IMS, EAVE and CPH:DOX announce the selection for the second edition of CHANGE

IMS is proud to announce the 2022–2023 edition of CHANGE, a collaboration with EAVE – European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs, Europe’s main training, development and networking organisation for producers, and CPH:DOX, the world leading documentary film festival supporting independent and innovative filmmaking.

With the partners’ goal being to increase equality and access to the international film market, the programme wants to stimulate inter-regional co-production and connect projects, filmmakers and producers from the European Eastern Partnership countries (EaP) with the international film community gathered annually at CPH:DOX.

The line-up of selected projects covers a wide variety of current topics spanning from the historical nuclear disarmament of Ukraine and its consequences; Abkhazian and Ukrainian refugees in Georgia; the ongoing non-violent resistance in Belarus; a woman filmmaker’s gaze in the patriarchal Azerbaijani society on the gradual disappearance of the Caspian Sea; and a year of the current war in the life of four generations of women from Mariupol.

The first workshop of CHANGE Co-production training course in Tbilisi, Georgia, in October-November 2022 will combine master classes and group work sessions, as well as individual meetings for the eight selected producer-director teams. The same participants will continue to work together in the second workshop in January 2023 in one of the countries in the region. The programme will culminate with a third module starting with two workshop days hosted by the National Film School of Denmark and followed by presentations of the projects to the international industry at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen in March 2023.

The objective of the programme is to improve the participants’ skills: in defining the content, core and goals of the film projects; in regional and international collaboration and co-production, financing structures and production environment; and in preparing for the encounter with the international market.

The selected projects are:

• A Bit of a Stranger, prod. Anna Kapustina, dir. Svitlana Lishchynska, Ukraine.
• Boxes from Georgia, prod. Tiko Nadirashvili, dir. Gvantsa Meparishvili, Georgia.
• How Long is the Echo, prod. Vahan Khachatryan, dir. Merri Mkrtchyan, Armenia.
• Kartli, prod. Ketevan Kipiani, dir. Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel, Georgia.
• Keepers of Heritage, prod. Irina Gleashvili, dir. Keti Machavariani, Georgia.
• Nuclear-free Ukraine | Nuclear-free World, prod. Anna Palenchuk, dir. Kornii Hrytsiuk, Ukraine.
• Strange Sea, prod. Aysel Akhundova, dir. Lala Aliyeva, Azerbaijan.
• Voices.Streams by Belarusian filmmakers DocWave.

As EAVE CEO Kristina Trapp states: “The first edition of CHANGE has not only shown how relevant the programme is, but also how urgent it is to help filmmakers in the region express their voices so that it can be heard in the rest of the world.

We are very glad to continue the programme – together with our partners IMS and CPH:DOX – and contribute to the public debate for social, political and cultural change.”

“We were thrilled to see such a strong field of applications from the involved countries and are now looking forward to starting the collaboration with eight new producer-director teams. It is such a privilege to take part in this. Together we will continue to strengthen the documentary film industry in the region and further add to the results coming out of the first edition of CHANGE,”says Henrik Underbjerg from IMS.

Tereza Simikova, Head of Industry and Training, CPH:DOX says: “The war raging on European soil reminds us all how critical it is to hear the voices of our neighbours on the Russian – and European – doorstep. We are grateful that these filmmakers and their work can help us all understand the challenges and opportunities for our common, democratic, and hopefully soon also peaceful future.”

The partnership behind CHANGE

CPH:DOX is a world leading documentary film festival supporting independent and innovative filmmaking and presenting the best and brightest in contemporary non-fiction film. The festival is known and widely respected for radically changing the documentary landscape with a focus on challenging the genre with crossover to other art forms, and for advancing art as an active voice in civil society. Presenting approximately 200 films, the annual festival’s audience has grown to more than 117,000, and our industry platform, championing high-end cinematic and hybrid filmmaking, welcomes annually no less than 1,900 industry professionals from a wide variety of sectors across creative documentary, hybrid non-fiction, visual arts, journalism and science. CPH:INDUSTRY includes a pitch platform CPH:FORUM, CPH:MARKET services for finished films and a talent development programme CPH:LAB.

EAVE, European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs, is Europe’s leading training, development and networking organisation for producers. In addition to their flagship programme, the renowned European Producers Workshop, they are involved in a variety of programmes in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Russia, Africa and the Middle East. Founded in 1988, EAVE’s objectives are to provide professional training opportunities and to bring producers from different regions of the world together with the aim of facilitating co-production relationships. EAVE’s unique international network comprises over 2,300 producers and key decision-makers.

IMS (International Media Support) promotes journalism and documentary film to strengthen the capacity of media to reduce conflict, strengthen democracy and facilitate dialogue. Their work is geared towards helping locally-based public interest media operating in countries facing armed conflicts, humanitarian crises and rapid political change, both positive and negative, to provide the public and civil society organisations with public interest content they can trust and use. IMS works in more than 40 countries across four continents with a staff of about 160 people. CHANGE is made possible by the New Democracy Fund.