IMPACT Lab
Documentaries have the power to highlight social and environmental concerns, reveal injustice, and inspire action. Unlike shorter forms such as news and social media, long-form documentaries take the time to build empathy, directly involve the audience and immerse them fully in the situation of others, inspiring them to engage and act.
With the knowledge that Israel is a hub for talented and world-renowned documentary filmmakers, but impact filmmaking is not established, CoPro Foundation together with The New Israel Fund, Gesher Film Fund and Kayama Academic Center, and the U.S. embassy developed and produced the first ever Documentary Impact Lab in Israel.
The Lab
The lab program deals with accompanying documentary film works in building an IMPACT campaign for films that have the potential to drive change and action, along with the initiation and training of impact producers.
The lab aims to promote content which has the potential to create widespread and impactful effects through raising awareness of key social, environments and political issues. CoPro would also like to enable activists, policy makers, social organizations, and others to use films as a tool for social change. The program will accept 4-5 projects dealing with issues such as human rights and social justice, environment, health and welfare, diversity and gender and social equality, youth and communities at risk and the LGBTQ community, as well as 4-5 participants in the program in order to promote impact producers.
The lab aims to give film-makers practical and measurable tools with which to create meaningful impact campaigns concerning urgent topics, and to introduce impact films as a tool of social change to the third sector, social organizations, and philanthropy.
Each project will have an impact producer who will be trained to benefit the project, build a strategy, and execute it. These producers will join the lab process and receive international and local training and accompaniment to promote the necessary products and recruit partners for the project. The participants will receive training, accompaniment, and a 15,000 NIS work grant from the Gesher Film Fund.
As part of the peak event that will take place at the end of the process, the participants will present the projects and the work strategy they have developed, to an audience of senior executives and decision-makers in the fields of social-civil action, in order to encourage cooperation and investment in the impact campaign.
The IMPACT Lab is held in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and sponsored by
the French Institute, the French Embassy in Israel. 
Terms and Conditions (in Hebrew)
The open call for IMPACT Lab 2023 is closed
