Nadja Tennstedt (pic: Anna Rozkosny)
Leipzig’s five-day DOK Industry event kicks off 25 October with a programme designed to support filmmakers and their projects/films from inception to festival roll-out and eventual release, and everything in-between. New programme head Nadja Tennstedt tells Business Doc Europe what to expect.
“We aim to provide a platform that allows both onsite and online participants to enter new collaborations in an open and welcoming environment,” she says. “In doing so, we aim to strengthen the documentary community and make it easier for emerging talents and equity-seeking creative individuals to enter the international market.”
As Tennstedt further points out, DOK Industry will be presented largely in situ, with ample opportunities for online collaboration, deliberation and cogitation. Her relief at this is palpable. “From our perspective as organizers, I’m really, really happy that we can welcome people on site again – definitely!” she enthuses. “And I think many of the participants of DOK industry are also really looking forward to meeting in one space and to have encounters that are not on the flat screen.”
The 2021 programme is extensive, offering up a smorgasbord of project pitch sessions, talks, masterclasses and opportunities, a conference and XR showcase and a doc market.
The hybrid DOK Co-Pro Market presents 35 project selections from 36 countries, which Tennstedt reckons will generate 850+ meetings. Prizes include the Saxon Award for the €5000 Best Documentary Project by a Female Director, the Current Time TV Award which is given to a project from Central or Eastern Europe with the Current Time TV Award, endowed with 1,500€, and a new award by DOK Industry partner EWA – the European Women’s Audiovisual Network, which highlights a project with a historically marginalised and underrepresented POV, deferring stereotypes, and directed by a woman.
Two DOK Preview selections will be presented Monday 25 October (Germany) and Wednesday 27 October (Training). DOK Preview Germany promises a “first glance” of what is to come in the (very) near future, and comprises a mix of works-in-progress, newly completed films and world premieres from the DOK Leipzig competition. D-Facto Motion will award one project the D-Facto Motion Works-in-Progress Prize which consists of post-production services valued at €10,000.
DOK Preview Training is a collaboration between DOK Industry and several training initiatives from across Europe and international partner markets that promotes new films looking for festival premieres, gap financing and distribution partners. The partner organisations are CoPro Israel, DocMontevideo, Docu Rough Cut Boutique, dok.incubator, Durban FilmMart, ESoDoc, EURODOC and Ex Oriente, with whom the DOK Industry team has selected the projects for presentation. “We are very happy to provide a stage for the amazing and often emerging talents shine a light on their projects that demonstrate beautiful cinematic handwriting and show exciting ambition,” says Tennstedt.
DOK Short n’ Sweet is a short film pitch session focusing entirely on the financing and distribution of short documentary and animated films during which eight professionals will pitch their short film project in front of a panel of buyers, programmers and distributors as well as an interested audience of producers and peers.
During DOK Film Market some 200+ new documentary and animated films of all lengths will be available for perusal by festival programmers and curators, buyers and commissioning editors, sales agents and distributors looking for the best new films for their TV slots, festival programme or slate.
Other highlights of the week include two masterclasses, one by festival Guest of Honour Avi Mograbi and another by Mary Stephen whose Leipzig world-prem Nude at Heart is a re-edit of Japanese director Yoichiro Okutani’s feature documentary Odoriko.
British Pathé’s Spotlight On Archive promises participants hands-on knowledge of the do’s and dont’s of researching materials and clearing rights for the footage they would like to include in their project. One of the talks features renowned archive researchers and visual producers, Elizabeth Klinck, Monika Preischl and Stephen Maier who share with the audience the seven most important facts of the archival work flow in film projects. After the panel, participants have the chance to connect with international experts in short one-on-ones for quick feedback and advice.
Industry chief Tennstedt flags up DOK Industry’s diverse series of podcasts that will be available from October 25 and presented with POC2 Programmers of Colour Collective and The What’s Up With Docs. They will feature talks and discussions around the – uneven – distribution of resources in the documentary landscape and lack of access to finance, distribution and to those in gatekeeping, editorial and curatorial positions for creatives and professionals from equity-seeking groups.
Tennstedt is also very enthusiastic about the Generation Africa session (27 October, presented in association with ARTE) which will include Fatimah Dadzie, director of Fati’s Choice(International Competition), and Aïssata Ouarma, whose Stay Up is selected for International Short Film Competition. Generation Africa is an initiative by the South African non-profit media company STEPS to produce documentaries propelling a new narrative on migration through stories made by African filmmakers. The session will be streamed online without restriction to professionals and public alike.
“We are really trying to support films and filmmakers from the inception of a project though to final stages marketing. There are many steps in-between and we support projects throughout all of these,” says Tennstedt on the eve of the Industry event. “We look forward to welcoming professionals back to DOK Leipzig, whether here in the city itself or online, and we are very excited to once again invite professionals to participate in this intense and inspiring festival week.”
