Dates:
March 25, 2025 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM CST): Documentary Essentials Masterclass
March 26, 2025 (5:00 PM – 9:00 PM CST): One-On-One Sessions
Registration Fees:
Documentary Essentials – $30.00
One-On-Ones – $50.00 (For selected participants only)
*Materials Required for One-On-One Sessions: One-page cover letter and CV
**Deadline to submit required materials: March 15, 2025 at 3:00 PM to info@filmtraining.mb.ca
*All sessions will be over Zoom. A link to join the session(s) will be emailed out after you register.
About the Sessions:
March 25, 2025 – Masterclass: Documentary Essentials
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (CST)
Registration Fee: $30.00
Via Zoom
With over 20 documentary writing credits, screenwriter Mark Bailey has been deeply involved in creating a wide collection of award-winning films such as The Synanon Fix (2024), Downfall: The Case Again Boeing (2022), Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton (2017), Last Days in Vietnam (2014), and Ethel (2011).
During this two-hour masterclass session, Bailey will provide training on the elements of creating and pitching documentary films. Using in-depth examples from the many different genres he’s worked in, Bailey’s training sessions will also provide learning on topics such as research, story mapping and how to build your project toward an effective pitch.
During this live Zoom session, Bailey will provide a full lecture and then participants will receive moderated time to ask questions in a supportive group setting.
Topics covered:
• Gathering intel and how to do the right research in prep for your pitch
• Importance of story mapping and tone
• Strategies to hook the funder and how to select the right funder to match your project
• Advice for selecting/collaborating with co-producers
• Crafting your logline and developing a concise synopsis and treatment
• The importance of elements in a pitch deck and sizzle reel
March 26th, 2025 – One-On-Ones
5:00 PM to 9:00 PM (CST)
Registration Fee: $50.00
Via Zoom
Submitted materials required: One-page cover letter and CV
*Deadline to submit required materials: March 15, 2025 at 3:00 PM to info@filmtraining.mb.ca
Five to eight advanced level Manitoba-based filmmakers will receive 25-minute individual one-on-one sessions with Bailey. Applicants will be selected by a jury of senior level DOC MB members.
Applicants will be required to submit a one-page cover letter and CV. Applicants are advised to detail what project(s) they are working on and how they wish to use this session to advance their work.
FTM and DOC MB strongly recommend that Manitoba-based Women, Indigenous, BIPOC, persons with disabilities, youth, LGBTQ2+ and other underrepresented workers take part and apply for the one-on-one sessions.
**Participants will be asked to submit required materials no later than March 15, 2025 at 3:00 PM to info@filmtraining.mb.ca
About the Instructor:
MARK BAILEY, writer/producer
Mark Bailey is a four-time Emmy-nominated writer and producer who has worked on a variety of award-winning documentaries. Bailey’s films have been broadcast on Netflix, HBO, PBS, National Geographic, Hulu, Discovery Channel, Lifetime Television, A & E, Court TV and TLC. His films have been shown at numerous festivals including Sundance, NY Film Festival, Tribeca, AFI, Hot Docs and Full Frame.
Most recently, Bailey wrote/produced The Synanon Fix, the HBO 4-part docuseries on Synanon, the long-celebrated addiction treatment center that transformed over the decades into an organization engaging in cult-like activity. The series premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and went on to break MAX’s Global Top Ten Documentary Series.
In 2022, Bailey wrote/produced feature documentary The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari. The film was released by Netflix on in December 2022 and five days later became the number one Netflix film in the US, as well as in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and much of Europe. Later that week, it reached number one worldwide.
Earlier that same year, Bailey wrote/produced the Netflix feature documentary, DOWNFALL: The Case Against Boeing, an investigation of the two Boeing 737 Max airplane crashes. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival January 2022 and launched on Netflix the following month. It went on to reach number 7 on Netflix’s Top Ten most popular films worldwide. For his work on the film, Bailey was nominated for a WGA Award for Best Documentary Screenplay.
In 2017, Bailey wrote/produced Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton, the feature documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was distributed theatrically through IFC.
In 2015, Bailey’s documentary, Last Days in Vietnam, was nominated for an Academy Award and Bailey himself was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Best Nonfiction Writing and a WGA Award for Best Documentary Screenplay. That same year he was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy in Outstanding Historical Programming for his producing work on the PBS series Makers: Women Who Make America.
In 2012, Bailey was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Best Nonfiction Writing for the feature documentary Ethel and won the Humanitas Prize for Documentary Writing for the same film. Some of Bailey’s other films include the Emmy Award-winning Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib, the five-part series Pandemic: Facing AIDS, for which Bailey was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy, and American Hollow, nominated for an Emmy Award and an Independent Spirit Award.
Bailey has authored or edited five books: a collection of immigrant stories, Nine Irish Lives (Algonquin Books, 2018), a social history of Hollywood, Of All The Gin Joints (Algonquin Books, 2014), a children’s book, Tiny Pie (Running Press, 2012), a cocktail guide, Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers (Algonquin Books, 2006), and a journalistic account of an impoverished Appalachian family, American Hollow (Little, Brown & Co., 1999).
FTM is a non-for-profit charity and member of the Province of Manitoba’s Sector Council program funded through the Economic Development, Investment, Trade and Natural Resources. FTM builds a highly skilled and adaptable film industry workforce to support the activities of Manitoba production companies. FTM collaborates and partners with members of the film industry to identify training needs to support workforce development.