Lagoons: A Battle for Paradise by Serhiy Lysenko
June 23 is Central and Eastern Europe day at Sunny Side of the Doc as the region’s industries gather to present the benefits of CEE co-pro collaboration and its new talents, as well as a slew of upcoming projects. The Institute of Documentary Film is partnering with the Balkan Documentary Center, MADOKE (Hungary), APA – Audiovisual Producers’ Association (Czech Republic), Slovak Film Institute and the Krakow Film Foundation. IDF celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2021.
“The idea is to make kind of bridge, a connection, between our region and Western Europe, and especially France because it’s not [our] usual co-production partner,” Zdeněk Blaha, Programme Director of IDF, told BDE. “Now it’s much more important to create such connections, especially in the light of the new concept of MEDIA, which was introduced recently, and which is trying to encourage this connection between the low production capacity countries and the high capacity countries such as France or Germany.”
He adds: “It is very symbolic for us to sponsor the CEE Talent Hub, which will present festival visitors with some of the new talents coming from our region, because this year we celebrate our 20th anniversary. And what would be better than to celebrate with good films and new talents?”
On June 23 between 15.30 and 16.30 CET, international doccers will have the opportunity to ‘Meet the Central & Eastern European Delegation’, meet rights holders looking for international partners and to learn about the conditions for collaboration, as well as find out who are the key players country by country across the region. At 17.30 CET the Talent Hub CEE will showcase a number selected projects in development and production.
This high level of CEE engagement comes on the back of a survey recently commissioned by IDF in collaboration with the Documentary Association of Europe. The aim of the survey was to map the circulation of Central and Eastern European projects through European film markets and the access of CEE projects to international partners. How are they represented outside of their countries of origins? Do they have access to the film markets in Western Europe, or is their access limited only to the CEE region? What is the percentage of CEE projects at the international markets and which are the key places for these projects?
Full results of the survey will be announced June 23, but Blaha points out that festival selection of CEE projects over past years has been low. “It was quite interesting to see, looking at the data from the last five years and taking into account main European markets such as IDFA, Sheffield, CPH:DOX and others, it’s quite surprising to see that not many Central and Eastern European projects are taken to these markets. It’s still a small percentage and…they are more represented by markets in the region, not only the East Doc platform but also Beldocs and other markets that are bringing Western producers to the (CEE) region. So it’s important to create these connections.”
“It’s important to help make these connections [such as at Sunny Side 2021] and matchmake producers and filmmakers from other regions in order to help to create this collaboration and bring more money to the [CEE] projects, because otherwise these projects will be just local and won‘t have the support needed to be developed to a much larger scale, as these stories deserve,“ Blaha adds.
The 2021 Sunny Side selection includes several IDF projects:
Global Pitch:
Frankenstein 2.0 (Dāvis Simānis, Ego Media, Latvia): presented at East Doc Platform 2021
Waitergate (Konrad Szolajski, ZK Studio, Poland): presented at EDP 2021
Swinging Fields (Sareen Hairabedian, HAI Creative, United States; Soilsiú Films, Ireland; Sister Productions, France): presented at EDP 2021
History:
The Ultimate Joker (Krzysztof Dzieciolowski, vision House Productions, Poland)
Talent Hub CEE:
Fight (Produced by: Motif Films, Directed by: Lilit Movsisyan): presented at East Doc Platform 2021
Berliner (Produced by: 1991 PRODUCTIONS, Directed by: Anna Khazaradze): part of the IDF delegation at Sunny Side of the Doc
Work in Progress:
72 Hours (Produced by: Playtime Films, Directed by: Anna Savchenko): presented at East Doc Platform 2021
Nord Express (Produced by: Mistrus Media, Directed by: Karlis Lesins): presented at East Doc Platform 2020; Ex Oriente Film workshop participant (2019)
Lagoons. A Battle for Paradise (Produced by: Albatros Communication, Directed by: Serhiy Lysenko): presented at East Doc Platform 2021; Ex Oriente Film workshop participant (2020)
Blaha points to the contemporary relevance of the Global Pitch project Waitergate, described as “a documentary thriller revealing ways of achieving political goals through illegal methods coordinated with media campaign aimed to destroy democracy in Poland, weakening the EU.”
“The project is like mapping the Russian influence in Europe in general. And that is something that is actually a hot topic for many countries in Europe, not just Poland or the Czech Republic…This is a really important and international current affairs story that I would highly recommend,“ he says.
Blaha also recommends the Latvian Frankenstein 2.0 (also Global Pitch), about transhumanism and the quest for immortality, but laced with “humour and absurdity.”
The Ukrainian work-in-progress Lagoons: A Battle for Paradise (pictured) is produced by Anna Kapustina, who also produced the highly lauded The Earth Is Blue As An Orange (Iryna Tsilyk), which won the Directing Award in the World Cinema Documentary category at 2020 Sundance Film Festival 2020.
Focussing on a nature reserve in Ukraine, which is facing threats from poachers, politicians and developers alike, Lagoons. A Battle for Paradise (directed by Serhiy Lysenko) was handed the East Doc Platform Award 2021 as well as the Current Time TV Director’s Award.
For the first time, Ex Oriente Film joins forces with Sunny Side of the Doc organising its first session as part of the leading international marketplace event from June 19-24. Ex Oriente Film, an initiative of the IDF, is an international training programme for documentary professionals supporting the development and funding of projects from Central and Eastern Europe. Directors and producers of 12 selected projects will receive guidance from a group of experienced leading tutors, including director and producer Filip Remunda, director and script developer Ivana Pauerová Miloševičová, producers and experts Iikka Vehkalahti, Mikael Opstrup and Tue Steen Müller.
The Ex Oriente Film tutors will also mentor projects shortlisted for Sunny Side of the Doc’s 2021 Talent Hub and Work in Progress showcases as part of this year’s Panorama of Central and Eastern Europe. The workshop will offer a series of lectures and masterclasses open to all Sunny Side of the Docs visitors by guest tutors including director Hubert Sauper and producers Jasmina Sijercic, Camilla Nielsson and Denis Vaslin.
