Docudays UA continues collaboration with Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival within the framework of the Ukrainian Doc Preview established last year. We lift the curtain and tell more about the possibilities of this collaboration, which this year envisions the exchange of projects and closer acquaintance with Serbian colleagues.
Three documentary projects from Serbia will visit Docudays UA-2020 and participate in festival industry events. In May, three Ukrainian teams will travel to Belgrade to present their projects within Beldocs. One of the projects will be selected from among Ukrainian Doc Preview participants personally by Ieva Goba, the Head of the Beldocs industry platform. The other two projects will be selected through Beldocs industry open competition. Participants’ costs of travel, accommodation, and accreditation to the Serbian Film Festival will be covered.
According to Darya Bassel, the Head of DOCU / PRO's Industry Platform, a trip to Beldocs is a chance to find partners and financing for future films: “Last year I visited Beldocs Film Festival, where together with my colleagues from Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian and Serbian film foundations I was trying to remember documentaries created in co-production between our countries. For example, "The Earth Is Blue as an Orange” directed by Iryna Tsilyk, "Frost" by Sharunas Bartas, "Stasis" and "Mariupolis" by Mantas Kvedaravicius were created in co-production with Lithuania, "Ukrainian Sheriffs" by Roman Bondarchuk was co-produced with Latvia, but there was no project created in co-production with Serbia. Although there are a lot of opportunities: in my opinion, Film Center Serbia is interested in co-production, as well as the Ukrainian Film State Agency. Unfortunately, we know very little about each other. Usually, everyone is looking for obvious co-productions with Germany, France, Canada or Northern Europe, where competition is extremely high and the conditions that are set by some funds are disadvantageous. That is why we want our producers to know more about their immediate neighbors, to be personally acquainted with those engaged in documentary filmmaking in Serbia, and to consider this country as an opportunity for cooperation."
"Although both our countries have longstanding cinema traditions we know little about current developments in the film industry in the other country and we hope that cooperation between Docudays UA and Beldocs will help to bridge this gap. Bringing Serbian projects to Ukraine will allow our filmmakers to make new contacts in a different region, which hopefully will result in successful cooperation in the future. By extending the geographical coverage outside our traditional Balkan region and inviting Ukranian projects to participate in Beldocs we are hoping to see projects with a different cinematic look showing delights and challenges of living in modern day Ukraine. We hope that this cooperation will extend the number of a high-quality documentaries that we can offer to our viewers at the festivals and to our guests and participants during different industry events," says Ieva Goba, the Head of the Beldocs Industry.
The project "Roses: Film-Cabaret" by Irena Stetsenko participated in Beldocs in Progress as the winner of last year's Ukrainian Doc Preview. Film producer Oleksandra Kravchenko shares her experience, “The Beldocs Film Industry Section is interesting because it presents a large selection of projects at various production stages in different sub-programs: ranging from Beldocs Academy for those who are just beginning development to rough-cut screenings. They focus on Eastern European countries, and the festival creates a representative collection of all the 'docs in progress' from this region. Getting acquainted with foreign participants helps to adjust your own lens and navigate within the context. It was an inspiring experience, we got useful feedback on our project as well as two prizes that significantly supported it.”
We would like to remind you that applications for Ukrainian Doc Preview are open until February 3. This is a unique opportunity to present full-length documentary projects in production and post-production to international festival selectors, international funds representatives, sales companies and broadcasters within Docudays UA-2020.
