Adam Papliński: Pitch the Doc
While at the Krakow Film Festival I ran into an old documentary friend, Polish producer Adam Papliński, who invited me to hear more about a new online project that he is launching right now at different festivals around the world: Pitch the Doc. He has received financial support from the EU Media Program and from the Polish Film Institute and the projects is endorsed by EDN, European Documentary Network. On the website of the latter, in an interview with Papliński as ”EDN Member of the Month”, he explains how he got the motivation for this project:
“The official launch of the platform in beta version was publicly announced during the 2017 Berlinale. The idea to launch such an internet service came to my mind 2-3 years earlier… I had received a phone call from a Russian filmmaker that we had selected to pitch a project at one of our events (Dragon Forum, ed.). He explained to me that right now he was on the Barents Sea shore shooting the film and, even though he was honoured by our decision, he could not afford to come. He had no money to pay for accommodation, he had no passport and so on… I found it a real pity that such a good project could not show up on the European market and that around the world there are probably a lot of other outstanding ideas and film projects struggling with similar problems. On the other hand I heard feedback from decision makers that the market lacks fresh new ideas. The obvious place for matchmaking the projects and investors seemed to me to be online, but I was surprised when after several days of surfing I didn’t find a site providing an effective solution…”
That well known gap Papliński intends to close with Pitch the Doc, a place where the authors can place their proposal with the key information, we all know: logline, synopsis, treatment, link to trailer etc., all that which is asked for when you go to “live” pitching sessions – and where decision makers can place their demands.
I asked Papliński whether he thought that decision makers would sign up. He answered that several c.editors he had met liked the project very much, as “I am tired of travelling”.
A fine initiative in development, go the website and learn more and read the EDN interview where the Polish matchmaker explains more about Pitch the Doc that has a team of evaluators that is strong: Steven Seidenberg, Pawel Lozinski and Marijke Rawie.
