Behind the Idea

Does the increasing competitiveness within the documentary film industry result in an increasing number of quality documentaries? Is it the right model for the documentary market? Is there an alternative to the sometimes extremely stressful process of presenting author's emerging projects? In which pithcing of art is more important than the art of pithcning? In a non-competitive atmosphere, without the stress of "winning", in a kind of "slow pitch" atmosphere? Could such an approach to the presentation of the project, or to the preparation of that presentation, be considered anti-industrial in the sense of the documentary film industry. And thus counterproductive. Or could additional dedication be the answer to emphasizing the uniqueness of each of the projects being presented?

This year's edition of the ZagrebDox Pro program tries to find answers to exactly these questions. During the five days of the program, four mentors - Nebojša Slijepčević, Ana Fernandez Saiz, Tue Steen Müller and Ieva Ūbele - are fully focused on eight projects and their authors. To the extent that at certain moments it completely displaces/isolates them from everything that could be a hindrance to their complete dedication to projects, either from the author's side or from the mentor's side.

In order to make this kind of non-competitive atmosphere that strives for permanent constructive progress of the project as realistic as possible, the awards of this year's PRO program - the financial support of Al Jazeera Balkans, the advisory award of Impronta Films from London and the residency award at the RAFF - Rab Film Festival - further highlight the dedication to the selected projects even after the end of this first Slow Pitch ZagrebDox Pro edition.