DOCS IN THESSALONIKI

Pitching Forum: 6-10 April 2005 in Thessaloniki, Greece

EDN wishes new, old and coming members a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year, where many warm and strong, cool and analytical, passionate and intelligent documentaries will be made.

And why not start the development of your new documentary project in Greece - in April in Thessaloniki, a city full of history and culture, between the West and the East! Between the EU and Turkey!

This is a call for proposals for documentary projects that are at a stage where some research and development have already been done - and where feed-back and constructive criticism is needed. Not only that is offered you as a producer and/or director. You will also be given the opportunity to launch the project to a panel of qualified, internationally orientated commissioning editors.

This is the 8th edition of Docs in Thessaloniki that appeals not only to Greek producers. From last year's edition it can be highlighted that Jovan Todorovic & Bogdan Petkovic from Serbia & Montenegro made their first pitch of "The Phantom" that later reached the Forum in Amsterdam. Swedish Malin Anderson and Fredrik Gertten launched "Belfast Girls" that is now fully financed after a round of pitchings following the one in Thessaloniki.

Docs in Thessaloniki is organized by EDN, European Documentary Network in collaboration with the "Thessaloniki Documentary Festival-Images of the 21st Century"(1-10 April 2005), which includes a national & international program as well as a doc market and parallel events. A couple of sessions will be coproduced by "Docs in Thessaloniki" and the festival.
The participants of the Pitching Forum will have access to the festival.

The programme schedule consists of 5 days intensive training and information:
Day 1: A general overview of the world market situation for documentaries. Case studies. Lectures. 6 internationally experienced producers, filmmakers and documentary personalities will be tutors.
Day 2 & 3: Group work, where the producers get their project turned upside down through constructive criticism from your colleagues. This will help the project to be improved and targeted to the international market. Pitching training will be performed.
Day 4 & 5: Pitching to a panel of European commissioning editors from different European countries. During the two mornings the projects are pitched in public to the panelists with individual meetings in the afternoons.

More information: Anita Reher, EDN (anita@edn.dk).
Telephone: +45 33 13 11 22, fax: +45 33 13 11 44.