Institute of Documentary Film statement:
From the perspective of the East European documentary filmmaker, The Jan Vrijman Fund has always represented the only chance to find the direct financial support from abroad. For number of the local directors and their independent producers - working in the conditions incomparable to the European standards - such support has been crucial for their film production and in the end for the very existence of their films.
Institute of Documentary Film believes that Jan Vrijman Fund´s policy of supporting documentary films in the developing countries and the countries in transition (Eastern Europe), where the weak or non-existing local financial support buries the documentary film production, is incomparable with any of the European initiatives.
Being conscious of the importance of the funds policy on one hand and of the number of the concrete financed films from the East European region on the other hand, we would like to express our support to the future existence of the Jan Vrijman Fund.
Jan Vrijman Fund Statement:
Until now, the Fund supported 222 films and 41 festivals, investing a total of € 2.492.804. Nowhere in the world a Fund exists that is financed from the budget for foreign aid, which solely devotes itself to the development of the documentary film in developing countries. Over the past years, the Fund has played a key role in connecting documentary filmmakers from developing countries to the rest of the world.
From the onset, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been the main financier of the Fund, responsible for two thirds of the total budget. The decision to stop financing the Fund, is the result of a purely formal alteration in the application procedure, which now stresses the quantifiability of each project. However, contrary to other forms of development aid, the development of a filmmaker, the success of a film and its influence on the local film industry does not easily allow for hard figures and costly analyses for each separate project would ultimately mean less money spent on projects.
More on the discontinuation of the Jan Vrijman Fund's financing
(on the photo: Rada Sesic representing Jan Vrijman Fund and supporting East European Documentary films on the East European Forum 2006)
We need your help!
In order to show the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the support we have given to filmmakers over the years has been effective in every sense of the word, we would like to ask you to send us a letter of support.
Please tell us if you feel the Jan Vrijman Fund does make a change in the international documentary film community and/or why you believe an initiative as the Jan Vrijman Fund should continue. This would help us to create an awareness for the necessity of the continuation of the Jan Vrijman Fund.
Your reaction doesn't have to be long, and it can be in English, French or Spanish. You can email it to janvrijmanfund@idfa.nl fax it to +31 20 6385388, or send it to the following address:
Jan Vrijman Fund
Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10
1017 RR Amsterdam
the Netherlands
Thank you very much. We look forward to hearing from you.