Pierre-Alexis Chevit, who heads up Cannes Marché’s documentary section, was at IDFA to bang the drum to the sector and to announce his department’s new name, Cannes Docs.
Located in the heart of the Riviera, Cannes Docs looks to serve documentary and industry representatives alike, especially top international sales agents & festival programmers, offering a series of customized events including panels, talks, screenings, workshops, consultancies, speed meetings, docs-in-progress showcases and a plethora of networking opportunities.
Chevit told Business Doc Europe that Cannes Docs will award a €10,000 prize to one of the documentaries in the Docs in Progress showcases. The prize is supported by the International Film Talent Association (IEFTA). In 2019, the countries showcased were Canada, Palestine, Chile, South Africa, Argentina and Norway, with four doc projects from each.
“Basically the whole philosophy is to push the walls in a [Cannes] context that is so fiction-oriented, stand our ground and affirm that documentary film, and we are really talking about cinematic documentary features, needs to be there in the biggest festival in the world, present and very visible. That is what we are advocating.”
Chevit argues the effectiveness of his doc market hub over some of the doc festivals. “We are focussed, and the documentary professionals are in some ways easier to catch than in some festivals where people are way too busy running everywhere. At Cannes they tend to be more available, which is a strength that we have.”
“In addition to these day to day activities we have a big climax with Doc Day, a full day event also in bigger venues outside of the Marche, basically a mix of round tables, discussions, panels, some industry oriented, some with filmmakers who come in to discuss their work, some of whom have a doc selected in one of the Cannes competitions,” Chevit adds. Last year the team behind For Sama presented the film to docmakers and industryites in attendance. Doc Day includes lunch, cocktails and an evening screening of a documentary in Cannes ACID selection.
Cannes’ doc market event moved out of the Palais bunker three years ago to the new easy-to-find Riviera location at the top of the escalator. The new venue has proved core in helping to drive international documentary business during the festival. One minor frustration is that Chevit could do with just a little more space, he argues, as the venue’s popularity grows.
“We are just trying to create a phyical and somewhat symbolic place for people working in documentaries, making them, programming them, selling them, right here in the heart of Cannes, affirming that documentaries are just as important as fiction films,” he concludes.
