Institute of Documentary Film

March 3 – 9, accomplished professionals involved in documentary filmmaking and distribution will meet in Prague. In addition to traditional representatives of Europe’s key TV networks, sales agents and festivals, EDP will for the first time host representatives of international funds now open to films from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as consultants who connect film with international business. They will introduce new start-ups designed to support documentary filmmakers.

Documentary filmmaking has been going through dramatic changes in terms of funding and distribution. The traditional model of international collaboration with TV networks has become dysfunctional due to cuts in co-production funding, hence documentary professionals need to look elsewhere to find partners. Starting this year, the East Doc Platform is exploring uncharted waters with a line-up of attractive guests – international fund representatives as well as investors who connect film and private equity. For the first time in Prague, we have the pleasure of hosting, among others, Lucila Moctezuma of Chicken & Egg Pictures, a US fund that supports women nonfiction filmmakers; Lynn Nwokorie of Doc Society (formerly Britdoc) or Amy Hobby and Mridu Chandra of the Tribeca Film Institute that in partnership with the EDP hosts the inaugural IF/Then pitch for short documentary films. The event takes place on Wednesday, March 7 at 10 a.m., Cervantes Institute.

Other guests include Jane Ray and Phoebe Hall of the Whicker’s World Foundation that supports young talent in authored documentary. On Wednesday, March 6, they will attend the panel “Catching a Second Wind” and, along with other fund representatives, explore new funding options from private sources. The panel will also be attended by Martijn te Pas of the IDFA Bertha Fund Europe and Juliane Schulze of peacefulfish, a consulting firm that has since 2000 been actively connecting film, media and gaming industry with business across Europe.

This year, the East Doc Platform will welcome two representatives of new start-ups. Jhava Chikli and Guillaume Renaud will present Archive Valley, a unique online platform for sharing archive footage sources worldwide. The current problem of festival decision makers who are often overloaded with work, could be alleviated using an online project pitch platform – Pitch the Doc that will be introduced by the founders Adam Papliński and Katarzyna Szarecka.

The East Doc Platform will for the first time welcome Sascha Bleuler of Semaine de la Critique Locarno, Julian Carrington of Hot Docs, Francesco Giai Via of the Venice Biennale, and Madeline Robert, a new programmer of Visions du Reél Nyon, who will be added to our very long list of other representatives of prestigious events.

New trends in interactive storytelling will be outlined by Liz Rosenthal, a curator of the world’s first festival VR competition that takes place as part of the Venice Biennale. Her presentation “How to Bring VR Projects to Life” takes place on Monday, March 5, 6 p.m., Cervantes Institute.

Public presentations and talks are FREE.