PROJECTS FOR DOCS TO START AND DOCS TO GO PITCHING EVENTS, AND CEDOC MARKET ANNOUNCED
The selection process for projects submitted to the CEDOC Market and the Ukrainian section of Doc Lab Poland&Ukraine has concluded. In total, 28 projects from Poland and Ukraine will be showcased at the Docs to Start and Docs to Go pitching events, while the CEDOC Market will feature 25 projects from around the world.
This year's CEDOC – the Central European Documentary Co-Production Market, Poland's only documentary co-production market for producers seeking partners from Europe and other parts of the globe – will host 30 participants. The submitted documentaries from countries such as Poland, Germany, Israel, France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Azerbaijan have been joined by projects from Spain (as part of the festival's Focus on Spain), along with 5 projects from Ukraine. The expert panel is going to include both seasoned producers (including Alex Tondowski and Gregor Streiber from Germany, Helle Faber and Per Damgaard Hansen from Denmark), and sales agents (Cat’n’Docs, Syndicado, Cinephil), representatives of film funds (Catapult, Women Make Movies, The Why Foundation) and broadcasters (Canal+, HBO, ZDF, SBS, Current Time TV).
Seven more Ukrainian projects will join the 21 Polish projects as part of DOC LAB POLAND & UKRAINE, participating in the Docs to Start and Docs to Go workshops and pitching events. These will take place on the 31st of May and 1st of June during the KFF Industry event. In total, 28 documentary film projects will be publicly presented.
The aim of the CEDOC MARKET (Central European Documentary Co-Production Market) is to enable documentary producers to establish connections with partners in other countries, with or thanks to whom they will be able to make their films. This year, the event will be held for the ninth time.
There are film proposals from around the world among the projects selected for CEDOC Market. Their creators go after historical events, grapple with current issues, or delve into the individual stories of ordinary yet extraordinary people. As we all know, life writes the best stories, and documentarians are the best chroniclers of the everyday. We will learn the fate of a Slovak Jew, the author of the so-called Auschwitz Protocols, whose escape from the extermination camp – contrary to expectations – did not make him a hero. He lived the rest of his days in fear, constantly worrying for his own life and the lives of his loved ones. Other filmmakers invite us into the world of Palestinian activists fighting to protect their home in Hebron or shed light on the fear-inducing STASI secret service which manipulated and spied on hundreds of thousands of people. The selected projects also include films about artists who, thanks to their talent and perseverance, reached the top, but also about ones whose past demons prevented them from finding peace and meaning in life among their loved ones. Relationships with nature, trust in the surrounding environment, peace, and balance – this is one side of the world presented by the participants of the market. Another vision we see on the screen is the escalation of the climate crisis, ecological disasters, and extreme social divisions. This dystopian reality is revealed in one of the projects thanks to the curiosity of child protagonists who are trying to understand and reconcile with the information that their parents contributed to this too.
The Ukrainian stories qualified for the Market, the workshops and pitches tell the stories of cities that no longer exist, the physicality of our memories, and presence in the lives of others through the things we've left behind. They're also about putting away dreams to a drawer labelled “there are more important things now” and strong family ties that neither danger nor distance can destroy.
This year at the Krakow Film Festival, as part of the rich KFF Industry programme and DOC LAB POLAND, in addition to the annual Docs to Start, Docs to Go, and CEDOC Market meetings, we are also going to host V4 Co-Pro Meetings – co-production meetings for film professionals from the Visegrad Group countries. The aim is to encourage contacts between producers and filmmakers from the region to collaborate in film production. Ex Oriente, a project development programme run by the Institute of Documentary Film in Prague, is also planning its delegation for KFF. Five more producers will arrive from Spain, who will visit Krakow as part of the events organised during Focus on Spain.
SELECTED PROJECTS CEDOC Market
SELECTED PROJECTS DOC LAB POLAND & UKRAINE:
DOC LAB POLAND & UKRAINIE and CEDOC Market are organized by the Władysław Ślesicki Film Foundation in co-operatation with the KFF Industry during the Krakow Film Festival.
ph. Tomasz Korczyński