IDF Presents East Doc Platform
IDF stands for Institute of Documentary Film, is based in Prague with this slogan: We support the emerging stars from Central and Eastern Europe. Link below, but let me sum up what this impressive film institution is doing: training (Ex Oriente), market (East Silver), distribution (KineDok), promotion (Czech Docs), pitching (East European Forum), transmedia (Doc Tank), networking (Project Market) and East Doc Platform, an event that starts this coming monday March 6 and goes on until March 12.
I have a warm connection to IDF and the many people, who work and have been working there. I was part of the ExOriente workshop for many years – it gave me a chance to make my addiction to documentaries and documentarians in this part of the world even deeper than it already was from around 1990, where the Empire USSR fell as did the wall in Berlin, and I travelled in the Baltic countries first of all. I got acquainted with the work of filmmakers like Miroslav Janek, Helena Trestikova, Jan Gogola, Filip Remunda, Robert Kirchhoff and many others.
Marta Obršálová, new pr manager of IDF, asked me to write about
the upcoming East Doc Platform and especially its Open Program, that starts Monday March 6 and has its final Public Presentations of the East European Forum on March 11, 4 hours, 20 feature-length documentary projects, including the ones that have been taken part in the 3 session workshop Ex Oriente. I will be there at the pitch to see which films will come to us in the coming year(s). Always exciting.
Monday, let me give you some highlights, my choices, there is an invitation from “the old boys”, Mikael Opstrup and Iikka Vehkalahti, to hear about what makes good and functional pitching trailers, followed by – the day after – a meeting with Pawel Loziński and his search “for intimacy in front of the camera”; would have loved to be there to hear more about how he made “You don’t Know How Much I Love You”. I know Arnau Gifreu Castells, expert in transmedia projects, from Barcelona, he has invited me to his session during the DocsBarcelona, I have not been able to be there, maybe in Prague on March 8? The same goes for renowned editor Joe Bini, who has a masterclass on the 9th of March, an hour before I have the privilege to introduce “Czech Docs… Coming Soon”. There is much more, and there is a video library, East Silver Market, if you don’t manage to get to the cinema where the One World Festival goes on.
And some more name-dropping – tutors of the workshop before the final pitch, quite a strong group of people: Paweł Łoziński , American editor Joe Bini, Danish producer Helle Faber Soendergaard (Made in Copenhagen), film critic Giona Nazzaro (Visions du réel – International Documentary Film Festival Venice International Film Critics’ Week), Czech distributor Ivo Andrle (Kino Aero, Světozor, Aerofilms), film writer and editor Maya Hawke, consultant Peter Jaeger (Autlook Filmsales, Jaeger Creative) and French director and editor Stan Neumann. My comment: Neumann is a hit at every workshop. Also present at the preparatory workshop will be the Ex Oriente Film workshop lead tutors: director and dramaturg Ivana Pauerová Miloševičová (Czech television), Czech director and producer Filip Remunda (Hypermarket Film), Mikael Opstrup (EDN – European Documentary Network) and Finish producer and director Iikka Vehkalahti (Rough Cut Service).
IDF stands for quality!
