Seven RSS feeds of interest to New England documentary filmmakers

Here are seven RSS feeds that I think will be of interest to New England documentary filmmakers. These suggestions come out of the discussion that took place today during theSocial Media Boot Camp for Film Professionals with Sean Fitzroy held at MassArt. There are many good feeds out there, this list is by no means a “top seven” or anything like that, however, consider this a starting point. At the end of this post I make some suggestions on how to read them.

1. Filmmakers Collaborative (Site | RSS). A non-profit support organization for independent media makers that provides fiscal sponsorship and hosts events including their annual Making Media Now conference. I’ve placed them first on my list because I’m biased (I sit on their board).

2. Center for Independent Documentary (Site | RSS). Another wonderful non-profit support organization for independent media makers, they provide fiscal sponsorship and host the amazing Filmmakers Workshop series on a monthly basis as well as the Filmmakers Workshop online community.

3. Center for Social Media at American University (Site | RSS | Twitter). The Center for Social Media (a part of American University’s School of Communication) investigates, showcases and sets standards for socially engaged media-making. They organize conferences and events, publish research, create codes of best practices, and incubate media strategies.

4. The Independent (Site | RSS | Twitter). The Independent was formerly The Independent Film & Video Monthly published by the AIVF (Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers), it has been resurrected as an online publication.

5. Documentary Tech (Site | RSS) An open-source collaborative project exploring documentary filmmaking techniques and technology. A project by The Rhode Island Film Festival and several sponsoring universities.

6. Cinema Tech (Site | RSS) Scott Kirsner writes about how new technologies are changing the way movies get made, discovered, marketed, distributed, shown, and seen.

7. Documentary Educational Resources (Site | RSS)A Watertown-based distributor of documentary films that also provides fiscal sponsorship and other support resources.

I suggest reading these using Google reader, which you can read as a stand-alone RSS reader or embed into your iGoogle page. If you’re not already using iGoogle, check it out, it’s a nice way to organize headlines from various sources along with a wide range of other gadgets, for example, here’s part of my iGoogle page:

In the top left I have the RSS feed from the Filmmakers Collaborative web site, and below it the latest leadlines from Google Reader. I’ve also got a gadget showing the IndieWire RSS feed, as well as several Google News feeds using key words like “filmmaking” and “documentary” as well as headlines from the New York Times, NPR, etc. In the morning over a latte I scan the various headlines to see what’s going on. There are a variety of other feed readers, some online and others for Windows, Mac, or Linux, however, Google Reader is the best of the online readers by far.

Oh yes, and there’s my own site which you’re reading right now, but it would have been too cheeky to include myself, huh?

Front page photo: Steve Finer holding a Sony HVR-V1U.