Busan’s Asian Network of Documentary partners with Taskovski Film on new fund.

A new fund to boost the growth of Asian documentaries in the international market has been launched at the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).

BIFF’s Asian Network of Documentary (AND) has partnered with London and Berlin-based sales/production company Taskovski Films to create the AND Taskovski Films Asian Talent Fund.

The fund will be awarded annually to one project participating in the AND Clinic workshop for Asian filmmakers.

Irena Taskovski, AND Clinics mentor and Taskovski Films managing director, will oversee and award the fund.

The winner will receive support including one year of mentoring on the project’s development, financing, editing and international distribution.

This year’s winner is Chinese director Zhou Hao’s project Datong.

The documentary is about the formerly prosperous Chinese city of Datong, which has since earned a reputation as one of the world’s ugliest cities following decades of coal mining. The film follows radical plans by a new mayor to demolish 140,000 homes and relocate half a million people in an attempt to revive the ancient city.

Director of Asian Cinema Fund Hong Hyosook said: “We are very confident this amazing initiative of AND Taskovski Films Asian Talent Fund will be very beneficial to Asian filmmakers and Asian documentary industry’s further development and growth.

“Sharing our vision toward Asian documentary with Taskovski Films is a pleasure as they value identical qualities: exquisite filmmaking, bold visions and complex stories.”

Viewfinder Asia workshop

Earlier this month, AND held the second Viewfinder Asia workshop with Al Jazeera English (AJE).

The week-long programme wrapped Oct 5 with ten indie documentary filmmakers from around Asia.

The workshop focused on story development and observational storytelling techniques for Al Jazeera’s global audience.

Mentors included filmmakers Lynn Lee and James Leong from Lianain Films.

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