The East European Forum will be held within the East Doc Platform; the region's largest meeting of Central and East European documentary filmmakers with Europe's and North America's leading commissioning editors, independent producers, distributors, buyers, film fund representatives and festival programmers.
Eighteen projects will attend this year´s edition – projects that were developed in the year-long training initiative Ex Oriente Film will be joined by additional projects selected to participate in this year's East European Forum (March 6 -12, 2017). Together, the eighteen projects will go through the preparatory workshop, culminating in the pitching session on March 11th where they will present their projects for co-production, pre-sale, future distribution and other forms of financial support and cooperation.
The tutors of the preparatory workshop will be providing guidance and share with the participants their rich experience. Tutors that accepted the invitation are Polish director and producer 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), consultant Peter Jaeger (Autlook Filmsales, Jaeger Creative) and French director and editor Stan Neumann.
Also present at the preparatory workshop will be the Ex Oriente Film workshop lead tutors who have worked with the eleven projects intensively in the past 9 months: 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).
Public presentations of 18 feature-length documentaries will held 11th of March from 9:30 to 13:30 at the Komedie Theatre. An integral part of the program are the inspirational lectures, case studies, masterclasses and panels devoted to different aspects of documentary filmmaking in an international setting.
Some of the highlights of this year´s open program include Paweł Łoziński's masterclass on Experiment in Documentary (March 7th from 18:00), a lecture by Helle Faber Soendergaard My insight into documentary co-productions (March 7th from 10:00) or Joe Bini´s masterclass Personal remarks on documentary filmmaking through the eyes of an editor (March 9th from 11:30). You can find the whole open program for the East Doc Platform here.