Organizers:

Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Finnagora, Documentary in Europe, OSI Open Society Arts and Culture Program, OSA Archivum

Verzio DocLab is a four-day workshop for documentary filmmakers and independent producers, who are working on projects on minority, immigration, social justice, human rights and Roma issues.

The program consists of an intense project-development workshop for pre-selected documentary projects. During the course, the participants will get a better understanding of the cultural differences of documentaries in Europe and financing possibilities available for filmmakers, producers and festivals. In the workshop we are going through the principles of storytelling, choosing char¬acters, writing a treatment and editing a trailer. Furthermore we will give advices on budgeting and making a financing plan for their projects. A special emphasis will be on verbal presentation of the project and how to make a good pitch.

The documentary projects will be presented in a pitching forum at the end of the workshop. The pitching forum is open for public and it will take place on Saturday, 10th November, 10.00 – 14.00 at OSA Archivum, (1051 Budapest Arany János utca 32).

An international team of high-profile professionals is tutoring the participants during the workshop. The tutors are Heather Croall (director of the Sheffield International Documentary Festival (Doc/Fest) and producer of Crossover Labs, UK), Lorenzo Hendel (commissioning editor, RAI, Italy), Marianna Kaat (independent producer and director, Baltic Film Production, Estonia), Sami Mustafa (director and festival director, Rolling Film Festival, Kosovo), Rada Šešić (film maker, consultant, Jan Vrijman Fund, Holland), Stefano Tealdi (producer, director, Stefilm, Documentary in Europe, Italy) and Sari Volanen (commissioning editor, YLE, Finland). The leader of the workshop is Leena Pasanen, director of Finnagora.

The selected projects for the workshop are

• Winner or Loser, TV BTR Nacional, director: Zoran Dimov, Macedonia
• Florence, the Consul and Me, director and producer: Gianmarco D'Agostino, Italy
• Dead When I Got Here, The Deep River, director: Mark Aitken, UK
• Invasion, Campfilm, director: Viktor Oszkár Nagy, Hungary
• Cain's children, Campfilm, director: Marcell Gerő, Hungary
• Library, Matchhouse film, director: Ana Tsimintia, Georgia
• Panem et Circenses, director and producer: Georgy Stoev, Bulgaria
• The Brothers, Romedia Foundations, director: Katalin Barsony, Hungary
• Music Saves You, A Zene Felemel Kft, director:Tamás Almási, Hungary
• Romani Taxi, Eel Productions, directors: Ioana Constantinescu and Huw Powell, UK
• Plans from Verseny Street, Katapult Film, director: Diana Groó, Hungary
• Romania, My Africa, Ajja Film, director: Adriana Sandu, Romania
• The Roma Rocker, Helmi Films, director: Maria Friman, Finland
• The Significance of Freedom, Film Movement AS, director: Truls Lie, Norway
• Together, Anthropoesis, director: Ionut Piturescu, Romania

The Verzio DocLab is part of the Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. Verzio DocLab is organized in collaboration of Finnagora, Open Society Foundations - Arts and Culture Program, Documentary in Europe, Estonian Institute in Hungary, and OSA Archivum.

More information:
Maiju Saari
+36 30 879 5676 / +36 1 478 1012
maiju.saari@finnagora.hu

Leena Pasanen

Leena Pasanen started her career as a journalist 1988 at the Finnish News Agency, first as a re¬porter and later on as a political commentator in the Parliament house. In 1993 she joined YLE, Finnish Broadcasting Company, where she worked as a reporter, political commentator, subeditor and TV presenter for the current affairs magazine programme on YLE TV1. After that she was the head of documentaries for YLE TV1 years 1999-2000. When YLE launched new digital channels, she was chosen as head of programmes responsible for cultural, factual and fiction programmes in YLE Teema, a channel focused on cul¬ture, science and education. She stayed with the channel until November 2005 when she started her work as the director of EDN, European Documentary Network in Copenhagen.
In November 2008 she returned to YLE in Finland as Coordinator of Programmes at YLE Fact and Culture and is leading a two-year pilot project on 360 degree commissioning. After this she was nominated as the senior advisor at YLE Media and has been part of the team re-structur¬ing Yle's broadcasting. In May 2011 she was asked to become the director of Finnagora, the Finnish Institute for culture, science and economy in Budapest, Hungary. Finnagora is one of the 17 culture and science institutes of Finland and it works in close cooperation with the Embassy of Finland. She is also Finland's cultural attaché in Hungary. Pasanen has been a regular expert, tutor and lecturer for several training programmes, for example EDN, Discovery Campus, EURODOC and Television Business School. She's an EURODOC graduate year 1999 and a member of the international advisory committee of Hot Docs. She's also been a member of the board of IDFA Forum, INPUT and the Bonnier's Jour¬nalistic Award in Finland and served as a jury member for several international festivals, among others Sundance and IDFA.

Stefano Tealdi

Born in Johannesburg (South Africa) in 1955, Stefano Tealdi studied architecture in Turin – Italy. After graduating he was responsible for film and TV production in the audiovisual laboratory of the Politecnico di Torino working as the head of production. In 1985 he co-founded Stefilm, working as a director and producer. Since 1988 he has directed and produced documentaries on various issues, mainly concerning Africa and Italy. His international co-productions have involved over 40 European and North American broadcasters. In 1992 he graduated at the MEDIA train¬ing course "EAVE – European Session". He is a founding member of the Associazione FERT (Filming with a European Regard in Turin), and directed the first fourteen editions of the annual Italian workshop Documentary in Europe. He chaired EDN (European Documentary Network) and is the national coordinator in Italy for INPUT, Television in the Public Interest.

Rasa Šešić

Rada Šešić, born in Croatia, worked as a film critic and director of several short and documentary films in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today Rada lives in The Netherlands and works as a film consultant and a film programmer. She is one of selectors for IDFA and a committee mem¬ber of Jan Vrijman Fund. Šešić also works as a programme advisor for IFFR Rotterdam and is in a committee of Hubert Bals Fund. At Sarajevo Film Festival, she heads the Competition Documentary section, a newly started Rough Cut Boutique workshop done together with Balkan Documentary Centre. Since two years ago, Šešić became a Program advisor on South Asian and Balkan cinema for DOK Leipzig. For already two decades, she has been following closely production of South Asia. She lived in India during the 1990-ties and specializes in Indian cinema and is one of programmers at Kerala IFFK. Served at the several juries (a.o.Joris Ivens Jury at IDFA, Moscow, Crakow, Bombay, Karlovy Vary, Geneve, Prizren, Zagreb Dox, Sarajevo FF,Bornholm, Arhuis, Neuwebrandenburg, Strumica, Rhodos, New Delhi, Warsawa, Prague, ZagrebFF, Motovun, Trivandrum). For eight years was guest lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and is still giving work¬shops at the Dutch Film Academy, Universities- Anadolu in Eshisehir, in Geneve Ecole superieure des Beaux-arts and at Sarajevo ASU, at Srishti Institut in Bangalore, India. As a scriptwiter and director, made four films in the Netherlands: Room Without a View, 1997, Soske ,2001 and In Whitest Solitude, 2002, Way to School (2007).Her films were exhib¬ited, among numerous other festivals, at MOMA –New York, IDFA, IFFR. As a tutor, works regularly at documentary workshops by EDN, Dragon Forum, Ex Oriente, Balkan Documentary Center and Indian Doc Edge. Šešić writes for Skrien (The Netherlands), Dox (Denmark), Film Guide Variety (UK), Documentary Encyclopaedia (USA), Film Annual (Croatia), Sineast (Bosnia and Herzegovina), collaborated on the books: 24 Frames by Dina Iordanova and on Bhimal Roy by Rinky Battacha¬rya. Together with friends Rada started two films festivals and works as the head of programming at Doku Art in Bjelovar/Croatia and Eastern Neighbours in Utrecht/The Nertherlands.

Heather Croall

Heather Croall is the Director of the Sheffield International Documentary Festival (Doc/Fest) and producer of Crossover Labs. Heather has been one of the screen industry's leading pro¬ponents of the emerging field of new media. In 2000, Heather and international partners developed a conference programme called DigiDocs, which went on to be a major programme strand at the AIDC in Australia and then in Sheffield Doc/Fest. As the Senior Project Officer and Industry Manager at the South Aust Film Corp, Heather developed a strategy for building cross platform digital media production oppor¬tunities in South Australia including the launch of Crossover Labs alongside many initiatives that encouraged new media producers to work with traditional film and TV companies. That digital media strategy has helped many new cross platform production teams flourish in South Australia ever since. Heather was the director of the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC), where she developed the innovative matchmaking pitching initiative The MeetMarket and then moved to Sheffield to run the Doc/Fest and bring the Crossover Labs to the UK. Heath¬er continues to present DigiDocs & MeetMarket at Sheffield along with Crossover Labs and other initiatives. The MeetMarket in Sheffield is now regarded as one of Europe's leading pitching markets attracting over 100 buyers and hundreds of applicants. Under her directorship, the Sheffield Doc/Fest has experienced unprecedented growth in all areas – festival programme, budget, delegate numbers, press and profile, "Heather Croall has taken Sheffield to a new level of visibility and impact" (Variety Magazine).
Heather produced films and television documentaries since 1992 and produced award winning cross-platform projects such as usmob.com.au "Heather Croall has proven herself to be a passionate and humane filmmaker, dealing with a wide range of socially taboo subjects. Her abil¬ity to generate a visible place in her documentary work for what is otherwise largely unsayable is commendable.' (REALTIME magazine)

Sami Mustafa

Sami Mustafa is a 26-year-old film director from a Roma mahala near the village of Plemetina in Kosovo. His first encounter with film-making was through a program run by the Balkan Sunflowers recreation center there in 2003. One year later he started collaborating with two film production companies, Koperativa and Quawava.
He has directed several films about the postwar situation of the Kosovo Rom. His docu¬mentary film "Road to Home" was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 as the only film representing cinematography from Kosovo.
Mustafa founded the Roma film production company Romawood and since 2009 has been running the Rolling Film Festival of Roma film together with Balkan Sunflowers in Prishtina as its artistic director.