In partnership with Project Greenlight Digital Studios

We’re empowering the Untold Stories to reach their audiences. This crowdfunding rally is for feature documentaries in production.

Untold Stories are about a character or a story we haven’t seen before.

Making yet another doc about JFK conspiracy theories? Yawn. Making a doc about your mom’s involvement, which no one’s ever heard about before? SUPER.

How to join the rally

1. Launch Campaign

Create a project and launch your 30-day crowdfunding campaign for at least $10,000 on Seed&Spark between May 1st and June 1st. (Make sure to specify you’re entering the contest in the launch form.) Submissions open April 5th, and close May 25th. Your “submission” date is the date you click “Submit for approval” of your Seed&Spark campaign.

2. Gather Followers

Gather at least 500 followers to your campaign. Followers can be financial supporters or those who sign up with their email to your campaign by clicking the follow button on your campaign page.

3. Stay SOCIAL

Post one new video update per week during your campaign.

The top 10 most followed projects by July 1st will provide additional information (video, pitch book, finalized budget) to our esteemed panel of judges, who will select a winner.

View Current Entrants

What you'll win

Matching Funds

Up to $20,000 in matching funds from Project Greenlight Digital Studios and Seed&Spark

Massive Distribution

Digital distribution package to over 100 million US homes across cable and digital platforms

Marketing

Marketing support from both PGLDS and Seed&Spark throughout festivals and distribution

Storage

A 32TB G-Speed XL Hard Drive from G-Technology

Our Award-Winning Judges

Lisa Kleiner Chanoff, Catapult Film Fund

Co-founder of Catapult Film Fund, which provides development grants to help launch new documentary films. Catapult grantees include: Art and Craft, Call Me Kuchu, Cameraperson, Remote Area Medical, The Genius of Marian, The Kill Team, The Overnighters, Tig, Trapped, and Weiner. Lisa also supports a select number of narrative features, including as Co-Executive Producer of Fruitvale Station and Executive Producer of The Fixer. She serves on the boards of Working Films and The San Francisco Film Society.

Charlie Phillips, The Guardian

Head of Documentaries at The Guardian, commissioning and acquiring new short documentaries from all around the world. The Guardian is one of the world's most read English Language news and storytelling sources, with 140m monthly unique browser visits. Charlie was previously Deputy Director at Sheffield Doc/Fest for 7 years before joining The Guardian in 2014, and prior to that he was Editor of FourDocs for Channel 4.

Charlotte Cook, Field of Vision

Film curator, writer and producer. Charlotte co-created Field of Vision, a new film unit that commissions and assigns short form and episodic creative visual journalism. Previously, she was the Director of Programming at Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival. In London, Charlotte was the Head of Film Programming and Training at The Frontline Club, an organization dedicated to championing independent journalism and freedom of expression. She’s also worked with BBC Storyville, the Channel 4 BritDoc Foundation’s Puma Creative Catalyst Fund, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where she curated the strand Conflict | Reportage.

Dawn M. Porter, Gideon’s Army

Dawn Porter is a documentary filmmaker whose first feature, Gideon’s Army, won the Sundance Film Festival Editing Award in 2013 and later broadcast on HBO. The film was nominated for an Independent Spirit award and an Emmy. Dawn’s other films have appeared on PBS’s Independent Lens, OWN and the Discovery Channel. Her latest project, Trapped, explores the impact of laws regulating abortion clinics in the South. It premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking.

Perrin Chiles, Adaptive Studios Inc.

Chairman, CEO & Co-Founding Partner of Adaptive Studios Inc. Perrin most recently produced the television and film series Project Greenlight for HBO with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and is currently in production on The Runner for Verizon’s go90 with Damon, Affleck, and Pilgrim Media Group. Perrin is an Emmy Award-winning producer and writer with a background in private equity, finance and entrepreneurship. Prior to launching Adaptive, Chiles founded In Effect Films to produce socially-conscious documentary films such as the Emmy Award-winning Autism: The Musical and the award-winning surfing documentary film Splinters.

Frequently Asked Questions

Crowdfunding

How long does it take to get launched?

Seed&Spark’s crowdfunding team will provide personalized, comprehensive feedback so you can optimize your campaign. You’ll want to leave a week between when you submit and when you want to launch to receive and incorporate vital feedback. In order to launch in time to participate in the rally, you must submit your projects by May 25th at the very latest to launch on the last launch day, June 1. We HIGHLY recommend aiming to launch in the first week of May to take advantage of the maximum amount of audience building time.

What kind of support would Seed&Spark and the other organizers provide to the participating projects during their crowdfunding campaigns and potentially afterwards?

Both Seed&Spark and PGLDS will be promoting all crowdfunding campaigns through paid and organic social channels throughout the rally and upon completion. Seed&Spark continues to promote all campaigns that consistently update their fans throughout the lifecycle of the film and beyond.

Are there any benefits for participants who do not move on to the finals or win?

For all filmmakers who gather 500 or more followers, they are eligible for the Filmmaker Gift Box, worth over $8000 in production, post and distribution technology and services as well as festival fee waivers. They will also become eligible to distribute on Seed&Spark and through Seed&Spark’s output deals.

Finals Period

What will the finals period entail exactly?

Campaigns will end June 30th and finalists will be announced on July 1. During the next three weeks, filmmakers will provide a project budget and pitch deck, as well as an additional piece of short video content to show the judges a little more about the style, tone, or story of the film. The ten finalist teams will have a chance to meet with Project Greenlight Digital Studios (PGLDS) and Seed&Spark (in person or via phone, depending on location) during the finals period.

Distribution

What are the details of the distribution deal? What rights are taken and what rights are retained?

Seed&Spark would retain exclusive VOD rights for a period of 2 years. See our distribution footprint. You would be free to exploit theatrical, educational rights, DVD, and the ability to sell of your own website.

What role will PGDLS have with the winner of the competition?

PGLDS will provide ongoing promotional support for films through the balance of production, festivals and distribution. PGLDS will also take company credit and have the right to exercise an Executive Producer credit. See contest rules for further details.

What % or splits are involved in the distribution deals?

Varies based on distribution platform.

Still have questions? We can help.

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