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2020 | Book

Introduction—Volume 2: Documentary Film Festivals: Changes, Challenges, Professional Perspectives Read chapter Read first chapter

Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 2

Changes, Challenges, Professional Perspectives

Editors: Prof. Aida Vallejo, Dr. Ezra Winton

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : Framing Film Festivals

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the global landscape of documentary film festivals, looking at its contemporary and future challenges. Contributors from across the globe reflect on how documentary has positioned itself within both internationally renowned and more alternative festivals, including IDFA (Netherlands), Cannes IFF (France), Sheffield Doc/Fest (UK), Dockanema (Mozambique), Ismailia (Egypt) and Zinebi (Basque Country, Spain), among others. With a special focus on industrial and curatorial developments, this second in a two-volume set looks at recent changes occurred in the festival circuit, such as the proliferation of markets and co-production forums, the inclusion of interactive and VR forms within their programs and the irruption of VOD platforms, and analyse how these affect the future of documentary aesthetics and its production/distribution contexts.
This volume is organized in two sections: the first reflects on how the documentary festival circuit has become a key industry node for contemporary documentary and identifies new curatorial trends at documentary and major film festivals. The second gives voice to professionals working for festivals and institutions who collaborate with them, who share inside knowledge and concerns, regarding the future challenges to be faced by documentary in the near future.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Introduction—Volume 2: Documentary Film Festivals: Changes, Challenges, Professional Perspectives
Abstract
This introduction provides an overview of key concerns and concepts discussed in this book, which looks at recent changes in organization and programming policies at documentary festivals, with a special focus on production and distribution. Firstly, we articulate a definition of the documentary festival. Drawing concepts developed by Bill Nichols, we elaborate on the discussion started in the introduction of our first volume (where we look at epistemological, socio-political and aesthetic components of this definition). Here we focus on the institutional framework, understanding documentary festivals as spaces of interaction of the main agents involved in this field. Secondly, we summarise the contents of the two sections of this volume, the first of which is devoted to academic analysis of recent trends in the documentary festival circuit, and the second to insider accounts of professionals working in the field.
Aida Vallejo, Ezra Winton

Changes and Challenges

Frontmatter
Introduction to Part I, Vol. 2: Changes and Challenges for Documentary and Film Festivals
Abstract
A look at contemporary trends in documentary (and generalist) film festivals gives us some clues to better understand their functioning patterns, key agents and future challenges. In this short introduction to the section “Changes and Challenges,” two key aspects of the contemporary documentary festival circuit are discussed: festival proliferation (and its relationship with the incorporation of industry sections and the creation of international hierarchies), and new technologies and aesthetics (and the curatorial role of festivals in promoting them). We focus on three different agents operating on the festival circuit: festivals, professionals and films, introducing key aspects further discussed through the chapters included in this section.
Aida Vallejo
IDFA’s Industry Model: Fostering Global Documentary Production and Distribution
Abstract
This chapter offers a historical analysis of the industry activities of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) through a diachronic study of their presence in the festival program. These pitching forums, markets, workshops, industry talks and networking events extend the festival’s influence in film promotion towards production and commercial distribution, expanding the classic role of festivals as exhibition sites. I analyse the value-addition process created through participation in industry sections and its implications for power relationships between filmmakers and stakeholders. I argue that IDFA’s influence in the development of new film productions, professional careers and film festivals modeled after it has served to craft its identity as a key global industrial event that positions the festival at the top of the international hierarchy.
Aida Vallejo
Connecting and Sharing Experiences: Chilean Documentary Film Professionals at the Film Festival Circuit
Abstract
Over the last decade, the production and circulation of Chilean documentary film has noticeably increased. Chilean films have achieved wide international recognition as a result of both national and international trends. Conditions in Chile have changed in such a way as to facilitate the production of a diversity of documentary films. Moreover, international film festivals and markets have played a major role in both the production and circulation of Chilean cinema, particularly documentary films, which find limited distribution in local commercial cinemas and on television. This chapter explores these transnational developments, looking into the ways in which global and local trends are intertwined. In particular, it aims to elucidate the ways in which Chilean agents have been able to take advantage of the film festival circuit in order to produce, fund, promote, and distribute their work.
María Paz Peirano
The Invention of Northeastern Europe: The Geopolitics of Programming at Documentary Film Festivals
Abstract
“The Invention of Northeastern Europe” explores the geopolitics of programming at European documentary film festivals on three levels: networks of production and distribution, festival screenings, and the discursive framings with which the screened films are positioned in festival programs. These areas of inquiry align with the argument that film festivals participate in the cultural restructuring of Europe during the post-1989 transition period. Through original data sets, the chapter offers pioneering insight into the developing relationship between Northeastern Europe and documentary film festivals.
Ilona Hongisto, Kaisu Hynnä-Granberg, Annu Suvanto
Beyond the Screen: Interactive Documentary Exhibition in the Festival Sphere
Abstract
Contemporary documentary forms, including: interactive documentaries, VR documentaries, 360 productions etc. are growing increasingly popular and in the context of film festivals the i-docs form is ‘forcing’ classic documentary festival programmes to change their formats while, at the same time, it is boosting the creation of new and alternative events (and spaces) which adopt ‘new media’ as their main focus. Against this backdrop, this chapter will provide an overview of the film festival as it relates to documentary, interactivity and transmedia. Specifically, it will describe and analyze how several film festivals are currently including contemporary interactive documentaries in their programs without sacrificing their traditional event-experience for their audiences.
Stefano Odorico
Positioning Documentaries at the Cannes International Film Festival: Fahrenheit 9/11 and Beyond
Abstract
Major international film festivals such as Cannes, Venice, or Berlin are considered the great global cinematographic showcases for international cinema. This chapter reflects on the place that documentary films hold at major film festivals, taking Cannes as a case study. The author argues that documentary has been persistently discriminated in Cannes’ main competition (the section which attracts wider international media attention), pushing documentaries to parallel sections. The study retraces documentary films screened in the festival in order to explore how many and what kind of documentaries are usually programmed at Cannes, in which sections, and which guidelines for including or not including a documentary are in the Official competition.
Eulàlia Iglesias

Professional Perspectives

Frontmatter
Introduction to Part II, Vol. 2: Professional Perspectives
Abstract
This introduction provides a summary of the section that follows: “Professional Perspectives,” and introduces the research question “How do festivals work” to readers. It presents concepts that are tacitly explored in the interviews that follow and make up this section of Volume 2. In particular the introduction familiarizes readers with interviewing as knowledge production and the experience of art and truth.
Ezra Winton
Adapting to New Times: An Interview with Ernesto del Río, Director of the Zinebi International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Bilbao (2000–2017)
Abstract
In this interview, Ernesto del Río, former programmer and director of Zinebi—the Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Film (1959)—shares his memories and concerns about the festival organization, archival practices and programming policies. Having collaborated with the festival from the 1970s, del Río reflects on the difficulties that institutional restrictions involved for adapting to global trends, including the feature-documentary boom of the 2000s, the proliferation of specialized festivals, and the digitization of projection. Considering the festival position within its cultural environment—created in the shadow of the San Sebastian International Film Festival, and coexisting with younger documentary festivals in Spain—he analyses the multi-layered identity of Zinebi, historically focused on the promotion of Basque, Spanish and Latin American filmmakers.
Aida Vallejo
Precarity and Resistance: An Interview with Pedro Pimenta, Founder-Director of Dockanema Documentary Film Festival (Mozambique)
Abstract
This interview with the founder-director of the Dockanema documentary film festival, Pedro Pimenta, reveals that there are two main reasons why film festivals focused on documentary filmmaking are so important in many African contexts: to connect Africans to their rich, diverse histories and contemporary experiences, which may not have previously been documented in reproducible and durable forms; and to provide African film fans with far more diverse content than is usually available to them, in contexts where—across the continent—there are very few formal cinemas, quite limited television programming, erratic access to the internet, and film cultures generally dominated by Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood and Kung Fu films.
Lindiwe Dovey
Notes on Disenchantment: A Conversation with Amir Al-Emary, Former Director of the Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts (Egypt)
Abstract
This chapter is an interview with Amir Al-Emary, the former Director of the Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts—a festival based in Egypt. The discussion includes (but is not limited to) topics of cultural politics, the development of national cinemas, democracy, freedom of expression, the Arab Spring and social movements.
Hassouna Mansouri
Building Networks: An Interview with Sandra J. Ruch, Director Emeritus of the International Documentary Association
Abstract
This chapter is an interview with Sandra J. Ruch, Director Emeritus of the International Documentary Association (IDA). The discussion centres around professional engagement, mentorship, festival history, and the festival circuit. It also focuses on particular festivals like the Camden International Festival, South by Southwest, Tribeca and others.
Samara Chadwick
Selecting Films for Festivals and Documentary Funds: An Interview with Independent Film Programmer and Advisor Rada Šešić
Abstract
Rada Šešić is an independent filmmaker, critic, lecturer, advisor and programmer who collaborates with several international festival organisations, such as the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film Leipzig (DOK). She is also head of the documentary competition at Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) and is co-founder and co-organiser of the Eastern Neighbours Film Festival (ENFF) in The Hague. In this interview she reflects on programming, selection and funding within the documentary festival sphere.
Jennifer M. J. O’Connell, Annelies van Noortwijk
Training Documentary Professionals: An Interview with Stefano Tealdi, Member of the Executive Board of Documentary Campus Workshop
Abstract
This chapter is an interview with Stefano Tealdi, former Secretary of the Documentary Campus Workshop (one of the most influential professional training initiatives for documentary in Europe). The discussion explores the Documentary Campus—how it functions, who are the participants, its different incarnations, institutional contexts, pedagogical models, pitch sessions, crowdfunding and standardisation. Tealdi recounts his experience as a Documentary Campus executive, reflects on the importance of training workshops for documentary filmmakers and recounts the outcomes that these workshops develop for producing new films.
Enrico Vannucci
A Niche for Creativity: An Interview with Thierry Garrel, Director of the French Department of Documentary Film at TV ARTE (1991–2008)
Abstract
In the past two decades, the largest exhibition opportunities for documentary films have lain within the television market, making filmmakers bound to the influences of the broadcasters, their largest funding source. In this interview, Thierry Garrel, who stood at the foundation of the Franco-German public service broadcaster ARTE in the early ’90s, discusses the needs of the public broadcaster and the role of documentary festivals in film curation and programming.
Sevara Pan
Connecting Festivals, Distributing Films: An Interview with Diana Tabakov, Acquisitions Manager at Doc Alliance Films VOD Platform
Abstract
This chapter is comprised of an interview with Diana Tabakov, Acquisitions Manager at Doc Alliance Films, a VOD platform specialising in documentary created by an alliance of European documentary festivals. The discussion touches on topics of festival collaboration, curation, submission procedures, the festival circuit, distribution, TV broadcasting, online circulation, regionalism, event platforms, festival competitions and premieres, film access, funding schemes, industry developments and economically sustainable business models for documentary distribution in the age of the Internet.
Andrea Slováková
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 2
Editors
Prof. Aida Vallejo
Dr. Ezra Winton
Copyright Year
2020
Electronic ISBN
978-3-030-17324-1
Print ISBN
978-3-030-17323-4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17324-1