DOCNZ

I had an amazing week at the Expanding Documentary conference and the DOCNZ Summit. I was asked to be a judge also, and the winning films can be found at the DOCNZ website...congrats to all those who made it. Although I couldn't attend every part of the Summit I met all the international guests and many of the locals...in particular Leanne Pooley who was very outspoken in the forums and very entertaining. She has just finished The Topp Twins documentary which screens on TV at Easter. More deatils available at her website Spacific Films.

This year the summit had a strong German flavour with representation from the Goethe Institute and a new film scholarship announced for Berlin...Julie Hill won that this year...also reps from the French/German Television arts/culture channel, Arte and Leipzig Doco Festival.

ITVS was again presenting their projects and funding through the Independent Lens brand and invited NZ filmmakers to submit ideas in the future.

There was a lot of discussion about new media platforms and the economic recessions effect on the industry - but ultimately the passion for documentary was very evident and filmmakers were pitching and networking their little butts off to get their next project off the ground.

There are some fantastic docos in the festival so make sure you check it out.
DOCNZ

DOCNZ

DOCNZ is about to start - so for the next 5 days its 'what is the state of documentary in New Zealand'.....watch this space and check out our new company, GoGo Media featuring interviews with international guests, local luminaries and excerpts of doco projects coming up....