At IDFA, HotDocs programming director Shane Smith confirmed to Business Doc Europe that the festival’s collaboration with European Film Promotion on the Changing Faces of Europe programme will continue in 2020.
The programme, launched in 2018, comprises 10 European documentaries that illustrate the theme, as well as a series of networking and speed dating opportunities between the European talent in attendance and their North American colleagues, counterparts and decision-makers. 2020 activities will be rounded off with a high level conference which this year is likely to be on the promotion of foreign-language films, EFP topper Sonja Heinen told BDE before IDFA.
“It started with a conversation that Sonja and I had in Karlovy Vary three years ago,” commented Smith. “On her part looking for more opportunities to profile European documentaries in North America, and Hotdocs is a great entry point for the world to the North American market.”
“At that cultural and political moment it seemed like a great idea to come up with a programme that would look at what is happening in Europe today,” he added. “There were the issues with what was happening in Syria and the refugees flooding into Europe and the way countries were reacting differently to that. There was a cultural moment in terms of gender representation, and the MeToo moment was happening, so we thought let’s frame a programme of European documentaries built around the changing face of Europe. What is happening socially, economically, politically, culturally in Europe [and presented] within documentaries made by new and emerging voices from the European continent.”
At IDFA, Smith is meeting producers, sales agents, distributors and promotional agencies from the EFP member countries to alert them to the “potential opportunities that the programme offers and just to get the lay of the land [in terms of programming].”
“IDFA is a great starting point in the calendar year for us to really hit the ground running,” he added.
EFP’s Sonja Heinen outlined her organisation’s raison d’etre, how the focus is both on b2b and “being stronger together, especially outside Europe,” adding how, “our members can work with European festivals themselves. They don’t need EFP for this. We are for activities outside of Europe.”
And why Hotdocs? “HotDocs was for us choice number one,” Heinen stressed. “It is the biggest North American documentary event. It’s a wonderful festival where you are integrated into all activities when you go there as a filmmaker. It is very democratic as an organisation. The screenings and the Q and As are wonderful, but there is also a big industry programme. You can compare it to IDFA, but adapted more to the North American market.”
Adds HotDocs’ Smith: “EFP are bringing a delegation of filmmakers that are in the programme who are getting enhanced creative and business and meeting opportunities at the festival set up both by EFP and by us to really connect them with audiences, but also with the industry side of things. They get to see how a large festival operates in North America, they get to network and collaborate. They form a tight knit group and they are able to navigate this larger festival that can be intimidating on some levels, and are guided under the frame of this programme.”
Heinen further stated how the subject of the event conference is 85% likely to be on the promotion of foreign language films, and that all European professional attendees at HotDocs, whether part of the programme or not, will be welcomed and “embraced’ by EFP.
And how does she assess the effectiveness of her partnership? “The Canadians are nearly German, I would say, in terms of organisation.”
