In past years B2B Industry Days has been a rolling show, delivering a necessary business component to festivals in the region (specifically Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) whose budget couldn’t meet the high cost of an extensive industry programme. The ongoing raison d’etre of B2B Doc has always been to “contribute to the development of the film industry on the local level in our countries,” CEO Alex Shiriaieff underlines to BDE, and therefore B2B Doc’s local engagement within each country proved highly beneficial.
But the world has changed much over recent years, and such local engagement has been severely compromised. First there was Covid, then there was the (ongoing) war in Ukraine following the Russian invasion of February 24 2022. Belarus has been undergoing revolution since 2020, and passing through Moldovan airspace cannot be guaranteed due to the ongoing conflict with the breakaway region of Transnistria. Azerbaijan and Armenia continue their ethnic and territorial dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Which leaves Georgia, but getting to Georgia is likely to break most travel budgets, Shiriaieff points out.
“In the countries where we work, we have two pure dictatorships. We have emerging democracies and we have countries with deep roots in homophobia and xenophobia,” he adds of local tensions. “But we have a lot of filmmakers who are trying to do something to change the way people think in their countries. That’s why B2B Doc is needed, because we’re helping them to develop their film stories for the international audiences and raise money to make their films.”
In 2022 B2B presented its Launchpad programme of new projects during Krakow Film Festival (June 2022). This year’s augmented presentation is within another Polish city, Gdynia, although the first choice would have been at Odesa IFF in the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi. “That would’ve been a great event if we went there [to Chernivtsi]. I mean, just think to arrange an industry program in the country at war. That would be a great event in terms of solidarity with our Ukrainian colleagues,” says Shiriaieff, who eventually decided against the idea, so as not to put filmmakers or industry personnel at any risk.
Pitching sessions (see selections below)
The Industry Days programme is expanded this year with two new elements, the Cutting Edge pitch event (August 30) and Scouting Session (August 29).
During Cutting Edge, B2B Doc will present film projects at editing stage to a panel of distributors, sales agents, film funds and TV channels. All the works have been creatively supported by B2B Doc.
For Scouting Session, B2B Doc has invited documentary filmmakers film projects in the idea or early development stage for a presentation to B2B Doc and the international documentary community. “Our goal is to identify the potential in the projects and give filmmakers feedback to help them work out a proper strategy for co-production, financing and distribution of the future film,” B2B Doc writes of Scouting. “We have managed to select seven, and a couple of them are real masterpieces,” adds Shiriaieff.
Launch Pad (August 31) will again present 10 new film projects from all six countries within the region, which are at early production stage and which, in the main, have never been pitched before.
Masterclasses
The August 28 panel titled Being a fixer in Ukraine during the war, couldn’t be of any greater relevance, addressing the business of Ukrainian filmmakers’ engagement over the past 18 months by international media covering the Russian invasion. The panel, moderated by Stephane Siohan, producer of Alisa Kovalenko’s We Will Not Fade Away, will ask how these fixers can wrestle back control of their own creativity, and not just ‘fix’ problems for others.
“There are some fixers in Ukraine who are earning much more money than the reporters or the film directors,” comments Shiriaieff, “but on the other hand we have a lot of fixers who are very talented, are very professional, and who are doing actually most of the work instead of the reporters or film directors who are coming, and they [the local Ukrainians] are not credited. We will be discussing these ethical issues.”
On August 29, Emmy Award-winning war correspondent Stefan Borg, award-winning Polish journalist and broadcast producer Magdalena Chodownik, and Maciek Hamela, director of the 2023 multi-award winning feature doc In the Rearview, will debate Personal security when filming in war zones.
“How to pass checkpoints, how to apply for applications, how to film on the other side of the frontline. Very practical stuff, and to how to protect yourself and your crew, and also your characters,” explains Shiriaieff. “And this applies not only to Ukraine…we have a lot of Belarusian filmmakers who are now in exile living in Europe, but the characters of the films that they are filming are still in Belarus, for example. Or their parents still in Belarus. We have the war in Nagorno-Karabakh region, between Armenia and Azerbaijan. And then we have the conflict in Moldova with Transnistria. So we have a lot of filmmakers who are engaged in those. We have to think about how to keep the cinematographic value of the films but, at the same time, think about security.”
Reform needed
Shiriaieff explains wider issues affecting the filmmakers in the region, and calls for a fundamental realignment of priorities from the industry at large, and its funding mechanisms. “We have to reform. We’re demanding too much from filmmakers. We are preparing them. We are teaching them how to pitch. We are training them,” he says. “But when I’m traveling and attending a lot of pitching sessions or co-production markets, I see a lot of so-called ‘decision makers’ who are coming totally unprepared. They’re not prepared to [be able to] speak with the filmmakers. They don’t have any idea what country the filmmakers are coming from. They don’t have any idea what is standing behind them.”
“Those decision makers, people who have their daily jobs, good salaries, travelling money [expenses], they’re invited to all the film festivals, everything is paid for,” Shiriaieff adds. “And then there are the filmmakers who have to save money or find money somewhere. I know some young girls from one of the countries in Central Asia. They took a personal bank loan to be able to cover their travels to IDFA, to Leipzig, to the other big festivals because they feel this hunger [to make their film]. I have another film team from another eastern European country. Their project was selected for one of the biggest pitching co-production sessions in Europe. They couldn’t afford the travel, so they drove 2,000 kilometers in the car and were sleeping in the car during the five days of that co-production market.”
“We have to stream more money towards support of filmmakers,” Shiriaieff underlines of the need for a reboot of funding. “We have enough money in Europe. The problem is how this money is being distributed in the industry. Have we ever seen any of those politicians who are sitting in the European Council, or however it’s called, who are distributing the funds for the Media Program, or who are establishing the rules, how the media money should be distributed?”
“Today, Eastern Europe is the place where the future of Europe is being determined,” he continues. “The documentary industry is a powerful tool in the process of democracy development in our countries. But we have to strengthen it, and we have to rethink how to change it in a proper way. We cannot sit and wait for when some clever politician will come and change our conditions. I think it’s only us documentary professionals who are working in the industry who can change it.”
Scouting Session Projects
- Alex Rodins’ Art Message / Belarus
- Echoes of Avey / dir. Atanur Nabiyeva / Azerbaijan
- Milena: Between Strange Borders / co-dir. Sabina Asadova & Elmira Asadova-Oyetoro / Ukraine, Moldova
- Sky Nomads / dir. Aytaj Khalig Suleymanova, prod. Elmaddin Suleymanov / Azerbaijan
- The First Swallow / dir. Sandro Wysocki, prod. Glib Lukianets / Ukraine, Georgia, Poland
- Unknown No.1 / producer Kateryna Ptashka / Ukraine
- These projects will be presented to the international film industry during the Scouting session on August 29 at 16.30 at Gdynia Film Center.
Cutting Edge Projects
- A Picture to Remember / dir. Olya Chernykh, prod.Regina Maryanovska-Davidzon / Ukraine
- Divia / dir. Dmytro Hreshko, prod. Tasia Pugach / Ukraine
- Ever Since I Knew Myself / director Maka Gogaladze / Georgia
- Flowers of Ukraine / dir. Adelina Borets, prod. Glib Lukianets / Ukraine, Poland
- Up in the Air / dir. Oksana Syhareva, prod. Nataliia Pogudina / Ukraine
- Swinging Fields / prod. Azza Hourani / Armenia
- Zinema / dir. Kornii Hrytsiuk, prod. Evgeniya Kriegsheim / Ukraine
Launch Pad Projects
- Ashes Settling in Layers on the Surface / dir.Zoya Laktionova, prod. Valeria Sochyvets/ Ukraine
- Foto Galatasaray / dir. Anahit Ghazaryan / Armenia
- Grounding / dir. Merri Mkrtchian, prod. Liza Petrosyan / Armenia
- Heart Don’t Be Afraid / dir. Ana Kvichidze, prod. Avtandil Khorava / Georgia
- Letters / dir. Andrei Kutsila, prod. Sofiia Zadorozhna / Belarus
- Memo’94 / dir. Kornii Hrytsiuk, prod. Anna Palenchuk / Ukraine
- Operation Champion / dir. Mariam Nikolaishvili, prod. Irina Gelashvili / Georgia
- Leave Easy Come Back Safe / dir. Masha Maroz & Sasha Kulak, prod. Louis Beaudemont / Belarus, France
- The Amateur Photographer’s Family Portrait / dir. Nurlan Hasanli / Azerbaijan
- Vera Means Belief / dir. Pavel Braila, prod. Lilia Braila / Moldova
