Proposal to continue DOX Magazine in print
All members of EDN received this mail yesterday before the General Assembly to be held at the General Assembly at idfa in Amsterdam. The proposal will be presented by PeÅ Holmquist:
Dear EDN member,
In relation with the General Assembly of Sunday, November 23d, we received one written proposal, to be discussed during the meeting in Amsterdam.
We”re forwarding the text of the proposal, as received by the EDN office.
Proposal to continue DOX Magazine in print
The three of us have expressed our strong disappointment with the decision to stop the printed version of the DOX Magazine. Many have shared our concern at losing an important forum for nurturing the documentary culture and the genre as an art form.
As Emma Davie has put it: If EDN focuses just on the business of documentary and not the culture behind it, it runs the risk of forgetting to feed the creativity which the market needs to thrive on. Films like “The Act of Killing” do well not because they have listened to a market but because they come from a passion, an enquiry into form, an awareness of a tradition behind it. This enquiry is fed so little in any magazine. DOX is unique for providing us with inspiration in this way. We need this as filmmakers to survive in this business as much as any strategies for dealing with dwindling tv sales…
We are aware of the difficult financial situation of EDN and from the Executive Report 2014, we can also see that the announced DOX Onlinewill be part of a new communication strategy of EDN, and not an independent magazine.
Therefore we ask the General Assembly to decide that the Executive Committee and the management of EDN finds the necessary budget to publish _one comprehensive_ _yearly_ printed issue of DOX Magazine, independently edited. It could come out in connection with a festival like idfa and thus be able to have advertisement to cover much of the costs. Also it would not be difficult to find editors to do the job for free.
It also, importantly, places EDN at the centre of being seen to support the creative documentary and keep it alive. People will keep, use and refer to the magazine whether they are filmmakers, funders, academics or audiences.
Emma Davie / PeÅ Holmquist /Tue Steen Müller / 2014, November 13