Cardozo Law School
Program: Special Initiatives
Area of Work: Arts
Grant Purpose: Filmmakers Legal Clinic
Overview
The Illumination Fund has a long partnership with Cardozo School of Law, having endowed the school’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program, which helps graduates who work in public service or for a non-profit organization repay their student loans.
Grant
Purpose: To support the expansion of the Indie Film Clinic.
In 2014, the Fund initiated support for the Indie Film Clinic at Cardozo, which provides free legal services to filmmakers producing independent, documentary, and student films and to artists providing services in independent and documentary film. The clinic fills a previously underserved and vitally important niche in New York City’s film and arts community: the need for a free or low-cost legal services clinic for independent filmmakers in the greater New York City area who would have difficulty obtaining affordable legal services.
Impact
Since the Indie Film Clinic (now named the Filmmakers Legal Clinic) opened in January 2011, the program has provided free legal services to more than 250 filmmakers. Of these projects, approximately 65% were directed or produced by filmmakers from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the industry. Client films have attracted a wider audience as a result, with screenings in leading U.S. and international film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Rotterdam, South by Southwest (SXSW), the Los Angeles Film Festival and more. In 2020-2021, the Filmmakers Legal Clinic ran several pop-up legal clinics and expanded partnerships with Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and the Ghetto Film School. The Clinic and the Black TV and Film Collective (BTFC) also began a fruitful partnership, hosting a three-part legal empowerment series throughout the semester on fair use doctrine of copyright law and contracts and online distribution channels for films.
