DOCNZ Summit, Auckland New Zealand

[Alexandra de Gonzalez]

The last three days I’ve attended the DOCNZ Summit in Auckland, NZ. DOCNZ is an international documentary festival that tours New Zealand starting in Auckland this week and next. The ‘summit’, which precedes the film festival is reminiscent of the IFP Market in New York but on a much smaller scale- with various panel discussions, lectures, master classes and pitch sessions. But instead of spanning a week (which is how long the market lasts), the seminars all took place within the last two days. Needless to say, the onslaught of information was pretty exhausting! What struck me most about the summit is how interconnected the ‘doco’ (doco = documentary in New Zealand) community is around the world. Many of the panelists I recognized from other film festivals (for example, Sandi DuBowski, director and producer of Trembling before G-d and now producer of the new film, A Jihad for Love), and the topics covered (ie. funding, co-productions, new media etc.) were the same as many of the lectures I’ve attended in Boston. But, unlike the US, New Zealand has a small funding base for docos, and the funds are highly regulated and deadline oriented.

In the spotlight for both the festival and the summit was Germany, which also happens to be a central character in my own film. Go figure. Hans Robert Eisenhauer, the commissioning editor for ZDF/ARTE was present for various seminars on co-productions, and pitching sessions. Also present was the programmer for the Leipzig Film festival, Dr. Grit Lemke, Christoph Mücher from the Goethe Institute in Wellington, and Thomas Tielsche, a German filmmaker presenting his film, ‘Mosquito problems and Other Stories’ at the film festival. Germany, as many of you may or may not know, is one of the most active countries doing co-productions around the world at the moment. They have strong connections with Israel and India, helping filmmakers there to produce documentaries that otherwise would never be funded or seen.

Alongside Germany, there was also a very strong North American presence at the Summit. Wendy Levy of Bay Area Video Coalition lead a fascinating discussion about the use of new media in distribution for DIY’ers and standard distribution models once again stressing the importance of introducing distribution as early as the R&D stage. Cynthia Kane of ITVS USA, gave a thorough intro to ITVS’s funding strategy for international films, and Pat Ferns, from Fern Productions in Canada gave useful advice on his experience working with co-productions around the world.

Aside from informative master classes around the art of interviewing, camera work, using animation and graphics and revealing humor in docos, there were several heated discussions on the state of documentary filmmaking in New Zealand. After tense and brief confrontations between filmmakers and broadcasters, bridged gracefully by Pat Fern, the discussion continued with a focus on the government’s role in reforming policy for publicly funded television in New Zealand. Aside from these small flare-ups, the general feeling throughout the Summit was one of collaboration and commitment to bringing New Zealand films to a great audience.

The last and final day of the Summit (today) was dedicated to pitching sessions – my own greatest pitfall and that of many other filmmakers I’m sure. I usually don’t have the privilege of sitting in on pitching sessions at other film conferences, so it was a real treat to watch and learn the many ways you can successfully pitch a film. We also had a ‘date-a-doco’ session structured after the 5-minute speed dating model- matching filmmaker with distributor, sales agent, or funder. There were definitely more filmmakers than distributors. Date-a-doco was a highlight for me- I ended up pitching my film in 8 different ways, picking up useful, insightful and especially inspired ideas on how I could move forward in finishing my film.

The conference was well worth it, and I’m definitely looking forward to keeping in contact with the many international contacts I’ve made, and finding ways of bringing some of the people and ideas from the conference to the Boston community. The festival starts tomorrow, and already I’m keen to see at least 5-6 films that have caught my interest.

If you want to find out more information about the Summit and film Festival, visit

http://www.docnz.org.nz/summit/index.html for Summit information

and

http://www.docnz.org.nz/2009/ak/ for the film festival.

I will hopefully be posting photos of the event soon.

Kia Ora.

-Alexandra