DIRECTORS PROJECT
BRING YOUR FILM IDEAS TO LIFE
Building off the success of our 2021/2022 Community Content Fund program, we are excited to be launching the next iteration of our program to help bring local stories to life, the Directors Project! The Directors Project is designed to work in tandem with HUDSY's Apprentice Program to bring your short film to fruition!
Application Closed
The Directors Project is designed to empower local emerging directors who are ready to lead the creation of powerful films. We invite proposals that focus on short documentaries or short narrative-driven projects that resonate with HUDSY’s mission to unite and empower the Hudson Valley through impactful storytelling by promoting diversity, providing opportunities, fostering understanding, and driving positive change.
If chosen, under the supervision of the HUDSY staff, you will collaborate with a crew of HUDSY's incredible apprentices and have access to HUDSY's production equipment to produce your short film between May and October of 2025.
IMPORTANT DATES
Application Deadline - March, 12 2025
Awardees Announced - Mid-April 2025
Finished Projects Delivered to HUDSY - Early October 2025
Only up to two films will be chosen, so make your pitch strong!


APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
Projects must be short films with a maximum of 3 days of shooting.
You must include a one-page proposal for the project and a brief proposed production plan. Including a pitch deck is even better! We want to understand your vision and what we can expect to see.
Applicants must be from the Hudson Valley, and/or the project must be filmed in the Hudson Valley, and/or be about the Hudson Valley.
The Directors Project is a collaborative creative process. By being accepted into the program, Directors are expected to be involved from pre-production through final cut.

Julia Barrett-Mitchell
Julia is a filmmaker who acts, writes, produces and directs. She has made a whopping 18 music videos, and is in development for her first narrative pilot, (a satirical dramedy poking fun of herself and other millennials who moved to the Hudson Valley post-pandemic). She can often be found playing piano and cuddling her cat, Creme Brûlée. Barrett-Mitchell's short documentary 45 Degrees navigates the highs and lows of prolific photographer Brian Nice's life from the chaotic thrills of his youth, to the challenges and benefits of surviving the brain damage that has shifted his vision 45 degrees.

Jeff Mertz
Jeff is a multidisciplinary filmmaker, photographer, and video artist focusing on nonfiction storytelling. His work often aims to render in miniature the effects of large-scale environmental and social paradigms, and he's particularly drawn to telling stories that galvanize discussion in the realms of environmental conservation and justice, food systems, mental health, and history. He runs the boutique production company Moonbow Imaging, which chiefly serves nonprofits in the Hudson Valley. When not hard at work, he can usually be found hiking or cooking. Mertz’ film, Muckville, is a short documentary examining the epidemic of mental health on American farms and how one Hudson Valley onion farmer overcame the odds.

Chris Nostrand
Chris owns/operates Nostrand Productions LLC, is an award-winning independent filmmaker, and holds part-time faculty positions at both Marist College and SUNY Orange’s film production departments. Chris earned a Master of Fine Arts in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College and previously earned undergraduate degrees from SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Ulster. His films have over sixty official selections at prestigious venues such as DOC NYC, Woodstock Film Festival, GI Film Festival and NewFilmmakers New York. His twenty award wins include a CINE Golden Eagle, x5 Tellys, x3 Communicators, Director’s Choice at Black Maria Film Festival, Best Documentary/Best Cinematography at CUNY Film Festival and Best Historical Documentary at the International Doc Challenge.

Walter Hergt
Walter a videographer, a photographer, and multimedia artist. Walter's work is grounded in the oral history principles of reciprocity, narrators not subjects, and elevating lesser-heard voices. The intention of his artistic work is to unsettle and expand social norms and to create vivid representations of peoples' lives - their personal, work, and creative lives. Walter has previously worked on print and radio projects and holds a graduate degree in Political Science from City University New York. He is currently enrolled in the certificate program at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Walter lives in Millerton, New York.

Katy Mejia
Katy is the mother of two young girls, an artist/activist, educator, musician, and filmmaker. In 2002 she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Video & Photographic Arts with a Minor in Music from the University of Texas at Austin. After moving to New York City to follow her passion for music and film, she met her Afro-Latino husband, Joél Mejia, also a musician and filmmaker. Much of their early filmmaking experience (besides commercial work) came from producing cinematic music videos for their band DREAM CIRCLE. In 2015 they released their first feature documentary film, TIME IS ART: SYNCHRONICITY & THE COLLECTIVE DREAM, which premiered in NYC to a sold out audience, screened in theaters worldwide and is available on Amazon Prime and Gaia. Not long after giving birth to her second daughter at home in the Bronx with Midwife, Nubia Martin, she joined forces with fellow filmmaker, Betty Bastidas and editor, Natasha Scully, to produce the short film, BIRTH FROM THE EARTH, funded by the Hudsy community content fund. The short film received a Best Short Film Award, a Best Director Nomination at MOM Film Festival 2023 and was the runner-up for Best Short Documentary Film at the Denton Black Film Festival.

Betty Bastidas
Betty is an Ecuadorian American filmmaker, photographer, media educator, land-steward, landlord & mother to a young teen. A media maker for more than 15 years, she migrated from Ecuador at the age of nine. Growing up lacking legal documents & feeling unseen, filmmaking & photography became her way to amplify the voices of invisibilized communities & celebrate the strength of our human spirit. Betty shapes narratives towards social, environmental & racial justice, from directing & producing her first feature documentary DreamTown, about a young Afro-Ecuadorian soccer player striving to become professional, eventually realizing his dream at the age of 18 and directing & shooting Can’t Hold Me Back, (ITVS) following Fernando, a Latino youth from Detroit as he becomes the first in his family to earn a high school diploma, and co-directing New American Girls profiling three DREAMERS, young undocumented Americans for Latino Public Broadcasting. Her work has garnered numerous awards, including NALAC grant, & NYFA Fellowship among others. She is located in Newburgh NY.

Danica Jensen
Danica is a Danish-American stage & screen director, performer, sometimes-writer and amateur ghost hunter. She grew up in a haunted house, and as such, is particularly interested in ghost stories and the things – physical or otherwise – that haunt us. Past film work includes: A Life in a Day 2020 (Sundance 2021, co-director), Hildeborg (indie short), DAVE (short). Danica is a graduate of NYU Tisch and an alumnus of The Nine Muses Entertainment Lab, mentored by Bryce Dallas Howard.
MEET PAST WINNERS
Through the Directors Project, we’re offering the opportunity to transform your vision into cinematic reality as HUDSY expands our commitment to community storytelling and continues to elevate the rich diversity of the Hudson Valley.
IF CHOSEN, YOU GET
A crew of HUDSY apprentices (under the supervision of HUDSY staff) to execute the creation of your film from pre-production through post-production
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A crew of HUDSY apprentices (under the supervision of HUDSY staff) to execute the creation of your film from pre-production through post-production
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Use of HUDSY’s professional film gear including cinema cameras, sound equipment, lighting, and more
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Use of HUDSY’s licensed music account
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Your film premiered at a special HUDSY event this Fall
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Non-exclusive distribution of the film on HUDSY TV
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Full ownership of your completed film
HUDSY's Commitment to Protecting Your Creativity
HUDSY's Commitment to Protecting Your Creativity: We know it can be scary to share your creative ideas without worrying they will be co-opted by others. We also recognize that there may be instances where submitted proposals share similarities with projects HUDSY is already working on, or that other Directors Project applicants apply with. In those cases we are committed to transparency and will reach out to discuss this with you to ensure a safe and fair process.
COMMUNITY CONTENT FUND
PROVIDING FILMMAKERS WITH DIRECT CAPITAL
In 2021 and 2022 HUDSY’s Community Content Fund program supported the creation of 7 films by 9 local filmmakers. 90 proposals were submitted by Hudson Valley creatives and an independent committee of community members (not on team HUDSY) chose the final projects. The winners were provided grants of $5,000 each, received minimal support from the HUDSY production team, were given distribution on HUDSY TV and (in most cases) at public screenings, and retained co-ownership of their films alongside HUDSY.
Applicants had to be from one of the Hudson Valley's 11 counties, and/or the project must have been shot in the Hudson Valley or be about the Hudson Valley. Submissions included a one-page synopsis of the project and a projected budget.
All in all, HUDSY committed $35,000 to this program over two years and seven amazing films were created. Watch all of the Community Content Fund films for free on HUDSY TV by clicking the links below.