CHANGE in Eastern European documentary

CHANGE focuses on producers, their companies and their ability to co-produce both within the ENC and internationally. Filmmakers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine brought projects to three residential workshops covering: the further development of their films, regional and international collaboration and preparing to pitch to the international market. Fifteen of the 19 participants were women.

Since 2022, the CHANGE programme has been an opportunity for documentary filmmakers from the Eastern Neighbouring Countries (ENC) to improve their film industry knowledge and skills. It is the first systematic training focused on regional and international co-productions and has become the biggest film course for emerging filmmakers in the ENC.

Collaboration with CPH:DOX

CHANGE takes an approach of equitable co-production, a systemic distribution of rights between low- and high-capacity countries involved in co-producing a film. Rather than splitting the film rights according to financial investment, equitable co-production aims to split the rights according to the value brought to the film as a way for the original creators to maintain their rights to their work.

CHANGE filmmakers pitched their ideas to an audience of over 150 international financiers, distributors and broadcasters at the annual Copenhagen International Documentary Festival (CPH:DOX). All eight projects received funding opportunities. Standouts include Ukrainian productions A Bit of a Stranger, which had its premiere at the 2024 Berlinale, and Nuclear Dead End, about the 1994 Budapest Memorandum in which Ukraine signed away its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security assurances from the United States, United Kingdom and Russia. The attention the programme received at CPH:DOX also positioned the ENC as a key region for documentary film production.

Building the documentary industry in Eastern Europe

The participants in the CHANGE workshops are contributing to building the documentary industry in the ENC through their enhanced skills, network and exchange of experience. Participants from previous training sessions joined events and masterclasses. It is a goal of the programme that participants stay in contact beyond the workshops to share knowledge and artistic and financial networks.

“The training gave me a lot of creative and inspirative energy to work on the project. We tested our ideas, developed them and studied a lot of practical issues on our colleagues’ examples. But the most important benefit is that we connected our intentions as a team. We definitely widened the horizons of our company and got the possibility to tell our story internationally,” said one CHANGE participant.

IMS is implementing this project in close collaboration with CPH:DOX and the National Film School of Denmark with funding through the New Democracy Fund. IMS is in the process of localising the project within the ENC.

Open call for applications for the CHANGE co-production training course 2024-2025 can be found here. Deadline 12 August, 2024.

IMS supports independent filmmakers and film institutions in the majority world to develop new projects, connect with the film industries and enable collaborative storytelling that creates impact and contributes to social, political and cultural change. Read more about IMS’ documentary programme here.

This article was originally published in the IMS Annual Report 2023.