The first session of the 2022 Ex Oriente Film workshop will take place in La Rochelle June 17-22 in cooperation with Sunny Side of the Doc. Find out who are the experts that will help producers and directors of the selected projects and what parts of the program are open to public.
The leading tutors of the 1st Ex Oriente Film 2022 session are documentary expert Mikael Opstrup (DK), consultant and producer Iikka Vehkalahti (FI) and director and producer Filip Remunda (CZ). Among the guest tutors are director Marc Isaacs (UK), producer Heidi Fleisher (US), director and producer Aliona van der Horst (NL), producer Laura Briand (FR), director Nino Kirtadzé (FR) and sales representatives Irena Taskovski (UK), Aleksandar Govedarica (CA) and Samuel Joyce (UK).
It is not the first time the Institute of Documentary Film collaborates with SSD. For many years, the Sunny Side of the Doc Prize has been given at the East Doc Platform in Prague and the representatives of SSD and the Institute of Documentary Film meet at both markets regularly. The first session of the 2021 Ex Oriente Film workshop was held online at the 32nd Sunny Side of the Doc, where the Institute of Documentary Film also helmed the Central and Eastern European Delegation. The Ex Oriente Film Manger Anna Kaslová adds: “We are excited to welcome to the 20th year of workshop 12 exceptional documentary projects by talented filmmakers from the CEE region, represented by director-producer teams, who will focus on development of their stories and strategy for production and financing. Partnership with the Sunny Side of the Doc, major international documentary market, creates essential co-production and financing opportunities for European documentary producers from our respective regions. We are very happy to continue our cooperation, share our program and hold the 1st session of our training workshop residentially at La Rochelle”.
Ex Oriente Film 2022 Workshop - Session 1 Open Program:
The whole open program is available to public for free at La Rochelle Université (23 avenue Albert Einstein 17000).
SUNDAY, JUNE 19
10:00 - 11:30
DIRECTORS' MASTERCLASS by NINO KIRTADZÉ
European Film Academy awarded director Nino Kirtadze will expound on her directorial approach to documentary filmmaking reflecting on her dark comedy Don't Breathe (2014) bordering between fiction and documentary genre.
SUNDAY, JUNE 19
10:00 - 11:30
PRODUCERS' LECTURE by SAMUEL JOYCE
How to navigate the factual content market, when your primary focus is feature length documentary? How to think ahead about the rights for different platforms and territories? Lecture by Samuel Joyce (Senior Documentary Acquisitions, Sales & Marketing Executive at TVF International).
MONDAY, JUNE 20
10:00 - 11:00
CASE STUDY by ALEKSANDAR GOVEDARICA
Co-Founder of Syndicado Film Sales, Toronto based world sales and production company, will give a case study about successful Eastern European documentary films, which were deemed challenging during their production phase.
MONDAY, JUNE 20
16:40 - 18:00
MASTERCLASS by MARC ISAACS: 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.
TUESDAY, JUNE 21
11:00 - 12:30
MASTERCLASS by ALIONA VAN DER HORST: Visual Style, Post-Memory and Working with Archival Footage
Aliona van der Horst will talk about her artistic approach to her latest film Turn your body to the sun. A film that deals with history and memory. To search for the soul of the images of the archival footage that the film is made upon she used mixed techniques of double pass, zoom-in and colorization, instead of just showing and illustrating historical events. She experimented with the power of the faces watched very closely. She will discuss her way of combining a narrative-driven storyline with a more complex artistic vision and speak about working in the film with the concept of post-memory. This masterclass is an interactive event; participants are encouraged to formulate their specific questions regarding the making of the film.
TUESDAY, JUNE 21
17:00-18:30
PRODUCER'S LECTURE by MIKAEL OPSTRUP: Producing Character Driven Documentary
Last year Mikael Opstrup published his book THE UNCERTAINTY – A book about developing character driven documentary. In this lecture Mikael will share his considerations on the specifics of working with character driven documentary, with a special glance at what it means to produce it.
The Ex Oriente Film 2022 workshop (Session 1) is organized by the Institute of Documentary Film in cooperation with Sunny Side of the Doc. Supported by Creative Europe MEDIA, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Czech Film Fund, Prague City Hall and APA - Audiovisual Producers' Association.
