02/03/2022 - The film market of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is returning to its physical location more innovative and jam-packed than ever

Georgian director Tamta Gabrichidze, who is taking part in the Meet the Future section of Agora Docs with Mugamati

Running from 11-19 March at Warehouse C in the Port of Thessaloniki, the Agora Docs of the 24^th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is returning more innovative and jam-packed than ever. The leading film market is making use of all of the available tools and new technologies to showcase new activities and enhance already-successful initiatives, at a hybrid festival that will take place both in physical spaces and online.

First of all, the Agora Doc Market will include more than 350 completed documentaries in its digital video library, continuing its collaboration with Cinando. It will be available online for accredited Agora Docs guests to use.

Furthermore, in the Agora Docs in Progress section (see the news), an array of films that are currently in post-production will be presented to industry professionals along with a hand-picked selection of Greek projects in the Agora Lab workshop. The co-production and co-financing platform for creative, television and new-media documentaries at the development stage, the Thessaloniki Pitching Forum (see the news), also features projects in development from Southeastern Europe and the neighbouring regions.

As Agora Docs looks to the future, the market is shining the spotlight on emerging documentary filmmakers. This year, five talents from Georgia are participating in the Meet the Future section, with the support of the Georgian National Film Center. The tutor for the presentation will be producer Rea Apostolides (Anemon Productions). The participating directors and their projects are as follows:

Tamta Gabrichidze – Mugamati
Production: Tamta Gabrichidze

Ketevani Kapanadze - Keren Batok
Production: Ketevani Kapanadze

Elena Mikaberidze - Blueberry Dreams
Production: Parachute Films (Georgia), Y.N Productions - La Cuisine aux Images (France)

Shorena Tevzadze - The Fortress
Production: Shorena Tevzadze

Maradia Tsaava – Performance
Production: OpyoDoc Production Company

Agora Docs is also carrying on with Doc Counselling, which will run from 12-18 March, and will provide an opportunity to have on-site and online meetings with the participating industry professionals. Topics will include festival strategy, documentary funding, distribution, MEDIA Desk help, TV purchases, social media and marketing, among others.

As is the case every year, a series of Agora Talks and Masterclasses will be organised. On 16 March, on the occasion of the publishing of his latest book, titled Order in Chaos - Storytelling and Editing in Documentary Films, internationally acclaimed Danish editor Niels Pagh Andersen will be sharing methods and experiences from his lengthy career. Some of the talks will focus on mapping out European documentary and its needs, in collaboration with the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE) and the Greek Documentary Association, with a panel of speakers consisting of Józsa László (Speak Easy Project, Hungary), Marco Gastine (Greek Documentary Association), Lucia Pornaro (Doc/It, Italy) and Martichka Bozhilova (Balkan Documentary Center, Bulgaria), and coordinated by Marion Schmidt, DAE. Other topics on the agenda include the challenges to, and incentives for, sustainable documentary production, organised by the MEDIA Desk Greece, and practical advice on the development of documentaries through European educational programmes (MFI Doc Lab, Balkan Documentary Center, Dok Incubator, EURODOC and CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator).

Finally, the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (EWA) mentoring programme, unspooling from 15-18 March, is targeted at women film producers who already have relevant experience at the national level, and who wish to further the strategic and business development of their company and include an international dimension in it.