Yeti Launches a $200,000 Documentary Fellowship

Yeti has launched a $200,000 grant to support emerging documentary filmmakers. The global outdoor brand’s Pretty Wild fellowship will support four directors as they create short docs that give a fresh perspective on the beauty, grandeur, and vulnerability of the outdoors and the people and stories that live there. Fellows will be offered mentorship, $50,000 unrestricted grants, and guidance throughout the development of their films. Applications for the Fellowship will open on Sept. 26.

The fellowship was developed in partnership with Little Monster Films, the production company founded by Academy Award-winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, and the Points North Institute, a nonprofit organization that supports the next generation of nonfiction storytellers. Vasarhelyi and Chin will serve as mentors for the inaugural crop of grant recipients

Yeti has produced more than 75 films focused on stories from the wild since launching Yeti Presents in 2015. Its latest short documentary film, “All That Is Sacred” premiered at the Telluride Film Festival earlier this month.

“Since introducing Yeti Presents in 2015, we’ve worked with a variety of talented filmmakers to tell incredible stories of passionate outdoorsmen and women,” says Paulie Dery, Yeti CMO. “Through the Pretty Wild fellowship, we can highlight new perspectives and support underrepresented, up-and-coming documentary filmmakers through mentorship and peer support.”

The Pretty Wild fellowship is a 10-month initiative that will seek to support both established and emerging filmmakers and will welcome a wide range of creative approaches and styles. Once selected, each of the four filmmaking teams will be provided with $50,000 in grant money to support production, along with ongoing mentorship from industry advisors. In addition, the fellowship will include two creative retreats, one in Texas in March, and the other tied to Maine’s Camden Intl. Film Festival, which will include participation in the Points North 1:1 program and a special work-in-progress screening session.

“We are so pleased to be partnering with Yeti to support the Pretty Wild fellowship,” Vasarhelyi and Chin said in a joint statement. “This fellowship will help emerging filmmakers in two fields — the outdoors and film — that we care so deeply about and have made beloved communities within. We look forward to seeing what projects are brought to the table and how we can help them along the way.”

Ben Fowlie, executive and artistic director of Points North and founder of CIFF, adds: “Over the past two decades, Points North and CIFF have championed thousands of independent documentary filmmakers, helping to shape the form into the creative landscape that it is today. We are thrilled to further our mission of providing support to diverse filmmakers from across the globe by partnering with Yeti to launch the Pretty Wild fellowship and contributing to the development of short films that illuminate our vital connection to the outdoors.”

Applications for the inaugural Pretty Wild fellowship will open Sept. 26 and run through Nov. 20.

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