Lisa Callif Pens Forbes Article on Legal Clearances of Emmy Non-Fiction Projects
Lisa Callif recently authored a Forbes article, “Emmy-Nominated Non-Fiction Films – How Legal Operates Behind The Scenes,” where she examines the legal challenges documentary and non-fiction production companies and filmmakers face including copyright, trademark, and personal rights.
With the increased popularity of true crime and investigative films and television series, Lisa draws on her legal expertise to emphasize the importance of legal clearances to ensure a project is accurate and defendable. She explains that a central component of film clearance is ensuring that anything potentially incriminating against an individual in the project has a logical basis and that facts are corroborated by at least two independent sources.
Lisa writes, “A major takeaway for filmmakers is that it is hard work to produce a controversial or investigatory documentary project. If what you’re documenting is incriminating about someone or something else, you need to do the work to make sure what that person is saying is accurate or, at a minimum, you have a reasonable basis for saying it.”
Lisa’s piece was also highlighted by Robert Freedman in a Legal Dive article, “Conducting due diligence for true-crime shows like ‘Telemarketers,’” where he shares Lisa’s analysis with Legal Dive’s audience ahead of the News and Documentary Emmy Awards.