Mongabay-India x ALT EFF

Video Reporting Fund 2024

APPLICATIONS CLOSED

Mongabay-India, in collaboration with ALT EFF, is seeking video story pitches from journalists and filmmakers. Three selected applicants will receive up to USD 1,000 each. The final video will be published on Mongabay-India’s website and digital platforms and showcased at ALT EFF 2024.

At a time of economic, political and social change in India, reporting on the much-neglected environment becomes important. Video stories help us reach a wide audience and narrate stories in an engaging way.

This opportunity aims to mentor three journalists/filmmakers to develop, craft, and deliver well-rounded environmental video stories with journalistic rigor.

Themes

Pitches will be accepted under the following two broad themes:

Urban Biodiversity

There’s a large diversity of plants and wildlife, beyond India’s protected areas, sharing spaces with humans in urban and rapidly urbanising habitats. We are looking for stories that document non-human lifeforms and their interaction with the urban environment. Pitches can include stories on wildlife presence and conservation in urban environments, wildlife management, people who study or protect urban biodiversity, citizen science efforts, lesser-known life forms and their status, human-animal interactions and so on.

Traditional knowledge for sustainability or conservation

India is a country of magnificent biological diversity. For millennia, local communities have cohabited with this diverse array of plants and animals. It is the traditional knowledge of communities towards their biological diversity that also extends to their understanding of the management of their natural resources. We are looking for pitches that highlight the role of traditional knowledge and communities in biodiversity conservation, water or other natural resource management, food security and building climate resilience for people or local economies.

What do you get?

  • Up to USD 1,000 for the whole production, excluding travel, food, and stay, which will be reimbursed on actuals.

  • Publication on Mongabay-India’s website and digital platforms.

  • Film showcased at ALT EFF 2024.

  • Three selected video storytellers will get guidance and editorial support from Mongabay-India’s team during production.

  • Direct entry to join the Mongabay-India X ALT EFF Masterclass 2024: Environment Video Journalism to be held on Feb 5 and Feb 7

Application Process & Other Information

  • Fill out the application form. (Applications are now closed)

  • Stories can be pitched and produced in English or Hindi. Mongabay-India might translate the produced video into other languages.

  • Only one story pitch will be accepted per applicant.

  • You can form a small team to execute an idea (eg. collaborating with a reporter, a video editor and so on). But the application should be submitted under one name, and the primary applicant will be the point of contact for all communication with the organisers. The core team should be declared in the pitching form.

  • The film should be submitted by April 30, 2024. Mongabay-India will publish the videos based on its publication schedules.

  • Shortlisted candidates will be expected to provide a production budget breakdown and travel plan when called for interviews. We will not consider budgets for purchasing new equipment.

Timelines

Application deadline

Jan 8, 2024, 12 PM IST

Announcement of final three applicants

Jan 31, 2024

Evaluation criteria

  • Adherence to themes and the pitch’s relevance in the current times is an important parameter for judging. The points mentioned under the themes section provide a broad direction for developing story ideas, but it’s not limited to the examples stated.

  • Presentation of evidence in the form of reports and scientific literature where applicable.

  • We are looking at under-reported topics that need more attention. Fresh perspectives on known topics are welcome too.

  • We encourage applicants to look into their own regions and even backyards for story ideas. If you are traveling to another region, far away from your own, we’ll expect justifiable reasons and budgets.

For any questions, please write to kartik@mongabay.com with the subject line ‘Video Reporting Fund 2024’

Mongabay-India is a nonprofit environment and conservation news platform that brings high-quality, original reports from nature’s frontline in India. Mongabay-India is the India-specific portal of the global news platform mongabay.com and is published in English and Hindi. Our coverage includes news reports, features, analyses, commentaries, interviews, explainers, short and long-format videos, photo essays, map and infographic-led stories, webinars and podcasts.

We have focused on geographies and themes often neglected by the mainstream media. With a vast network of journalists, our deeply-researched stories have nuanced and disaggregated the national understanding of the environment - be it about India’s iconic landscapes, plant and animal species, or climate change. Our fact-oriented, well-analysed stories aim to build awareness and conversations about the environment in the public and policy space.

Mongabay articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Other publications can republish Mongabay content at no cost.