We would like to introduce you to the lecturers and tutors of the 1st session of the Ex Oriente Film workshop, including producers, directors, curators, who will help the participants to understand the potential of their theme, ideas and analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the project and to build a basic concept of the production and financing strategy.
The first session of the Ex Oriente Film workshop will take place in La Rochelle June 17-22 in cooperation with Sunny Side of the Doc.
Ex Oriente Feature - 1st session tutors:
Ivana Pauerová Miloševičová (CZ) has cooperated with Czech Television in the role of project supervisor and script developer for documentary films and series since 2012. From 2003 to 2012, she headed the Ex Oriente Film workshop for the Institute of Documentary Film and the East European Forum. She works as an external lecturer for FAMU.
Filip Remunda (CZ) is a director and producer. He lectured at the Flaherty Documentary Seminar in the USA. He co-founded the Institute of Documentary Film (IDF) and is actively involved in lecturing at the Ex Oriente Film, an international documentary development workshop organised by IDF. He runs the independent production company Hypermarket Film.
Iikka Vehkalahti (FIN) is an executive producer of Rough Cut Service run by his own company IV Films. Having also another company Toinen Katse Ltd, Iikka is producing and consulting international documentary films.
Marc Issacs (UK) is a film director. Since 2001, he has made more than 10 creative documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4. His films have won Grierson, Royal Television Society and BAFTA awards as well as numerous internat
Jasmina Sijercic (FR) is producer, sales agent, originaly from Bosnia and Hercegovina. Studied Film Production at Prague’s FAMU, at University of Sorbonne in Paris, Locarno IFF and won a Special Jury Award in Locarno. She is a Eurodoc, Emerging Producer and Berlinale Talents alumni.
Diana El Jeiroudi (GE) is director, producer, script writer, award winning documentary filmmaker born in Damascus and lives in Berlin. Diana A member of The American Academy of Motion Pictures, Deutsche Filmakademie, Documentary Association of Europe, DOX BOX e.V. and the Asia Pacific Screen Academy.
Ken-ichi Imamura (JAP) is producer from Japan. He was the series editor of the slot “World Documentary” and he is one of the founders of Tokyo Docs which started in 2011 Supported many Asian documentaries such as Plane of Snail (Best feature length documentary, IDFA 2011), The Chinese Mayor (Special Jury Prize, Sundance 2015), Kabul, City in the Wind, After the Rain (2021), Organic Terrorist (2023).
Victoria Bruce (USA) is writer, director, film marketing strategist, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and author with a passion for human rights. She has had her films in over 50 film festivals including IDFA and Sundance, and has had films acquired by HBO, CBS, History Channel, Netflix, Hulu and PBS. She is the recipient of many film festival awards as well as a duPont-Columbia University Award.
The Maw Naing (Myanmar) is a poet, artist and filmmaker who mixes surrealistic images with political commentary in his work. He forms part of the first class to graduate from theYangon Film School, founded in 2005, and then studied directing at FAMU in Prague.
Hubert Sauper (AT) is a documentary filmmaker, director, writer, producer, and actor, Academy Award nominated for best Documentary. Sauper is famed for his political documentary films, shot in cinéma vérité style. He earned worldwide recognition for his films’ expression, content, and aesthetics. His films are usually controversial for their explicit political, social, and poetic expression.
Ex Oriente Series - 1st session lecturers:
Ruth Reid (UK) is leading tutor of Ex Oriente Series, producer, graduated with a Degree in Law (LLB) followed by a Masters in Film & TV Production (MAFTVP), Reid has produced multiple award-winning documentary and unscripted TV series and singles, short films and commercials. She is frequently invited to speak at industry events, training initiatives and film/TV festivals.
Charlotte Uzu (France) is a senior producer specialized in the production and international financing of documentary and feature films for cinema and TV.
Samuel Joyce (UK) is distributor, sales agent, Acquisitions & Content Strategist at TVF International, the world's leading independent distributor of documentaries and factual series.
Lucio Mollica (Italy) is an award-winning documentary director and producer. Lucio graduated in Media Studies in Bologna and is currently a producer at LOOKSfilm in Berlin. He created video installations for museums in the USA before developing a passion for documentaries, and since 2009 he wrote and directed more than 20 historical and political films, broadcast internationally.
Nanfu Wang (China) is director, producer, director of photography and editor. She is an Emmy Award®-nominated and Peabody-winning filmmaker based in New York City. Wang’s feature debut, Hooligan Sparrow, was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature and received two Emmy nominations.
Matt Syrett (USA), documentary, scripted, and commercial producer Matt Syrett (USA) on his recently released Netflix documentary series MerPeople.
Angus Macqeen 's series, THE LAST PEASANTS (2002) and MARADONA IN MEXICO (2019) have almost nothing in common, except to illustrate how pre-planning and structuring are both vital and pointless in the face of real events. Made 20 years apart, one was shot on 16mm film about illegal immigration from a remote Romanian village; the other followed the footballing Icon, Diego Maradona, as in the year before he died, he managed a 2nd Division club in Mexico's druglands for Netflix.
Laura Briand (producer, France)
Margje de Koning (festival director Movies That Matter, The Netherlands)
Patrizia Mancini (consultant, Italy)
Ex Oriente Film Open Programme is in English and takes place at La Rochelle Université ad is open to SSD accredited guests.
Sunday, June 18
10:00 – 11:30
Masterclass by Diana El Jeiroudi: PRODUCERS DIRECTORS RELATIONS
Amphi 1
11:45 – 13:15
CASE STUDY by producer Charlotte Uzu (FR)
Case study on producing documentary series from the Les Films d´lci production leading producer.
Amphi 2
16:45 – 18:00
Masterclass of director, producer and poet The Maw Naing (MMR)
Amphi 1
16:45 – 18:00 Amphi 2
Lecture by producer and commissioning editor Ken-ichi Imamura (JPN)
Ken-ichi Imamura will provide overview on how to navigate the Asian documentary market.
Amphi 2
17:15 – 18:15
Masterclass by director Angus Macqeen (UK)
Angus Macqueen's series, THE LAST PEASANTS (2002) and MARADONA IN MEXICO (2019) have almost nothing in common, except to illustrate how pre-planning and structuring are both vital and pointless in the face of real events. Made 20 years apart, one was shot on 16mm film about illegal immigration from a remote Romanian village; the other followed the footballing Icon, Diego Maradona, as in the year before he died, he managed a 2nd Division club in Mexico's druglands for Netflix.
Amphi 3
18:30 – 19:30
Lecture by Samuel Joyce (UK): Unlocking the International Potential for Docuseries: Case Studies in Distribution, Presales & Coproduction
Lecture and case study by Samuel Joyce, the Documentary Acquisitions, Coproduction and Content Strategy expert from TVF International, the world's leading independent distributor of documentaries and factual series.
Amphi 3
Monday, June 19
10:00 – 11:30
Masterclass by director Victoria Bruce (USA): Story Safari - The Hunt for Your Documentary’s Narrative
Masterclass by director of Las Abogadas: Attorneys on the Front Lines of the Migrant Crisis. Few artistic endeavours bury their makers under an avalanche of material like documentary filmmaking. We set out with a big idea—a fabulous, fantastic never-before-seen film about something that for sure IS what we think it is. We meander through the production process in fits and starts, filming every salacious and luxurious scene, recording every titillating soundbite to create our masterpiece. Then, one day, we wake up in a cold sweat. Our original narrative has disappeared.
Amphi 1
17:30 – 19:00 (11:30 NY time)
Masterclass by Nanfu Wang (USA/China) on Mind Over Murder (2022)
In her masterclass, the director will share the process of developing the series Mind Over Murder. Nanfu will share all of the process of pitching the projects, getting it green-lit and making it, focusing in particular on differences between making a feature documentary and a six-episode series.
Streamed live - Amphi 2
Tuesday, June 20
9:00 – 10:30
Lecture by Lucio Mollica (DE/IT)
In his case study, Lucio Mollica will focus on MUNICH 72 to demonstrate the whole process of documentary series creating, accenting the collaborative nature, explaining the rules of the game, making clear the dramaturgy of the series as opposed to the feature length documentary format. Lucio will elaborate on different approach to the roles in the team, the need of the bible, the different expectations of different streamers/broadcasters etc.
Amphi 1
10:00 – 11:30
Masterclass by director Hubert Sauper (FR)
Hubert Sauper documentary films won dozens of prestigious awards all around the world, and he was nominated for an Oscar for his 2004 film, Darwin's Nightmare. Throughout his films he tackles issues of globalisation and its impact, (neo)colonialism, propaganda, power demagoguery and its influence on the common man, his observative documentary method that he has remained faithful to for many years. Filmography: Epicentro (2020) awarded Grand Jury Award at the Sundance World Documentary Competition, Darwin’s Nightmare, We Come As Friends.
Amphi 2
15:00 - 16:30
Lecture by Matt Syrett (USA), documentary, scripted, and commercial producer Matt Syrett (USA) on his recently
released Netflix documentary series MerPeople.
Amphi 1
18:10 - 19:30
Masterclass by Marc Isaacs (UK)
Staging The Real and The Limits of Observation
Sometimes things happen spontaneously in front of your camera that amaze you and you return home at the end of the day excited about the film you are making. But mostly, filmmaking involves staging the real to make it transcend the ‘ordinary’ and fulfil its potential as an art form. From discussing tiny details to grand gestures, filmmaker Marc Isaacs will reveal how he constructs his narratives in the hope of avoiding predictability.
Amphi 2
Wednesday, June 21
14:30 – 15:30
Case study by Jasmina Sijercic (FR): LANDSCAPES OF RESISTANCE (dir. Marta POPIVODA, 2021, Serbia, Germany, France)
Amphi 1