Moving Docs presentation

21^st THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL [1-10/3/2019]

Moving Docs presentation

Moving Docs conference, which took place as part of Agora Doc Market of the 21^st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, concluded on Saturday 9 March 2019 in Takis Kanellopoulos theater, located at the Cinema Museum. During the annual workshop for the promotion of documentaries, the 20 collaborating organizations had had the opportunity to discover, under specialists’ guidance, the best strategies to marketing and distributing selected documentaries, as well as approaching the target audience. Moving Docs is an initiative under the guidance of European Documentary Network (EDN) funded by Creative Europe Media program. Its purpose is to create resourceful promotion strategies and enable urban, non-European audience to enjoy regular documentary screenings through a variety of means.

The two working groups that were formed in the process presented their own case studies, each one mainly focused on one documentary. The first group focused on the documentary Push by Fredrik Gertten, describing the global real estate crisis, which combined with the broader economic crisis pushes wages down and sharply increases rents. The working group made the following conclusions:

The particular documentary’s expected audience:

• Groups engaged in dwelling protection
• Charitable organizations
• Architects and civil engineers
• Local officials and municipal executives

Institutions with which collaboration could build for the promotion of the particular documentary:

• Universities
• Feminist organizations
• Human rights associations
• Business forums
• Banks with alternative financing programs
• Constructors

Actions that could assist in promoting the particular documentary:

• Photo competitions in social media called “Take a picture of your favorite spot in your city”
• Local institutions engagement in raising awareness on urban dwelling
• Creation of an app to calculate the percentage rate of monthly income which goes to rent payment
• Use of instagram quotes translated into various languages
• Director’s engagement with a long interview that could either be included on the film’s site or partly presented before each screening in theaters.
• Encouraging the audience to make their own questions on the subject, which the director will subsequently reply to
• Picture and video projections of deserted building façades
• Short walks via application which will highlight the problem and create bonding between the participants
• Collecting short stories from local communities which will highlight isolated insidents and include them into a broader context

The second group mainly focused on the documentary Citizen Europe by Angeliki Aristomenopoulou and Andreas Apostolidis, whose subject is the impact of Erasmus program (the European mobility program which was established for academic purposes, but has now extended to include various sectors) to the EU citizens. This working group made the following conclusions:

Expected audience for the particular documentary:

• Young women aged 18-24 who have traveled abroad with Erasmus
• University students
• Schoolchildren and PTAs
• Teachers
• Citizens who live in the countryside and know nothing about the program

Issues to consider which could be connected to the project:

• Working at the European Union
• The brain drain
• Foreign policy

Institutions for possible collaboration with the aim of promoting the particular documentary:

• Universities
• Schools
• EU institutions

Actions for the promotion of this particular documentary

• 300 screenings in 13 different EU countries by the end of 2019
• A major event in downtown Athens (with live coverage on Facebook) on occasion to the film screening and the European elections
• Subtitling into at least six languages by early May
• Photo competition on social media encouraging young people to present their photos and experiences from Erasmus
• Free distribution of the documentary in educational institutions
• Discussion panels with diversity of views
• Accompanying material in video and images from the most impressive moments of famous people’s Erasmus experience

The two working groups also focused in two more projects: the documentary Sakawa by Belgian film director Ben Asamoah and the award-winning The Silence of Others by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar, screening at the 21^st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.