Press Release November 2007

SEEDOX.ORG – DIGITAL PLATFROM FOR DOCUMENTARY FILM FROM SOUTHEAST EUROPE IS NOW ONLINE  

SEEDOX.org is an initiative formed at the 7th goEast Film Festival aiming to research and analyse the situation of contemporary documentary film in Southeast Europe. SEEDOX.org was initiated by Festival Director Christine Kopf and Southeast Europe Expert Bernd Buder. It was made possible through the support of the European Cultural Foundation´s Balkan Fund and the Goethe-Institut. Experts on documentary film from Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, and UNMI Kosovo met in Wiesbaden last April for a first exchange of ideas. The different papers presented by the experts in the workshop confirmed the need for stronger networks in the documentary field. The presentations also identified common structural problems as well as issues specific to individual territories. These analyses need to be deepend further and made available to documentary professionals in the region. Forming a network with important players from the region can strengthen co-operation and encourage co-productions.

Up to now, very little information has been available on contemporary documentary production in Southeast Europe in the respective national languages.There has been virtually no information on the subject in English. The new website www.seedox.org, online since the beginning of november, fills this gap. SEEDOX.org provides essays on Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, and UNMI Kosovo. Credits for around 250 films, thereunder 150 with stills and synopses, have been carefully researched for the site and are now available,. The database is a work in progress, production companies are encouraged to supply additional information. The website also provides extensive contacts for producers, festivals and organisations as wells as a bibliography. Additional texts and interviews with documentary professionals complement the essays on individual countries, this part of the site will continue to grow. SEEDOX.org makes information on documentary film in south-eastern Europe available to festivals and programmers internationally for the first time. SEEDOX.org offers user-friendly search facilities.

The goEast Film Festival will continue to follow the subject of Southeast European documentaries. The Symposium planned for the 8th festival (9.-15. April 2008) proposes to examine the role documentary played at a time when Yugoslavia was disintegrating, new republics emerging, and people were having to deal with the experience of war. In addition, representatives of a new genereation of documentary filmmakers are invited to present for discussion their personal viewpoints. The symposium will be accompanied by a series of special screenings.

SEEDOX.org in co-operation with Jugoslovenska Kinoteka and the Goethe-Institut Belgrade will present a programme on the situation of young documentary makers in Serbia at the Belgrade Cinema Museum on December 10. and 11. 2007. Director Želimir Žilnik will present a selection of his films on December 10. A panel will discuss Serbian documentaries on December 11. The invited panelists are Boris Mitić, winner of the goEast Documentary Award in 2005, Srđan Keća from Atelier Varan Serbia, and Jelena Marković, whose film “Connections” was shown a few years ago during the ARTE Programme “Balkan Blues.”