Documentary Tank
DocumentaryTank@AFF 2017 schedule
The industry program at Astra Film Festival 2017, will take place between 19-21 October, with a program that includes talks, events, presentations and networking opportunities, gathered under the umbrella of DocumentaryTank@AFF, which aims to provide a range of activities focused on film professionals. The vision of this program is to encourage the development and growth of European and Romanian documentary industry and of its current and future filmmakers. To that end, we have organized a series of expert-led discussions focused on the funding, development and distribution of films, new media and the education of future directors, producers, cinematographers or distributors.
Romanian Docs in Progress
The DocumentaryTank@AFF will host the Romanian Docs in Progress program, which will give documentary filmmakers, who are currently developing stories originating in this part of Europe, the opportunity to present their ongoing work to a jury and audience of both local and international film professionals, in order to attract possibilities of finance, co-production and distribution. Aiming to support new voices and bridge the gap between new talent and decision makers, Romanian Docs in Progress will offers documentary projects the opportunity to gain the support meant to help finalize their projects.
A result of last year’s successful pitching session, Astra Film Festival will host the world premiere of one of the films presented in 2016 - Phoenixxx (dir. Mihai Dragolea) - in the Romanian 2017 competition. This year, six pre-selected projects will have again the opportunity to compete for three awards. A new direction at this year’s Romanian Docs in Progress will be a networking session, in which representatives from ten documentary projects, in different stages of development, will have the opportunity to interact with established experts in the field of production, funding and distribution of documentaries.
Financing and networking opportunities
Several lectures in the DocumentaryTank@AFF 2017 program will be dedicated to discussing the challenges and concerns that documentary filmmakers usually face when putting together a financing strategy for their project and the opportunities that some of the major film industry forums in Europe are offering in this direction:
Creative Europe MEDIA: European opportunities for documentary filmmakers
Valentina Miu, Head of MEDIA Desk Romania, will present the European opportunities available for documentary filmmakers in the Creative Europe (2014-2020) - MEDIA programme, while Romanian director and producer Florin Iepan (Sub-cult-ura) will use his film Păr (Hair) as a case study of working with Media Desk Development Fund.
Reaching out to an audience: HBO Europe documentary production profile
Hanka Kastelicová, the Executive Producer of Documentaries for HBO Europe, will discuss the culture of the company she works for, presenting an in-depth analysis on the HBO Europe possibilities of funding, production, sales and distribution for documentaries. Hanka will provide examples from her extensive experience for filmmakers seeking financial and distributional support, focusing on the potentialities for Romanian filmmakers.
Reaching out to an audience: DocLounge
Maja Lindquist, the Director of Doc Lounge, a Nordic distribution and screening network, and Head of Programme at Nordisk Panorama Film Festival, will share her experience as a festival programmer and talk about how festivals can be used to reach out to other festivals, press and distributors.
Reaching out to an audience: Film aggregators - the big four film distributors online
Vincent Lucassen will introduce the work of UMW, an aggregator that offers a one-stop-shop solution to film makers and producers to exploit their films on global platforms like iTunes, Google, Amazon and Microsoft. He will explain the juridical part, the material deliveries to the platforms and the possible marketing methods. He will give examples of successful Documentary releases on VoD over the last few years and introduce the concept of GLOBAL NOMADS, a digital film label.
A Mentor’s POV
A highlight of this year’s DocumentaryTank@AFF program is the presence of three premiere documentary schools in Europe: Jean Perret from Haute école d'art et de design (HEAD) Genève, Marcin Malatyński from the Lodz Film School and Daniel Lang from Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München, who will each present their department, followed by an open discussion with the audience on the topic of “Best practices for the vocational training of documentary filmmakers”.
New Documentary Forms
Alexandru Berceanu, filmmaker, researcher and director of the CINETic research center (UNATC IL Caragiale Bucharest) in digital interaction, will bring perspective on CINETic VR projects, team and production capabilities. The presentation will touch important questions like can we shape how VR is developing? or What will be the impact of VR on performing arts? Paulina Majda, a filmmaker with fifteen years of industry experience working in animation, film, fulldome (spherical cinema) and art, will share from her extensive experience, detailing the challenges and differences of making fulldome films.
PROGRAM: THURSDAY 19 October FRIDAY 20 October SATURDAY 21 October