Besides being Romania’s biggest and longest-running documentary gathering, the Astra Film Festival (5-12 September, Sibiu) has also invested an impressive amount of energy in its industry platform, DokTank. Organised in a hybrid format this year, DokTank offers a variety of mentoring sessions, panels and presentations, introducing a young generation of filmmakers to dozens of producers, documentary experts and film-festival representatives.

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Perhaps the most eagerly awaited event at DokTank is the Astra Film Lab, a workshop for documentary film projects hailing from (or addressing topics connected to) former communist countries. Organised regularly since 2016, the Astra Film Lab will present 11 projects at this year’s edition. “We were impressed by the quality of the projects, the diversity of topics and approaches, and also by the vitality of documentary filmmaking in the region,” say the organisers. The entire programme, consisting of training sessions, workshops, pitches and meetings with experts, will take place online at this edition.

Raluca Iacob, Astra’s head of industry, tells Cineuropa: “Rather than focusing on the pandemic as a source of inspiration for their projects, filmmakers have gone more introspective, and what we can see from the projects in this year’s Astra Film Lab is a focus on the role of the individual as a conduit for systemic change. The focus on the ex-Eastern Bloc brings about specific attitudes towards issues like migration, prejudice towards others, disability or LGBT rights.”

Besides the Astra Film Lab, DokTank offers discussions, panels and master classes with various experts from the documentary industry. For example, cinematographer Gary Clarke will host a master class on “Looking for the Real: The Ethics of the Drama Documentary”, while director Salomé Jashi, whose newest feature, Taming the Garden [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Salomé Jashi
scheda film], is partaking in Astra's Central & Eastern European Competition (see the news), will talk about her experience in another master class.

Here are the 11 projects set to be pitched at this year’s Astra Film Lab:

Behind the Eyes - Andrada Popan-Dorca, Ana Preda (Romania)
Blind Pit - Federico Schiavi (Italy/Latvia)
Carrying the Light, Camera and Bolt Cutter - Ripsime Grigoryan (Russia)
European Union Wolf - Jadran Boban (Croatia)
Forbidden - Anelise Sălan (Romania)
Funeralzzi - Olena Fedyuk (Ukraine/Italy/Poland)
Hatchery - Máté Fuchs (Hungary)
Men:women – One on One - Stanislav Donchev (Bulgaria)
Mothership - Ana Vijdea (Romania)
On Term - Mihai Nichiforeac (Moldova)
Welcome to New Karabash - Olga Delane (Germany/Poland)