Industry history
2023
FILM INN
FILM INN offered professionally led workshops for filmmakers from the V4 countries.
The industry programme of the ELBE DOCK festival in 2023 focused on supporting promising young talents from the V4 countries. The FILM INN workshops were thoroughly designed for emerging filmmakers, especially screenwriters and producers, and their upcoming short film projects.
The participants of the workshops worked on the development of their film projects with the help of professional mentors and lecturers during an intensive programme in Ústí nad Labem and Dresden.
In addition to joint meetings and individual consultations with the main mentors of the workshops Anne Gensior and Sasha Prokopenko, the ELBE DOCK industry programme also included masterclasses focused on the use of artificial intelligence in scriptwriting, independent film distribution or the issue of unsatisfactory endings in short film and the construction of short film scripts.
An important round table discussion on the current state of short filmmaking also took place in Dresden, which was attended by members of the ELBE DOCK Award jury: Johanna Süß (director of LICHTER Filmfest Frankfurt International), Karolína Davidová (film producer), Kateřina Šafaříková (executive producer and dramaturge of the Young Film Fest) and Monica Koshka-Stein (artistic director of the KUKI Young Short Film Festival) together with Krzysztof Sienkiewicz (executive manager/music and programme coordinator of the ŻUBROFFKA International Short Film Festival), Sasha Prokopenko and Anne Gensior.
Masterclasses:
I’M YOUR STAFF WRITER!
Discover a new way to develop feature films with artificial intelligence! Prof. Taç Romey & Markus Walsch will present "CreAItive PingPong": an organic approach based on the gradual creation of stimuli using AI tools such as ChatGPT. Explore a new experience within the Writers' Room with AI in the role of a tribal writer or virtual audience. And the most important question: What position does a human occupy in this game? Where do we as artists and creators find our place in this new world?
HOW TO ENDING SHORT FILMS
We will focus on the specific qualities of narrative in short films and address the specific challenges of creating a compelling short film script, paying particular attention to the common problems that short films present in terms of creating satisfying endings.
FILM INN mentors and speakers:
Anne Gensior is an international script consultant for feature and documentary films based in Berlin, a workshop lecturer and mentor, and a consultant for funds and co-production markets. She is a long-time collaborator as a tutor with MIDPOINT Feature Launch, CineSud ScriptLab, the RACCONTI script development program and the Turkish producer workshop YAPIMLAB. She regularly appears at EAVE Workshops and also teaches screenwriting at the Kunstakademie Münster. After graduating in playwriting from HMT Leipzig in 2005, Anne also worked as a theatre dramaturg, festival curator and radio show curator before joining the team of the script development agency Script House in Berlin.
Sasha Prokopenko is a festival dramaturge, film curator and translator based in Kiev, Ukraine. For the last four years she has been the head of the programming section at the Kiev International Short Film Festival. Sasha has participated in several film festivals as a curator and jury member. She also works with the Molodist International Film Festival in Kiev and Ukraine's first LGBTQIA+ film festival Sunny Bunny. Since 2016 she has been working at KyivMusicFilm, an independent film distribution company that distributes films about art, music and culture. Among others, Sasha has worked at 100 Films in 100 Minutes (2017-2022), INTRO Film Festival about music and culture (2018-2023) and Kino Susidiv International Film Festival in Uzhhorod, Transcarpathia (2022-2023).
Gaia Meucci-Astley is an independent consultant and script reviewer for talent support initiatives with over 10 years of experience working with new and emerging filmmakers. From 2012 to 2021, she was the dramaturg for the Encounters Short Film Festival in Bristol, where she curated UK and international competitions and special programmes. Prior to that, she was dramaturg of the short film programme at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. She is passionate about stories and new work and has been putting all her experience into talent development work since 2021. She has worked with organisations such as BFI Network, Film Cymru, Focus Script at Cannes Cinéma de Demain, Torino Film Lab and LiM (Less is More).
Prof. Taç Romey is an expert in storytelling, dramaturgy and film. He studied acting, directing and dramaturgy at Brown University in the USA, developed a number of TV series and films, is a screenwriter and also a director. Taç is the founder and managing director of Phantomfilm GmbH in Munich and Amsterdam, where he produced, among other things, the award-winning Amazon series "Der Lack ist ab". He is also a professor at the HFF Munich, where he teaches storytelling, character development and screenwriting. His projects have received several nominations and awards, including an International Emmy Award and the German Television Award.
2022
Industry networking
The main idea of the industry programme is to create an informal, inspiring space for the presentation of current and future projects of young filmmakers and producers. Networking is an important process of building relationships and finding support among colleagues, potential colleagues and other important professionals. The informal setting together with the structured group discussion helped to share and name current issues and challenges faced by emerging filmmakers in the V4 countries and Germany. The networking was also an opportunity to present new projects they are currently working on.
Panel discussions:
The discussions were moderated by Filip Rambousek, co-author of the Czech-German podcast Carbon and Český rozhlas contributor.
Creative Saxony and Ustecia
What is the role of creative cultural industry in the recovery plan of these regions after the pandemic? What are the visions for the future? And what then is the creative potential of Saxony and Usti? Discussion guests Lydia Göbel from the association Wir gestalten Dresden, Miroslav Koranda from kreativni.uk and Roman Černík from the Johan Centre for Contemporary Art and Education will together open up the topic of the transformation and challenges that await both regions.
Guests:
Miroslav Koranda is a theatre producer who stayed in his hometown of Chomutov to help change the northwestern Sudetenland through culture and creativity. He works for a senator from Chomutov and as a political campaign manager. He is involved in the development of Kreativni.uk, a creative network that connects creatives, entrepreneurs and major institutions to work together to transform the coalfield region of North West Bohemia.
Roman Černík is an educator, theatre artist, cultural anthropologist and cultural activist. He is a university teacher at the University of West Bohemia and DAMU Prague. He is also the director of the registered institute JOHAN, a centre for cultural and social projects in Pilsen. He is the author and implementer of the project of cultural transformation of the abandoned historical railway station building in Pilsen Jižní předměstí into the cultural space Moving Station, where the centre operates. He has founded, led and acted in a number of original theatre projects.
From 2005 to 2007 he also worked as the head of the Department of Culture of the Pilsen City Council. He significantly participated in the candidacy process of the City of Pilsen for the title of European Capital of Culture 2015 (co-author of the project and consultant of the programme content of the project). He participated in the preparation of the candidacy of the Slovak cities of Hlohovec and Žilina. Currently he is also involved in strategic planning in culture, co-author of the cultural policy of the city of Pilsen, Planá, Mělník and Písek.
Lydia Göbel is originally from Erfurt, but has lived most of her life in or around Dresden. There she also studied American Cultural Studies and English Studies; she then studied art history partly in Ireland, where she worked for the National Museum of Ireland. After completing her BA, she moved to Berlin in 2013. She spent several months working at the Canadian Embassy, for the Berlin Fashion Film Festival and a corporate events company. During this period, she realized that her real interests were related to event organizing and cultural management.
In 2014 she moved to Zhořelec, where she studied management in culture. In 2017, she completed her studies in Bologna, Italy (GIOCA program), where she became interested in the promotion of the visual arts, and subsequently dedicated her master's thesis to the topic of attracting new visitors in the field of contemporary art in Dresden. Just a few months later she was hired as the Executive Director of Elbhangfest, a festival founded in 1990 to promote Dresden's music, arts and crafts. In May 2021, she was given the opportunity to fulfil her wish to promote the creative industry in Dresden as Executive Director of the Dresden branch of the creative industry association Wir gestalten Dresden. Since then, she has been working at Kraftwerk Mitte, where she is involved in promoting and connecting Dresden entrepreneurs from all areas of the cultural industry. And she loves his work.
Don't underestimate the young audience!
Monica Koshka-Stein (KUKI Young Short Film Festival, Berlin), Berit Toepfer (Film Macht Mut, Dresden) and Radka Hoffmanová (Young Film Fest, Prague) will discuss the possibilities of actively involving young audiences in informal audiovisual education and the importance of not underestimating young audiences and treating them as equal partners. One of the topics of discussion will be the question of how can we work with young people in this respect?
Guests:
Monica Koshka-Stein grew up in Australia. Since 1993, when she moved to Berlin, she has been working on independent art, music and film projects. In 1998 she joined the team of the Berlin International Short Film Festival INTERFILM, where she held various positions over the years and in 2010 became the artistic director of interfilm - KUKI Berlin, a short film festival for children and youth. In September 2021, she was invited to join the jury that selects short films for the Generations section of the Berlinale. She is currently involved in the organisation of an online platform for German high schools focused on film education and democratic values through entertaining and inspiring short films called Kurzfilm im Klassenraum, which will be launched in April 2022. In addition, Monica participates in many festival juries and regularly curates a programme of short films for youth for institutions and festivals around the world.
Berit Toepfer studied Linguistics, Literature and Culture at TU Dresden. She is currently coordinating the new VISION KINO project "Film Macht Mut" in Saxony - a critical film education for grades 1 to 6 in primary schools focusing on the themes of racism and anti-Semitism. She is involved in film education for school children within the project "play fair" - Films for Democracy and Tolerance and SchulKinoWochen Sachsen. She also coordinates the children's jury at the KINOLINO-Filmfest Dresden. All projects are part of Objektiv e.V.
Radka Hoffmanová is the dramaturg and head of Industry, the Young Film Fest youth film festival. She is a graduate of the Studio of Radio and Television Dramaturgy and Screenwriting at the Theatre Faculty of the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno, where she is currently also a PhD student. Her doctoral research focuses on contemporary youth cinema in the European context. She regularly publishes in the Slovak journal for film and moving image science Kino-Ikon and in the Czech journal Film a doba. In the past, she has completed an internship at the European Children's Film Association and has collaborated as a scriptwriter with Czech and Slovak Radio (literary cycles ČRo Vltava - Meetings with Literature, Pages for a Good Night; the radio adaptation of Obvinenie was on the short list for the best Slovak radio play for 2017-2018).
2021
The online industry programme of the 4th ELBE DOCK International Film Festival was designed for emerging film professionals and students from the field of audiovisual from the Czech Republic and Germany. It focused on interdisciplinary networking and bringing together those interested not only in the world of cinema and video art, but also in digital technologies, intermedia, and multimedia. During the day-long program, registered participants could consult ideas and concepts for their creative projects that go beyond the realm of classical film or combine diverse narrative practices with modern technologies.
The programme also included a Spotlight section - short interviews with inspiring festivals and organisations in the field of audiovisual from the Czech and German environment. Among them were the Czech festivals Signal - a festival of digital and creative culture in Prague and Uroboros - a festival of critical and socially engaged design, the production company Daisy with Rider Productions or the Hertz-Lab of the Centre for Arts and Media in Karlsruhe, the Konrad Wolf Film University in Babelsberg or Lichter FilmFest Frankfurt International.
Programme mentors and guests:
Ondřej Moravec is a graduate of screenwriting at FAMU and journalism at Charles University. As a director and screenwriter he works in the field of viral reality and immersive experiences, as well as in the field of classical cinema. Ondřej also works as a dramaturge and shapes the program of the most interesting virtual reality events for festivals and various events. In his masterclass Tmání - the journey of the first Czech animated interactive VR film, which is part of the program, he will focus on the issue of how to deal with depression in virtual reality and will also present his upcoming project Tmání and the whole process of creating an interactive VR film.
Mika Johnson's work primarily focuses on creating virtual reality experiences, but he also works in a variety of media as a director of feature films, documentaries and sound installations. In his masterclass, Connecting Art and Science through Immersive Narrative, he will describe four of his works that combine scientific understanding with virtual reality to re-imagine the forms we find in nature and how we can interact with them. These projects include Ilios, The Infinite Library, Lost Forms and Found Forms.
Spotlight
Michal Kučerák
Uroboros - festival of critical and socially engaged design
Mario Kunovský
Signal Festival
Lena Gieseke
Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Potsdam
Ludger Brümmer
Hertz-Lab ZKM (Center for Art and Media), Karlsruhe
Johanna Suss & Henning Adam
Lichter Film Fest International (Frankfurt)
Mika Johnson & Martin Schumet
Daisy with Rider Productions