Thessaloniki and Leipzig festivals launch initiative to support exiled or displaced filmmakers

Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival (TIDF) and DOK Leipzig have joined forces to launch the Doc Together initiative to support displaced or exiled documentary filmmakers as well as those still working at risk in their home countries to access financing and resources for their film projects.

The one-year pilot project will see the festivals gather information about the current forms of support available and organise focus groups with filmmakers from the affected regions to identify their needs which could go include consultancy sessions and residencies.

DOK Leipzigo is planning to host a thinktank at its October festival where the exiled or displaced filmmakers would come together with industry executives.

The second year would see the festivals present case studies of completed films as well as identify and invite new talents with projects in development to connect them with funders.

“Until now, our efforts as festivals and markets to help these filmmakers have been rather fragmentary,” explained Nadja Tennstedt, director of DOK Industry in Leipzig. “We feel it is very important we coordinate our ambitions to help since this problem [for exiled and displaced filmmakers] will be increasing rather than decreasing in the future given what is going on in the world at the moment.”

Doc Together aims to open up the initiative beyond the first year to other festivals and markets to form a wide network to support these filmmakers.

“Dream come true” 

Istanbul-based Syrian filmmaker Mahmoud Atass 9said Doc Together would be “a dream come true”. Atassi is in Thessaloniki this week in TIDF’s Open Horizons sidebar with his documentary Eyes Of Gaza which follows three Palestinian journalists risking their lives to report from northern Gaza.

“This would give a chance and a platform to filmmakers in exile and those who haven’t been able to tell their stories,” he said. “What we are lacking, for example, is access to training to know how to raise larger budgets for our projects.”

The need for an initative such as Doc Together was also highlighted by Sudanese producer Talal Afifi of Sudan Film Factory whose collaborative documentary Khartoum is screening in Thessaloniki’s Open Horizons programme.

He said there is no governmental support in Sudan for filmmakers’ projects and the embargo sanctions imposed by the European Union, US and UN mean,“if we do get money from a fund outside of Sudan, it is another challenge to get the money in because we are outside of the international financial system.”.

Moreover, the Sudanese civil war raging between two major rival factions of the military government since April 2023 has meant many of the young Sudanese filmmakers have been forced to relocate to East African countries such as Uganda and Kenya, or to Egypt or Europe.

“I don’t know how we are going to access funds in the future because we have the issue of legalising our situation as individuals,” Afifi added “Most of the filmmakers are now asylum seekers and refugees [in these countries],”

Belarusian film producer Leonid Kalitenia, who serves as the coordinator of the Belarusian Filmmakers Network, also welcomed the launch of Doc Together.

“It is inspiring to see our situation is not only recognised within the film industry but is also generating concrete support and initiatives,” he said.

Kalitenia highlighted the challenges faced by exiled filmmakers from Belarus by pointing to the problem securing visas, work permits, and affordable insurance cover.

“These are fundamental issues that define our right to remain in the EU, and it’s important to acknowledge they limit our very ability to exist as professionals,” he said, adding filmmakers from authoritarian regimes are faced with the problem of not having any clear legal or industry status.

“Our biggest challenge with our film The Swan Song Of Fyodor Ozerov at the Berlinale was that we could not list our film as “Belarusian” since it was not produced in Belarus, received no state funding, and was made in support of Belarusian freedom

”Yet, due to the way national attributions work, we were forced to submit the film as a Lithuanian production.”

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