When the federal government zeroed out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting earlier this year, it was an easy assumption that public media would shrink, consolidate, and otherwise play it safe. Not so for Independent Television Service (ITVS), the 30-year-old incubator behind Independent Lens and some of the most acclaimed documentaries in America.
They’re launching a fund for vertical video.
Yes, vertical video. The format most closely associated with melodramatic miniseries and beauty tutorials is now getting the ITVS treatment: rigorous editorial standards, serious funding, and a mission to capture “voices from all parts of the country.” It’s a testament to how far the format has evolved and how dramatically the landscape has shifted for independent storytelling.
“If the founders who created ITVS were doing so today, what would they be aiming for?,” asked Lois Vossen, a founding executive producer of Independent Lens. “They would, again, be aiming toward the audience, how do you get to the audience? We don’t want to lose tens of millions of people who aren’t watching feature documentaries.”
The New Math of Independent Film
The announcement comes at a moment of reckoning for documentaries. ITVS currently has 40 feature films in its pipeline — projects that take five or six years and significant resources to complete. But as Carrie Lozano, ITVS president and CEO, put it bluntly: “It’s not a healthy ecosystem right now for independent features.”
So ITVS made two big bets. First, they committed to seeing those 40 films through to completion, “come hell or high water.” Second, they decided to meet audiences where they actually are: on social platforms, consuming vertical content on their phones.
The Independent Lens Creator Lab, launching November 11 with submissions open through December 1, will fund six vertical video makers with up to $36,000 each over six months. The creators will produce up to 12 videos for Independent Lens and PBS social media platforms, with workshops, mentorship, and editorial support from ITVS throughout.
It’s not a pivot away from feature documentaries, but it’s a hedge against a changing world.
“Stories are so relevant and coming at us so quickly,” Vossen said. “We want to, in some cases, speed up the time from conception to production to audience.”
What Documentary Means on Vertical
ITVS isn’t abandoning its DNA for dance trends and thirst traps. The organization has quietly built an online presence over several years, and the results suggest something more substantive than typical social content.
Take “The Grocery List,” a hosted series featuring former “Top Chef” contestant Chrissy Camba taking viewers into ethnic grocery stores across the country. Or “Spice Road,” which featured an episode about a Mexican-Indian couple that unpacks a forgotten chapter of American immigration history—when tens of thousands of Indian men came to the U.S. in the early 20th century, then married Mexican women after rigid immigration laws barred Indian women from entering the country.
“We find these incredibly human stories that amplify not only what’s happening today, but history,” Vossen said. “We’re seeing this as an opportunity for more and more of those creators who maybe aren’t currently thinking about public media, but actually want to create something for the good of the public that is, aside from commercial interest.”
The model they’re chasing isn’t influencer-driven brand building. It’s something closer to Kyle Lybarger, the Alabama naturalist who went viral on TikTok for his posts about native plants. “Somebody who has an expertise, who’s curious about the world around them and who can in very entertaining, very specific ways show us something that we didn’t already know and educate us about something,” Lozano said. “That is a perfect public media enterprise.”
Followers Over Film Festivals
ITVS is being extremely deliberate about where it looks for talent. They’re targeting creators with 10,000 to 100,000 followers, which are big enough to understand platforms and small enough to be mission-driven rather than focused on monetization.
“We don’t want people who already have a million followers who are really looking more to turn it into their own brand,” Vossen said. “We’re really looking for people who are in it, who can grow with us and we can grow with them.”
They’re also letting younger staff lead the charge. “With this call more than anything we’ve ever done, they’re really helping to lead the charge,” Vossen said. “That’s the audience we want to reach. Those are the people who are telling the stories.”
The distribution strategy is equally clear-eyed. While broadcast still matters (ITVS reaches every corner of the country through PBS), YouTube and Instagram are the primary platforms, with TikTok a constant topic of conversation. “When are we going to amp that up? We literally talk about it every day,” Vossen said.
“What’s exciting about some of the work that we’re embarking upon is it is digital first,” Lozano said. “It really isn’t about a broadcast at all.”
Innovation Remains the Mission
For an organization synonymous with prestige documentaries like “I Am Not Your Negro,” “The Invisible War,” “Philly D.A.,” the vertical pivot might seem jarring. But Lozano argued that it’s entirely consistent with the ITVS history as “an innovation incubator.”
“There was a period where they did narrative shorts, and there was a period where there were journalism initiatives and there had been technological initiatives,” she said. “This is just our next step of trying things.”
Not everyone is going to invest years in an expensive feature film. Not everyone is going to watch one, either.
“We work with independent voices, and to us it’s all storytelling,” Lozano said. “We just want to be where the audiences are and where the storytellers are.”
The Creator Lab is just one of several initiatives ITVS plans to announce in the coming months.
On January 5, ITVS will launch the Incubator Fund to inject much-needed development support into the early stages of independent nonfiction storytelling across feature-length and short form series. They represent a bet that the mission can survive the medium.
“We believe in the First Amendment and creative expression. We believe in supporting independent voices who are free from commercial and political fear or favor,” Lozano said. “We are just doubling down, if anything, on who we are, but being more expansive to meet the media landscape where it is.”
Submissions for the Independent Lens Creator Lab are open through December 1 at itvs.org/get-funded.