Screen Ashford white

DOCUMENTARY STORYTELLING: SECURING FUNDING
Led by Charlie Phillips, with Dominic Rees-Roberts

A widescreen images showing a group gathered in a circle on a pebble beach at disk. The sky is beautiful variations of pink and blue.

Blue Has No Borders (2025, dir. Jessi Gutch), still.

Fri 30 Jan 2026
2:00 – 5:00pm

RG Studios, 25 Bank St,
Ashford TN23 1DG

How do you turn a powerful idea into a fully funded documentary?

This intensive 3-hour session brings together two experienced documentary producers to explore what it takes to develop compelling documentary projects—and successfully secure funding across different formats and platforms.
 
In the first part of the session, acclaimed producer and documentary industry specialist Charlie Phillips breaks down the essential components of a strong documentary package—what commissioners, funders, and partners actually want to see, and how to communicate your story’s value with clarity and impact. Participants will explore story and structure, audience and market positioning, budgets, pitch materials, and how to navigate different funding routes, from public and philanthropic sources to broadcasters and commercial partners.
 
The session will then be joined by documentary producer Dominic Rees-Roberts, who will focus specifically on documentary series for television. Drawing on his experience developing and producing returning and limited series, Dominic will explore how series ideas are shaped for broadcasters, what commissioners look for in episodic storytelling, and how funding, format, and scale differ from single-film documentaries.
 
Whether you’re developing your first documentary, refining a feature project, or considering how your idea might evolve into a TV series, this session offers practical tools, strategic insights, and real-world perspectives to help you position your project for funding and commissioning success.

Book now!
Charlie Phillips
Charlie Phillips
Dominic Rees-Roberts
Dominic Rees-Roberts
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Charlie Phillips is a documentary film producer, commissioner, programmer, and consultant based in Folkestone, Kent. He works with documentary makers from all across the world as producer and consultant on creative and financing strategies.  

Charlie was previously the Head of Video at The Guardian for 8 years, overseeing all moving image for the Guardian’s platforms, including creating its award-winning documentary strand, which included the winner of the short documentary Oscar in 2021 (Colette), the Oscar short documentary nominee in 2019 (Black Sheep) and BAFTA Best Short in 2022 (The Black Cop). Charlie commissioned and executive produced hundreds of films at the Guardian, for cinema, TV, online and social media platforms, working with filmmakers across the world. 

He was previously Deputy Director and EP Industry Participation at Sheffield Doc/Fest.

He’s also Head of Stories at Lyfta, an immersive learning platform for schools, featuring storyworlds including documentaries about inspiring real human stories. And he’s the Artistic Director of Folkestone Documentary Festival

https://www.iamcharlie.co

Dominic Rees-Roberts is a multimedia producer specialising in factual content, and co-founder of Borderpoint Films, located in Ashford, Kent.

Dominic comes from a science background and started his TV career at the BBC Science Unit before moving into the independent sector. He has worked with leading factual production companies including Darlow Smithson Productions, Windfall Films, Arrow Media and Wag Entertainment and has produced highly successful returning series including What on Earth and NASA’s Unexplained Files for the Science Channel and worked on landmark programmes including Alexander: The Making of a God (Netflix) and Stephen Hawking: A Brief History of Mine (Channel 4).

Borderpoint Films works across science, history and engineering genres, developing and pitching projects to broadcasters, streamers and distributors as well as developing hybrid financing models and digital first strategies.

www.borderpointfilms.com