EDN Terminates DOX/ 3

Emanuele Vernillo, didactic tutor at Zelig School for Documentary, Television and New Media in Bolzano calls the decision “absurd”. Here is his text:

I am reading with big interest the discussions about the closing of DOX on paper. I want to add to these also my and our (ZeLIG) concern… If you think that the ‘circulation of our concern’ may help a discussion about this absurd decision, please feel free to publish it on your blog and wherever it would be useful.

As you know, we are a trilingual documentary film school, a very special institution where students from all over the world join together and attend seminars in german, italian and english. As you know and as anybody can easily understand, english becomes suddenly the main spoken language: inside this context DOX ‘was’ the only magazine which can strongly support the circulation of ideas, comments, critics about the documentary film scene all over the world. It is such an enormous loss for all the film-makers and particularly for our school. Which magazine can serve as substitute to it? We have made a subscription to ‘Sight and Sound’, but what DOX has been for the documentary film scene is not substitutable. 

In these days I have taken in my hands the issue nr. 100, ‘DOX in Dialogue’: it was simply marvellous, the conversations between Luciano Barisone and Nicholas Philibert, Joshua Oppenheimer and Werner Herzog. Who is going to tell to our future students that this won’t be published anymore?

Yes, there will be probably the digital editions… But I have the impression that we are not yet in an era where digital magazines are easily usable… 

I can understand the financial situation worldwide, from which EDN is probably suffering like many other institutions… But a bigger effort not to renounce to such a big resource would be very welcomed!!