ESODOC Italiassa. Don Edkins 20.10.08

Don Edkins osallistui EsoDoc tapahtumaan Italiassa ja kertoo prosessista, jossa etsitään dokumenttjea, jotka voisivat nivoa  yhteen television,kansalaisjärjestöt ja uuden median.
 
The week before last an ESoDoc (European Social Documentary) workshop took place on the slopes of the still smouldering volcano Mount Etna in Sicily. This was the third of workshops this year for people who wanted to learn about filmmaking, or those who wanted to add to their skills; see www.esodoc.eu
 
Tutors Sabina Bubeck-Paaz, commissioning editor from ZDF/Arte, and Katerina Cizek, filmmaker from Canada, had mentored the group through the various phases of practical experience to the financial options of making films for broadcasters and NGOs. New Media had a special focus.
 
They were supported by Hugh Purcell, head of studies for ESoDoc, and Heidi Gronauer with her colleagues Lotte Gibitz and Thomas Righetti from the ZeLIG film and new media school based in Bolzano in north Italy. Stefano Tealdi with his long experience of documentary in Italy and Europe, Leena Pasanen in her last months as director of EDN, and Sibylle Kurz who coached pitching methods, added their skills. Plus the panelists Sally Ann Wilson and Alexandre Brachet who also gave valuable lectures.
 
With the 25 or so East and West European participants, it made up for a special experience for everyone. There was this feeling of power coming from the mountain and some of us were lucky to walk the rim of an extinct volcano on its black lava bed.
 
The capriciousness and sheer control of life by Etna is felt everywhere. The final day pitching session was held at the campus of the University of Catania housed in part at an old monastery. Lava streams lie everywhere underneath the city, and the years are remembered by when the volcano erupted. The last time was in 2001 …
 
There were 13 pitches at the end by filmmakers from Ireland to Hungary, Norway to Italy. All good stories, some better prepared than others. But this was about pitching your story, publicly, to a panel. This was a trial run, we as panelists were not offering money, but responses to the story and advice where to go for funding when possible.
 
And the stories varied – from a Lesbian singing group in Ireland to rescuing memories of the disappeared in Peru, from African migrants trying to reach Europe to those crossing the border between Mexico and the USA, from childhood abuse in Germany to East German refugees who escaped to West Germany through Hungary, from why are there so few bicycles in Africa to a community based banking project in Mali, from an internet video connection between young people around the Mediterranean to a multi-media project about surviving torture, from sports in London to memories of the American Indians who performed in the early 1900’s in Germany, and one about those damned lobbyists at the EU in Brussels.
 
 
Everyone had made a trailer, so visual approach was clear and important. But what was interesting was the number of projects that had an internet component, or even mostly based on the internet as a channel to reach audiences.