DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING PROGRAMS

Documentaries have never been hotter or more commercially promising – whether you are looking for a career or are out to change the world. And no documentary program is hotter than the one at the New York Film Academy. In fact, it’s has already been awarded a coveted slot on The Independent magazine’s list of the Top 10 Academic Programs For Documentary Filmmakers, and for very good reasons.

Our faculty is comprised of award-winning filmmakers. We attract students from all over the world, some of whom are already getting their films distributed and making an impact before they graduate. An extraordinary feature of the Academy’s curriculum is the Master Class series that offers students the priceless advantage of working directly with documentary’s working masters. Every year, throughout the program, executive level editors and producers from HBO and Discovery, and multiple Academy Award, Peabody Award, Emmy Award and top festival winning filmmakers, producers, editors and cinematographers work with our documentary students in small, intimate Master Classes. Their involvement means that students graduate not only with an indispensable education and films in their portfolio, but they also become part of a remarkable professional network.

Extraordinary access to the world of documentary television represents another singular facet of the program. Currently in the US, over 20 top tier cable channels are dedicated to non-fiction programming 24 hours–a-day, 365 days-a-year. With nearly every other cable channel, from HBO to MTV to Sundance and Bravo dedicating increasing percentages of their airtime to documentaries and doc-style series, and networks shifting ever further into the realm of "unscripted" programming, the opportunities are unprecedented. The New York Film Academy’s documentary program is distinctive in the in-depth and cutting-edge education our students receive from top professionals in the non-fiction television industry.

In recent years, filmmakers like Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11), Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) and Marilyn Agrelo (Mad Hot Ballroom) have radically transformed the commercial environment for documentaries, conferring on newcomers a theatrical landscape routinely populated by documentaries that draw mass audiences. Television has nearly inverted the traditional ratio of fiction to non-fiction programming, and the internet has opened up a myriad of new avenues for documentary distribution as well as "cyber- docs" and "web-isodes." New York Film Academy Documentary graduates are uniquely situated to jump right into this thrilling and evolving field.