The Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA) sets best practices while advocating for the welfare of producers toward a sustainable and equitable documentary industry. Established in 2016, the DPA is a diverse coalition of more than 600 international members, ranging from exploratory and emerging to Academy Award-winning documentary producers. The DPA sets standards based on research, collective experience and input from strategic partners and seeks to amplify the voice of documentary producers worldwide, while educating the industry about producers’ essential role from development through financing, production and distribution.

Canada Region

UK/Europe Region

Mid-Atlantic Region

Midwest Region

New York City Region

NorCal Region

Northeast Region

Northwest Region

Rest of the World Region

Africa 

Australasia 

Central & South America & Caribbean 

SoCal Region

Southeast Region 

Southwest Region

• Finance & Fundraising Subcommittee

• Comms Subcommittee

• Governance Subcommittee

• Membership Subcommittee

• Regional Subcommittee

• Research & Data Subcommittee

• Union Research Subcommittee

• Equity & Inclusion Subcommittee

• NEA PTE Program

• Contract Guidelines Subcommittee

• Crediting Subcommittee

• Waterfall Subcommittee

• Film Festival Subcommittee

• Ethics Subcommittee

All DPA members benefit from the following opportunities:

• To collaborate with fellow producers and industry stakeholders to make the documentary producing career more sustainable and equitable

• To participate and help shape member-only regional networking events at film festivals that connect DPA members with industry peers local to their area

• To shape our published guidelines for hiring, crediting, fundraising and investment

• To identify and work on future initiatives that are important to you in the field, or join a committee or task force to move the needle on issues important to you

• To support, community, and solidarity on issues of producer erasure including in film festival announcements and publications

• To shape DPA leadership in regionally representative elections for the Board

• Connection to the field and producing issues via membership news and participation in regular regional meetings and quarterly member-wide meetings

• Access to and inclusion in our Membership database 

• Access to DPA discounts and special programming with DOCNYC Pro, IDFA, Cannes Producers Network, etc.

• Community support of and social engagement with fellow documentary producers across the US and worldwide via our private Slack channel, meetings, and affinity groups

• Specific project and career support in the form of our Office Hours program (to be relaunched in Q3 2023, funding pending) and the Ethics Working Group peer-to-peer sessions

The DPA defines an ‘established producer' as one who has shepherded non-fiction productions through the process of development, production, post-production, and distribution. Often this involves: 

• Developing project’s vision, cinematic language, and pitch materials 

• Securing co-production opportunities, pre-sales, or equity investment

• Hiring key collaborators and crew

• Securing agreements with talent

• Overseeing legal, HR, and tax compliance

• Collaborating with the editor and director to shape the project’s narrative

• Managing picture finishing and delivery

• Overseeing the film festival, distribution, PR, marketing and awards strategy

The DPA defines an ‘emerging producer’ as one who participates heavily in the process of the creation of various projects but has not yet met the threshold put forth above. The DPA defines an ‘exploratory producer’ as one who is just beginning their career in the industry and is curious to learn more about the role of the producer in documentary filmmaking.

The DPA defines an ‘emerging producer’ as one who participates heavily in the process of the creation of various projects but has not yet met the threshold put forth above.

The DPA defines an ‘exploratory producer’ as one who is just beginning their career in the industry and is curious to learn more about the role of the producer in documentary filmmaking.