Leena Pasanen, Oksana Sarkisova and Christine Camdessus (pic: Zoltán Adrián)
Verzió International Human Rights Film Festival (Budapest, Hungary), Fipadoc International Documentary Film Festival (Biarritz, France) and Biografilm Festival (Bologna, Italy) are joining forces to launch the new support network, Places to B – Biarritz, Bologna, Budapest.
The three festivals, “all with female leadership, share an interest in contemporary European creative documentary filmsand are committed to managing their activities transparently, and in supporting each other in producing sustainable and diverse international film festival events,” says the combined statement.
The timing of the festivals – Verzió takes place in November, Fipadoc in January, and Biografilm in June – “offers the opportunity for greater co-operation, and will allow film talents, who can develop their projects with the support of festival-run workshops, to present their works throughout the year,” the statement continues. “Places to B is designed as a forthright platform for festival teams to discuss festival planning, joint awards, and outreach strategies.”
“To have a female director and to be based in a city with a name starting with B is not compulsory,” comments LeenaPasanen, director of Biografilm Festival. “Despite of our playful name, we welcome other medium-size festivals to our network, as long as they share our goals and commitments.”
Right now, Pasanen, Christine Camdessus (festival director/Fipadoc) and Stefano Tealdi (pitching expert, head of studies/Biografilm) are supporting Verzió’s DocLab and pitching workshop by participating within the selection process, tutoring projects, and moderating the public pitching session.
The winning Verzio DocLab project will be invited to pitch at Bio to B – Industry Days during Biografilm Festival in June. Furthermore, one of the projects pitched at Bio to B – Industry Days will be awarded with travel, accommodation and free access to Fipadoc’s Industry Days.
Verzió DocLaB is the first of the network’s joint activities, and will be followed by a pitching forum, which will take place during the Verzió IHRDFF, with tutors from partner festivals. “Thanks to this collaboration, internationally-renowned experts will be in Budapest to extend their support to documentary filmmakers at the most critical juncture in post-production— before their films are released to the festival circuit and beyond,” says the statement.
Oksana Sarkisova, director of Verzió, comments: “We are starting the new network to exchange our know-how and best practices which will benefit not only the participating festivals, but also emerging documentary talents and our audiences. By running eco-conscious and gender-balanced events, we create platforms where filmmakers and audiences can interact in an open, safe, and creative environment.”
The statement further underlines how the festivals will also co-operate on further developing already established good practices, such as creating an eco-friendly event, ensuring a gender balance, developing transparent selection mechanisms and building engaging educational programs.
“Places to B is an open network that invites other festivals willing to commit to transparency and cooperation for producing vivid, diverse and eco-friendly cultural activities,” the statement ends.
