organizing and community documentation. This workshop teaches how to create broadcast-quality content using accessible technology, with emphasis on workplace organizing applications.

Santos will demonstrate techniques used during recent UAW organizing campaigns, showing how mobile production can support labor struggle while maintaining security and professional standards. Participants will practice filming, editing, and distributing content using only smartphone technology.

Technical Focus:

Smartphone camera settings and stability techniques
External microphone and lighting solutions
Mobile editing applications and workflow
Live streaming for real-time organizing
Social media distribution strategies
Archive and backup solutions for mobile content

Participants Should Bring: Smartphone with video capability, headphones

Recommended Apps: Will be provided during registration

Archive Development and Community History

Led by: Dr. Fatou Diallo & Local Historians

Duration: 3.5 hours | Maximum 30 participants

Level: All levels

Learn to build and maintain community-controlled media archives that preserve local history while supporting ongoing organizing efforts. This workshop combines technical training with historical analysis, emphasizing how archives function as political tools.

Participants will work with Detroit community historians to digitize historical materials, develop cataloging systems, and create access protocols that prioritize community needs over academic or commercial interests. The session includes hands-on practice with archival equipment and database management.

Learning Objectives:

Historical research methods and source evaluation
Digitization techniques for various media formats
Database design and metadata standards
Community access protocols and privacy protection
Oral history collection and preservation
Grant writing for archive development projects

Community Archives: Detroit Public Library, UAW Local Archives, Neighborhood History Projects

Outcome: Participants receive resource guide and ongoing technical support

Sound Design for Political Impact

Led by: Klaus Weber (Sound Designer) & Local Musicians

Duration: 4 hours | Maximum 20 participants

Level: Intermediate

Explore how sound design can amplify political messages and create emotional connections that support organizing goals. This workshop combines technical training with analysis of how audio shapes audience interpretation and political consciousness.

Weber will demonstrate techniques used in award-winning labor documentaries, showing how sound design can represent worker experience, industrial environments, and collective action. Participants will work with Detroit musicians to create original soundscapes that support local organizing campaigns.

Technical Components:

Field recording techniques for industrial and urban environments
Digital audio workstation operation and mixing
Music composition for documentary application
Voice-over recording and processing
Audio-visual synchronization and pacing
Cultural sensitivity in music selection and sound representation

Facilities: Professional recording studio access provided

Musicians: Detroit Symphony Orchestra community musicians, local hip-hop producers

Political Education & Analysis

Documentary as Organizing Tool

Panelists: UAW Region 1A Director Marcus Williams, Dr. Elizabeth Faue (Wayne State), Filmmaker Sarah Kim-Patel

Moderated by: Festival Director Marla Henderson

Duration: 90 minutes | Open to all attendees

This foundational panel examines how documentary practice can support rather than extract from grassroots organizing campaigns. Panelists will share concrete examples of films that contributed to organizing victories while addressing common pitfalls in social justice filmmaking.

The discussion will explore ethical frameworks for filmmaker-organizer collaboration, revenue sharing models, and strategies for maintaining community control over media representation. Particular attention will be paid to how documentaries can serve worker organizing without romanticizing struggle or reproducing savior narratives.

Discussion Topics:

Power dynamics between filmmakers and organizing campaigns
Consent protocols and ongoing relationship management
Distribution strategies that serve organizing goals
Legal considerations and protection for documented subjects
Funding sources that don't compromise political independence
Measuring success beyond festival recognition

Audience: Filmmakers, organizers, community media producers

Media Justice and Alternative Distribution

Panelists: Independent distributors, community media coordinators, streaming platform critics

Moderated by: Dr. Angela Davis (UC Santa Cruz, via video)

Duration: 2 hours | Includes Q&A and breakout sessions

Examine how corporate control of distribution platforms shapes documentary content and limits audience access to radical perspectives. This panel explores alternative distribution models that prioritize community access over profit maximization.

Panelists will present case studies of successful community-controlled distribution networks, worker-owned streaming platforms, and grassroots screening initiatives. The session includes practical planning for launching local distribution cooperatives.

Alternative Models Explored:

Community-controlled screening networks
Worker-owned streaming platforms and cooperatives
Educational institution partnerships
Labor union and community center circuits
International solidarity distribution exchanges
Open-source technology solutions for independent distribution

Includes: Hands-on workshop for launching local distribution initiatives

Decolonizing Documentary Practice

Panelists: Indigenous filmmakers, African documentary collective representatives, anti-colonial media theorists

Moderated by: Dr. Amina Khalil (via satellite from Berlin)

Duration: 2 hours | Includes cultural protocol discussion

Challenge Western documentary traditions that reproduce colonial power relationships through extraction, representation, and distribution practices. This panel centers indigenous and Global South perspectives on media sovereignty and cultural self-determination.

Panelists will address how documentary filmmaking can support rather than undermine cultural preservation and political self-determination. The session emphasizes practical protocols for respectful collaboration across cultural boundaries.

Decolonial Frameworks:

Indigenous media sovereignty and cultural protocols
Community ownership of representation and revenue
Traditional knowledge systems and storytelling methods
Anti-anthropological approaches to cultural documentation
South-South collaboration and knowledge exchange
Rejecting Western festival and funding hierarchies

Cultural Protocols: Traditional opening ceremony, respectful dialogue practices

Environmental Justice & Documentary Activism

Panelists: Roberto Santos (Indigenous Media Network), local environmental organizers, climate justice filmmakers

Moderated by: Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition

Duration: 90 minutes | Includes action planning session

Explore how documentary practice can support environmental justice campaigns while avoiding the depoliticized "nature documentary" tradition that separates ecological issues from economic justice and anti-colonial struggle.

Panelists will demonstrate how effective environmental documentaries center frontline community knowledge while connecting local struggles to global patterns of extraction and resistance. The session includes planning for coordinated documentary campaigns supporting Michigan environmental justice initiatives.

Organizing Applications:

Documenting corporate environmental crimes
Preserving traditional ecological knowledge
Supporting indigenous land sovereignty campaigns
Connecting local pollution to global capitalism
Building solidarity between environmental and labor justice
Using documentary for policy advocacy and legal support

Action Planning: Participants develop concrete documentary support for local campaigns

Prison Abolition & Media Representation

Panelists: Isaiah Washington, formerly incarcerated filmmakers, Critical Resistance organizers

Moderated by: Michigan Abolition & Prisoner Solidarity

Duration: 2 hours | Content warning: state violence discussion

Examine how documentary can support prison abolition while avoiding the reform narratives that strengthen rather than challenge the carceral system. This panel centers the voices of currently and formerly incarcerated people while analyzing how media representation shapes public understanding of criminalization.

Panelists will address practical strategies for documenting state violence, supporting organizing campaigns led by criminalized communities, and building alternative media infrastructure that operates independent of carceral institutions.

Abolitionist Framework:

Rejecting reform narratives that legitimize imprisonment
Centering leadership of criminalized communities
Documenting alternatives to carceral responses
Building solidarity between inside and outside organizers
Supporting family and community networks
Challenging media narratives about crime and safety

Solidarity Action: Session concludes with letter-writing to political prisoners

Technology, Surveillance & Resistance

Panelists: Digital rights activists, surveillance technology critics, community cyber-security trainers

Moderated by: Electronic Frontier Foundation representative

Duration: 90 minutes | Includes security training component

Address how digital surveillance reshapes documentary production while exploring how technology can serve rather than undermine organizing efforts. This panel combines political analysis with practical security training for filmmakers working in contested spaces.

Panelists will analyze how corporate and state surveillance affects both documentary subjects and filmmakers, while demonstrating tools and techniques for maintaining security without sacrificing artistic quality or political effectiveness.

Security & Resistance Topics:

Understanding surveillance capitalism and state monitoring
Protecting documentary subjects from digital retaliation
Secure communication and file sharing protocols
Open-source alternatives to corporate platforms
Community-controlled server infrastructure
Legal protection and digital rights advocacy

Hands-on Component: Digital security setup for participants' devices

Sustainable Documentary Practice

Collective Economics for Independent Filmmakers

Led by: Detroit Filmmaker Cooperative, Economic Justice Advocates

Duration: 3 hours | Includes resource sharing session

Learn economic models that support sustainable documentary practice without dependence on corporate funding or exploitative labor relationships. This workshop teaches practical skills for building filmmaker cooperatives, resource sharing networks, and alternative funding mechanisms.

Cooperative Models:

Equipment sharing cooperatives and maintenance protocols
Collective bargaining for freelance filmmakers
Revenue sharing and profit distribution systems
Community-supported agriculture models for media production
Crowd-funding strategies that build rather than extract from communities
Alternative currencies and local exchange systems

Workshop Outcome: Participants form working groups for cooperative development

Grant Writing for Radical Projects

Led by: Successful grant recipients, foundation program officers

Duration: 4 hours | Includes individual consultation

Master grant writing techniques while maintaining political integrity and community accountability. This workshop teaches how to secure funding for radical projects without compromising political content or community control.

Strategic Approaches:

Identifying foundations aligned with political values
Framing radical projects for mainstream funders
Building community support letters and partnerships
Budget development and financial management
Reporting requirements and accountability measures
Building relationships with program officers

Includes: Foundation database access, sample successful proposals

Building Regional Documentary Infrastructure

Led by: Midwest Independent Media Network

Duration: 2 hours | Strategic planning session

Develop concrete plans for building documentary production and distribution infrastructure across the Midwest region. This workshop connects individual filmmaking practice to broader movement building and institutional development.

Infrastructure Development:

Regional equipment sharing and production support
Educational institution partnerships and curriculum development
Community center screening networks
Political organization media collaboration
Technical training and mentorship programs
Regional funding coordination and resource pooling

Session Goal: Concrete commitments for 2026 infrastructure development

Workshop Registration & Accessibility

Registration Process

Workshop registration opens with festival pass purchase. Sliding scale pricing available for community members, students, and unwaged participants. Priority registration for Detroit residents and community organization members.

Workshop Pass Options:

Full Workshop Access: $75 (standard) / $25 (community rate)
Individual Workshop: $15 (standard) / $5 (community rate)
Skill Share Exchange: Free with volunteer commitment

Accessibility & Accommodation

All workshops provide ASL interpretation, large-print materials, and wheelchair accessibility. Childcare available upon request with advance notice. Transportation support available for participants traveling from outside Detroit metropolitan area.

Additional Support:

Audio description for visual components
Dietary accommodation for meals and snacks
Technology support for participants unfamiliar with equipment
Cultural interpretation for international participants

Materials & Follow-up

All workshop participants receive comprehensive resource guides, contact lists for ongoing collaboration, and access to Detroit Center for Independent Media facilities for six months following the festival.

Workshop leaders commit to follow-up sessions via video conference and ongoing technical support for participants implementing learned skills in their communities.

Workshop participants develop collaborative projects that extend beyond festival week