Institute of Documentary Film Programme Director Zdeněk Blaha tells Business Doc Europe about East Doc Platform 2022 which welcomes projects and filmmakers from Ukraine as well as the rest of the region, and hosts nearly 400 international guests eager to explore new documentary output from Central and Eastern Europe. In total 46 projects are up for grabs this year (three from Ukraine), accompanied by a varied public and professional programme of events.
Ukraine has been a core constituent within East Doc Platform activities since EDP’s formation in 2001, which is why organisers proceed with a heavy heart in 2022. The event kicked off 25 March and runs through April 1.
“It’s a very difficult time for us,” says IDF’s Zdeněk Blaha. “Since 2001 there has been lots of connections with Ukraine filmmakers. They’re close friends. We’ve been working with them from the beginning.”
Three Ukrainian projects will be presented during the 2022 event. These are the East Doc Forum Ex Oriente projects Shut the Fuck Up! directed by Taisiia Kutuzova (UA/FR) and Up in the Air (also East Doc Interactive) by Oksana Syhareva. Another Ukrainian East Doc Interactive project is Washed Ashore, directed and produced by Volodymyr Kolbasa.
East Doc Platforms of recent years have presented the likes of Ukrainian Iryna Tsilyk’s Sundance 2020 winner The Earth is Blue as an Orange and IDFA 2020 First Appearance winner This Rain Will Never Stop by Alina Gorlova, also from Ukraine. Both films will be screened during EDP, together with Tales of a Toy Horse by Ulyana Osovska and Denys Strashnyy, the proceeds of which will be donated to the DOCU/HELP fund, organized by fellow Ukrainian festival Docudays UA, which helps filmmakers documenting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We know [these filmmakers] very well. Alina is still in Kiev now, still shooting there with other filmmakers what is happening, and expressing the true meaningful [essence] of documentary filmmaking – to be there as a witness. To bring testimonies against the Russian crimes.”
In February 2022 the Institute of Documentary Film published an open letter, condemning the war and decrying Russian aggression towards Ukraine, which has been since signed by more than 200 international film festivals, organisations and institutions.
Looking at the project selection as a whole, IDF’s Blaha expresses his satisfaction at its balance of experienced doccers and a “new generation of filmmakers that will bring their films in the future to IDFA, to CPH:DOX and to Sundance.” In terms of breakdown, five projects each are selected for East Doc Series, East Doc Interactive and Czech Docs…Coming Soon. East Doc Forum presents seven new projects, with a dozen more derived from the bespoke Ex Oriente selection. A further 12 projects in production/post-production are presented in East Doc Market. For all projects, with links.
In terms of highlights throughout the week Blaha points to the March 26 ‘Marc Isaacs: The Art of Provocation’ masterclass in which the director will discuss the need to provoke as part of his filmmaking process. ‘By interrogating what a documentary is and can be, he will demonstrate how his ideas are conceived and developed and how scenes are formed,’ reads the session notes. Blaha also flags up the March 27 dialogue between Tomasz Wolski and Anna Gawlita titled ‘Be a Documentary Maker and Survive,’ with reference their doc 1970, which the director/producer team presented at Visions du Réel last year.
Blaha further stresses his event’s analysis of Austria as a co-production partner for the CEE region, Oriane Hurard’s March 29 lecture on “what it means to be a producer of XR nowadays,” and the March 30 ‘Producing Series for Netflix’ case study that focuses on the Italian six-part Netflix doc series Vendetta: Truth, Lies and the Mafia (released in 2021), about the people battling organized crime in Sicily.
Blaha admits that he cannot apply a blanket sanction to filmmakers from Russia, who have also been a core element since EDP’s first edition in 2021. “I must say, this is a difficulty question for me. In the same way as we have made many Ukraine friends over the years, the same applies also to Russian filmmakers. The Russian filmmakers we work with bring projects that are actually against the regime,” he says, citing Dmitry Bogolyubov’s Town of Glory (2019).
“I think even these voices should be heard because how should we know what’s happening in Russia if there is this silence? I totally understand and agree with the boycott, but we should not forget about the independent voices because it’s important to know what’s happening there, and they should also bring some knowledge of the reality to Russian people,” Blaha adds.
“Another thing is many of those filmmakers have already left the country. They’re no longer in Russia, they don’t want to be connected with Russia. So they’re becoming basically citizens of other countries now, applying for the asylum because it’s difficult for them as well,” Blaha continues. “So this is something that we would like to continue providing also for these kind of filmmakers, because they couldn’t make these films in their countries before and they can now. It’s important not to forget about them.”
