The Future of Nonfiction Video '25 Brings Visual Storytellers Together at The J-School
Leaders, emerging journalists and documentarians met Feb 7–8, 2025, to discuss video’s future.
The Future of Nonfiction Video 2025 was not a conference. A product of the Video Consortium (VC) — a non-profit connecting and supporting nonfiction filmmakers, journalists and news organizations — this summit, hosted by Columbia Journalism School, featured open conversations, exclusive documentary screenings and idea-shares between current students and professionals.
Duy Linh Tu, '99 M.S., Dean of Academic Affairs and Vice-Chair of the Video Consortium's Board of Directors, helped organize the two days of video festivities
“These are democratized conversations. [Student] opinions matter just as much as someone who heads a video department or heads an organization. The point of this is for all of us to be on the same level,” said Sky Dylan-Robbins, Executive Director and Founder of VC, at the weekend’s opening panel discussion.
Insights into Navigating the Visual Storytelling World
VC not only hosted creators from established media groups, including ABC, The New York Times and The New Yorker — the organization also platformed the voices of independent filmmakers and video journalists to discuss “journalism without a net.”
“It feels very creative to start something new, energizing. At the same time, there’s a lot of decisions to make,” said Joss Fong, a science journalist. Fong was a founding member of Vox, and now produces Howtown, an independent show on Youtube. “What are the Patreon tiers that you need to set up? What sponsors do we work with? Which do we not work with? Where to set your rates? We're just making all this stuff up.”
The Rise of Vertical: Adapting to Attention Span
As newsrooms across the nation increasingly turn towards short-form video content to capture audiences’ attention spans, the evolving role of the video journalist in this new climate was at the forefront of the weekend’s conversations.
Despite the rise of vertical reels and TikToks, Phil Edwards, former video producer at Vox and now independent YouTube creator, was optimistic that audiences still desire investigative and long-form projects.
“People on YouTube do have an appetite for richness and specificity. And something that I've told a couple people over the night here is that I've discovered that people are way more amenable to interviews and lengthier conversations than I would have thought before,” said Edwards.
Emmy-nominated director Nicholas Bruckman also spun the new medium positively.
“We’re just trying to make our vertical stuff really, really good….There's a lot of stuff performing extremely well on Instagram that is super cinematic. It's just designed to be vertical and adapting some of that,” Bruckman said at his “How can we maintain a balanced doc life” talk on Saturday. “So for us, it's really trying to make great cinema that's 90 seconds and works in that algorithm.”
While The Future for Nonfiction Video 2025 wrapped up on Saturday night with community celebrations and reflections on the rewarding weekend, The Video Consortium hosts events year-round. Learn more about their programming here. Interested in becoming a documentary student at the J-School? Read more here.