Adam Papliński: Pitch the Doc

While at the Krakow Film Festival I ran into an old documentary friend, Polish producer Adam Papliński, who invited me to hear more about a new online project that he is launching right now at different festivals around the world: Pitch the Doc. He has received financial support from the EU Media Program and from the Polish Film Institute and the projects is endorsed by EDN, European Documentary Network. On the website of the latter, in an interview with Papliński as ”EDN Member of the Month”, he explains how he got the motivation for this project:

“The official launch of the platform in beta version was publicly announced during the 2017 Berlinale. The idea to launch such an internet service came to my mind 2-3 years earlier… I had received a phone call from a Russian filmmaker that we had selected to pitch a project at one of our events (Dragon Forum, ed.). He explained to me that right now he was on the Barents Sea shore shooting the film and, even though he was honoured by our decision, he could not afford to come. He had no money to pay for accommodation, he had no passport and so on… I found it a real pity that such a good project could not show up on the European market and that around the world there are probably a lot of other outstanding ideas and film projects struggling with similar problems. On the other hand I heard feedback from decision makers that the market lacks fresh new ideas. The obvious place for matchmaking the projects and investors seemed to me to be online, but I was surprised when after several days of surfing I didn’t find a site providing an effective solution…”

That well known gap Papliński intends to close with Pitch the Doc, a place where the authors can place their proposal with the key information, we all know: logline, synopsis, treatment, link to trailer etc., all that which is asked for when you go to “live” pitching sessions – and where decision makers can place their demands.

I asked Papliński whether he thought that decision makers would sign up. He answered that several c.editors he had met liked the project very much, as “I am tired of travelling”.

A fine initiative in development, go the website and learn more and read the EDN interview where the Polish matchmaker explains more about Pitch the Doc that has a team of evaluators that is strong: Steven Seidenberg, Pawel Lozinski and Marijke Rawie.

www.pitchthedoc.com

http://edn.network/en/members/edn-members-of-the-month/

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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