Greenlight Lab
From Pattern and Hoodox
6-week Accelerator for Indiana’s Emerging Documentary Filmmakers
6-week Accelerator for Indiana’s Emerging Documentary Filmmakers
Program Overview
A 6-Week Accelerator for Emerging Documentary Filmmakers
Indiana is home to an incredible community of documentary filmmakers and nonfiction storytellers. But building a sustainable career around that work requires more than creative talent.
Greenlight Lab is a six-week accelerator designed to help emerging Indiana documentary filmmakers build economically sustainable creative careers. Presented by Pattern and Hoodox, the program combines proven business education with practical guidance from working filmmakers and industry experts, peer learning, and individualized mentorship.
Rather than focusing on cameras, editing, or other technical filmmaking skills, Greenlight Lab focuses on the business behind the work: how filmmakers earn income, find and price opportunities, finance independent projects, build professional infrastructure, and create a realistic plan for sustaining their work over time.
There isn’t one right way to build a filmmaking career. Greenlight Lab helps participants understand the possibilities, then build a model around their own skills, circumstances, and ambitions.
Learn more about Greenlight Lab from Rocky Walls, Executive Director of Hoodox
Inside Greenlight Lab
Access Granted
Thinking about applying to Greenlight Lab? Join us at Heartland Film Festival to meet the team. Ask questions. Get a closer look.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema at The Square, Theater 11
Friday, October 16
5:30–7:00 PM
APPLICANTS
WHO SHOULD APPLY?
Greenlight Lab is designed for emerging documentary filmmakers and nonfiction storytellers working in Indiana who are ready to think seriously about the economic sustainability of their work.
You might be a director or producer developing independent documentaries, a freelance filmmaker balancing your own projects with client work, an emerging production-company founder, or a storyteller still figuring out what combination of opportunities can support the career you want.
You may be a strong fit if:
- You have demonstrated filmmaking or nonfiction storytelling experience and are ready to build on that creative foundation.
- You want to better understand how your filmmaking skills can generate sustainable income.
- You are interested in exploring a mix of opportunities such as commissioned storytelling, client or contract work, grants, sponsorships, licensing, distribution, partnerships, or other creative revenue.
- You have an independent project, creative business, or professional direction you want to move forward during the program.
- You are ready to test ideas, receive feedback, take real-world action, and develop a practical plan for the next 12 months.
You do not need to arrive with a fully funded film, incorporated business, or polished business plan. Greenlight Lab is designed to help you determine what your next stage can realistically look like.
PROGRAM STRUCTURE & SCHEDULE
Greenlight Lab combines self-paced learning, weekly virtual cohort sessions, individualized mentorship, and a culminating in-person intensive in Central Indiana.
Application Window: September 23 – December 6, 2026
Onboarding Period: January 11 – January 22, 2027
Weekly Cohort Sessions: 7-9 PM EST via Zoom on Tuesdays from January 26 – March 2, 2027
All Day In-Person Intensive: Central Indiana on Saturday, March 20, 2027
Participants will engage with selected lessons and resources from The Art of Documentary’s Create & Earn course, then work with Greenlight facilitators, mentors, and fellow cohort members to apply those ideas to the realities of their own careers.
CURRICULUM OUTLINE
Week 1 — Where Are You Now—and What Are You Building?
January 26, 2027 from 7-9 PM on Zoom
- Define what a sustainable filmmaking career means for you. Assess your strengths, current income sources, professional direction, and goals for the next 12 months.
Week 2 — Building Your Economic Engine
February 2, 2027 from 7-9 PM on Zoom
- Explore the many ways documentary skills can generate income—from independent projects and grants to commissioned storytelling, client work, licensing, recurring relationships, and other creative opportunities. Build a revenue model around your own goals rather than someone else’s definition of success.
Week 3 — Finding, Winning & Valuing the Work
February 9, 2027 from 7-9 PM on Zoom
- Learn how professional opportunities become paid work. Explore client discovery, pitching, pricing, relationship-building, and how to communicate the value of documentary storytelling. Put those ideas into practice through real-world outreach.
Week 4 — Financing the Work You Want to Make
February 16, 2027 from 7-9 PM on Zoom
- Explore grants, sponsorships, fiscal sponsorship, crowdfunding, partnerships, licensing, and other ways independent projects can be financed. Learn how project financing fits into—but differs from—the larger challenge of sustaining a filmmaking career.
Week 5 — Building a Business That Can Sustain the Work
February 23, 2027 from 7-9 PM on Zoom
- Get practical about the infrastructure behind a professional creative practice, including pricing, contracts, rights, accounting, cash flow, scheduling, reinvestment, and knowing when to bring in specialized help.
Week 6 + In-Person Intensive — Your Sustainable Path Forward
March 2, 2027 from 7-9 PM on Zoom
March 20, 2027, All Day in Central Indiana Venue TBA
- Bring everything together into a 12-Month Sustainability Plan tailored to your own career. Present your model, receive feedback from mentors and industry professionals, and leave with concrete priorities for the next 90 days.
KEY COMMITMENTS & PARTICIPANT OUTCOMES
WHAT SELECTED COHORT MEMBERS RECEIVE
Greenlight Lab participants receive:
- Six weekly cohort sessions focused on practical application and peer learning
- A culminating in-person intensive in Central Indiana
- Selected access to professional business curriculum from The Art of Documentary’s Create & Earn
- Two hours of individualized mentorship/advisory support, spread throughout the program
- Practical tools for building a personal revenue model, opportunity strategy, project financing map, and 12-month Sustainability Plan
- Direct access to working filmmakers and experts in areas such as creative business, documentary financing, legal/IP, accounting, and professional development
- Connection to the networks and resources of Pattern and Hoodox
- A cohort of fellow Indiana filmmakers working through many of the same professional challenges
WHAT WE’LL ASK OF YOU
Greenlight Lab is designed for active participation. Selected cohort members will be expected to:
- Participate in weekly cohort sessions and the in-person intensive
- Complete selected self-paced lessons and exercises between sessions
- Meet with an assigned mentor throughout the program
- Develop a personalized 12-Month Sustainability Plan
- Take at least one meaningful real-world action during the Lab—such as client outreach, a funding application, a funder or sponsor conversation, a professional networking meeting, or another step appropriate to your individual plan
- Share experiences, questions, and feedback that contribute to the learning of the full cohort
APPLY TO GREENLIGHT LAB
Greenlight Lab will select 10–12 emerging documentary filmmakers from across Indiana for its inaugural cohort.
Applications are open September 23 through December 6, 2026.
For questions about Greenlight Lab, please contact program director Amanda Thomas at amanda.thomas@patternindy.com
Greenlight Lab is a program funded by the Community Collaboration Fund
The Community Collaboration Fund (CCF) is a program of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) designed to inspire new, community-led collaborations and programming that drive entrepreneurial education, tech enablement and small business acceleration statewide. CCF grants enable Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) to implement initiatives that serve Indiana’s entrepreneurs and small businesses and fill critical ecosystem gaps across Indiana’s regions.