Dok.Incubator Deadline Approaching

It’s a tradition that I advertise the approaching deadline for project submission to dok.incubator. Simply because the workshop has proved to be of great help for filmmakers from all over the world. To be sure of the project quality also now, I asked the founder, project manager Andrea Prenghyová to give me a link to the online presentation of the upcoming films that were presented during the IDFA. I missed it then, so I watched the clips and the verbal presentations today of 8 films, with Head of Studies Christine le Goff as the smiling positive moderator. Films that will enter the market this year, film projects that have been coached through dok.incubator and its many good trainers, like marketing specialists Peter Jaeger and Freddy Neumann and editors Audrey Maurion, Phil Jandaly, Thomas Krag and Per K. Kirkegaard.

They are good in marketing, the dok.incubator team, not “afraid of” saying what they are good at, why should they. And they say what it is all about:

“Every year we select 8 documentary projects represented by director, editor and producer to work with in the frame of three residential workshops (April – November). Experienced as well as first time filmmakers from all over the world are provided individual guidance through the post-production period by renowned tutors. We lead the participants to conclude strong dramaturgy of the final cut to reach a wide international audience by building a clever distribution strategy using new digital technologies and smart online marketing tools.”

And some results to be proud of:

“During the past 12 years dok.incubator worked with more than 170 films, many of them premiering at A-list festivals. 14 films were selected for Sundance competitions, 2 were nominated for Emmy, 6 for European Film Award and more than 30 of them were screened at IDFA. Films from dok.incubator workshops are also regularly selected for CPH:DOXHotDocsVisions du Réel, or Krakow Film Festival.”

Back to the 8 I watched today, I asked myself which ones I would love to see finished, well “en principe” all of them but choosing 3 it would be:

“Always” from China, great visuals, shot over many years, b/w and colour, insight to Chinese family structure, personal from director’s pov.

“Nine Months Contract” by Georgian Ketevan Vashagashvili, a project I have loved since it was presented and awarded at Cinedoc-Tbilisi Mentoring Program. It has been pitched at many festivals and markets and I see how beautiful the relationship between mother and daughter has developed over the years, where being a surrogat mother was the solution for the mother to get away from living a street-life.

“Love Exposed” by Czech Filip Remunda, known for many social and political films, now making a family film. I watched the clips, crazy material, fascinating but I had to go the description on the site of dok.incubator to give you an idea: “An absurd heartfelt tragi-comedy in the rich tradition of Czech cinema. Blanka, a successful film editor and mother of three, confronts her artist father, Kula — always loud and an enfant terrible. Amid his refusal to grow up, Blanka seeks to break the family cycle of dysfunction. Through surreal yet honest confrontations, where laughter and tears mix like raindrops in a puddle, the film explores the tension between art, family, and eccentricity, blending humor and drama as they attempt to reshape their destinies.”

Exciting to get to know where the films will go… Good luck to all 8 projects!

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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