East European Forum

East European Forum 2007
International Documentary Film Festival Jihlava, Czech Republic, last week of October 2007

The final public project presentations, which follows the pitch workshop, give a chance to the documentary filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe to pitch their projects to the number of the key European commissioning editors, distributors and film fund representatives.

COMMISSIONING EDITORS

CHARLOTTE GRY MADSEN - DR TV (Denmark)

Charlotte Gry Madsen has an MA in media studies from Copenhagen University and supplementary training in documentary co-production and financing. Worked with television production until she was employed as sales and programme consultant by DR's international sales department in 1998. The sales department of DR (the Danish Broadcasting Corporation), DR International Sales, is Scandinavia's largest international distributor, present at all major television markets. DR International Sales distributes television programmes produced in-house, by DR, as well as programmes produced by independent companies, to broadcasters worldwide.

JOKE GOOVAERTS - Lichtpunt (Belgium)

Born in 1963. Master's degree in Communication Sciences  at the Free University of Brussels in 1985. Executive Producer/director of Lichtpunt since 1988. Lichtpunt is an independent broadcaster and has a two weekly TV-programme on the second channel of the Flemish public broadcast (VRT). Lichtpunt is subsidised by the Flemish government. The mission of Lichtpunt is to bring documentaries, interviews and feature films from a humanist point of view. Therefore Lichtpunt broadcasts human/social-interest programmes. Lichtpunt produces a part of its programmes by its own Staff, but also buys and co-produces on the international market.

HERIBERT SCHNEIDERS - MDR (Germany)

Born 1954 in Mesenich, West Germany; 1961 – 1971 school; 1971 – 1980 worked in several jobs; 1982 – 1982 Highschool at Koblenz; 1982 – 1988 University Gießen - Department Drama, Theatre, Media; Freelance producer for fiction and documentary film; since 1992 commissioning editor at MDR.

FRANZ GRABNER – ORF (Austria)

For nearly nine years Franz Grabner was responsible for religious documentaries and the thematic evening "Kreuz&Quer/"Criss-cross". In that time he also realized a new format for ORF  -"Die BOX" and had been successful with a number of international coproduction as executive producer (z.B. 2002 Golden Gate Award for "Stalin - Red God", 2003, New York Filmfestival for “IMAGINE Imagine”). Since Mai 2003 Franz Grabner is head of documentaries for art and culture for ORF. Before 1994 he was managing two galleries of contemporary art and organizing numerous cultural events and film festivals. Slots: Sunday evening, 11 pm, arts & culture, creative documentaries. Formats: 30, 45, 52 minutes, also feature length, weekly. Coproductions, acquisitions Prime Time: 4 times a year, 9 pm, 52 Min (coproductions). Specials: 45 min, acquisitions, inhouse. Mainly music documentaries. The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) is a public station with 13 radio and 2 TV channels. Daily ORF broadcasts 288 hours of radio program and 48 hours TV-program.

JAN GOGOLA - Czech TV (Czech Republic)

Born 24/8/1971, married to Martina, children Eliska and Simon. Director, script writer, Programme Director in Czech Television/Brno, teacher at FAMU (Film Academy of Performing Arts), journalist.Graduate from Faculty of Journalism at the Charles University and from Department of Documentary films and the FAMU-AMU. The author of interviews, reviews, articles and essays, worked with the GaG  and NFA publishers, magazine HOST, Coffeehouse A.f.f.A, etc. (e.g. titles “Disciplined Chameleon – thinking of Vaclav Belohradsky”, “Death to Documentary”). Filmography: (feature documentary films) “Nation to Itself or 18 High Tides of the Czech Sea” feature-fiction-documentary (2003),“Non-stop”, “Witness Frantisek Daniel” (1999), “Panenka Against the Rest of the World” (2001),“Nemcova’s Babicka Journal” (1999),“Ave Branik” (1999), “Veseli pod Moravou” (1998), “Distance and Contact of Dan Trubac” (1998), “Vila Inocent” (1997). Directed two parts of the documentary series about Prague (1999), six parts of the TV series “Intolerance".

JENNY WESTERGARD – YLE (Finland)

Jenny Westergard is a graduated journalist from Helsinki University and has been working for YLE The Finnish Broadcasting Company since 1985. Currently she is Head of Acquisitions & Coproductions at YLE FST and the Commissioning Editor for documentaries. YLE FST (Finlands Svenska Television) is the Swedish language channel on YLE. FST offers full service 7 days a week with an average broadcast of 2000 hour/ year. At the moment FST has three one hour slots/week for documentaries; including domestic, Nordic and European films and programmes. Of those approximately 150 hours, the main part is acquisitions and about 25 hours are co-productions and prebuys. YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is the national public service broadcasting company  with duties laid down by law. YLE operates five national television channels and thirteen radio channels and services. The emphasis in YLE programming is on the supply of information; news, current affairs and factual programmes, as well as culture and education.

PETER GOTTSCHALK - ARTE TV (France/Germany)

Born in 1952 on a farm near Nuremberg, Germany. Initial journalistic experience as an editor of school, student and local newspapers. After studying protestant theology, psychology, philosophy and journalism, worked at the university of Bayreuth and as a parish vicar. In television since 1984, including ZDF (ZDF German Television), Mainz, DFF (television of the former GDR), East-Berlin, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich, and the ORB (now RBB), Potsdam-Babelsberg, as an editor, author, producer and presenter. Since 1996, producer, programme manager and commissioning editor in the programme unit Documentaries at ARTE G.E.I.E. in Strasbourg (France). Member of the jury of different European festivals. Lecturer in Journalism and Television at German universities and colleges of film and television technology.

JESSICA RASPE - AVRO (Netherlands)

Jessica Raspe holds a Master of Arts degree in Art History from the University of Amsterdam. As a journalist she wrote about art and design for magazines for several years, before switching to television six years ago. Jessica Raspe is a commissioning editor for AVRO Close Up, a documentary slot on Dutch Public Television. Close Up focuses on the visual arts: fine art, architecture, design, photography, film, fashion, archaeology, cultural iconology, etc.

KATARZYNA MALINOWSKA - TVP (Poland)

Born 1979, In Warsaw. Studied Anthropology of Culture at Warsaw University. Since 2000 worked as a freelance journalist in newspaper and television. In 2005 began working as the editor in TVP Kultura, in 2006 became a head of Feature, Documentary and Animation Film Department in TVP Kultura, first cultural channel in Poland, owned by the Polish Public Television.

JANE JANKOVIC - TVO (Canada)

Jane Jankovic is Commissioning Editor of The View From Here, TVO’s signature Canadian POV documentary series. She also supervises acquisitions and pre-licenses for the documentary strands Human Edge (international POV) and Masterworks (arts), and is in active production on several current affairs projects for TVO. As well as on-air production, she is responsible for the development of multi-platform projects, both in-house and commissioned. Jane Jankovic joined TVO in 1994 as Series Producer for Studio 2, a live daily current affairs program that ran 12 years and received several national awards. Before TVO, Jane Jankovic worked as a journalist and producer with one of Canada’s national broadcasters, CTV, and Barna-Alper Productions, a leading independent production company.

VIOLA SALU - ETV (Estonia)

I have been working in television acquisitions for more than five years. I started at a commercial TV station Kanal 2 and I have now recently joined the Estonian Public Broadcasting Company ERR acquiring TV programmes for its TV station ETV. I graduated from London Guildhall University with a degree in communications. In addition to my experience in television I have worked for subtitling companies in London and the European Parliament in Luxembourg.

VERA BONNIER - SVT (Sweden)

Commissioning editor SVT Arts & Culture Programmes. K Special slot: Friday, weekly: Time: 20.00 p.m. Length: 56 min. K Special extra slot: 10 times a year; Time: Sundays, approx. 22.15 pm. Length: approx. 75 minutes. Contents: documentaries and portraits within the field of art, architecture, literature, music, dance, photography, film, theatre and the history of culture. As the concept "Beaux-Arts" nowadays has a more diversified meaning, it is of great interest to SVT, Arts & Culture programmes to co-produce projects that can be accepted by a younger generation of viewers. Therefore SVT, besides more traditional documentaries, especially look for unpredictable subject matters that reflect new currents in cultural life. Vera Bonnier has been employed by SVT almost 30 years. I started as a script-girl on fiction films. Then I was Production Manager for 10 years and Commissioning Editor during the last 10 years. I have university studies in economics and journalism.

MARGJE DE KONING  - IKON (Netherlands)

Born in 1964. Education: Theatre science (University of Amsterdam). Radio-, Film- and Television Course (University of Bristol, UK) After finishing her studies, during 12 years Margje de Koning made all sorts of documentaries for many different broadcasting companies. In 2004 Margje de Koning became a part time teacher at the Culture & Media studies (department Film& Television at the University of Amsterdam). In August 2004, Margje de Koning became Commissioning editor for a documentary slot of 52' docs. This means producing and co-producing creative single 52'-documentaries on contemporary social, social-cultural and moral issues with a strong human interest angle. As of January 2005 Margje de Koning is also responsible for the Television Department of IKON television.

KLARA TOTH - DUNA TV (Hungary)

Born in 1953. Studied at the Budapest University. Film and literature critic, author of books on film. Since 1998, she has been working as a programming editor at Duna Television's Film Department. Specializes in contemporary Hungarian documentary film.

ANDRÁS MONORY MÉSZ - MTV, Hungarian TV (Hungary)

Hungarian film director and photographer born in 1954. Studied at the Budapest Film Acadamy. Worked for the French national broadcaster FR3 for three years. Head of the board of the famous independent film studio BBS for six years. Received several festival prizes for fiction films such as ”Meteo”, “Romance”, “Purple Sail Far Away”. During the last ten years he has shot numerous documentary films for major English, French and Hungarian television companies. Some of these documentaries have since been presented worldwide, i.e. the successful series of Lonely Planet travel series. He has shot documentary films in the following countries: France, Egypt, Nepal, India, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Yemen, Indonesia, United States, Cuba, England, Austria, Russia, Italy. During the last years he worked for the Hungarian Television, the first Hungarian public television company, as the Head Of the Film Department and the Creative Director, recently as the project director of the Content Development.

TV commissioning editors we cooperate with:
Sabine Bubeck-Paaz (ZDF/ARTE, Germany), Madeleine Avramoussis (ARTE THEMA Strasbourg, France), Hans Robert Eisenhauer (ARTE G.E.I.E. Germany/France),  Leena Pasanen (YLE Teema Finland), Iikka Vehkalahti (YLE, Finland), Philippe Van Meerbeck ( VRT, Belgium), Wim Van Rompaey (LICHTPUNKT, Belgium), Cees Van Ede (NPS, Holland), Franz Grabner  (ORF, Austria), Martin Stoll (CT, Czech Republic), Björn Arvas (SVT, Sweden), Caroline Mutz (ARTE THEMA, France), Marijke Rawie (AVRO, Holand), Kathrin Brinkmann (ARTE/ZDF, Germany), Bert Janssens (Humanist Broadcasting foundations, Netherlands), Philippe Muller (ARTE G.E.I.E. Theme – Strasbourg, France), Heino Deckert (MAJA.DE Film, Germany), Esther Van Messel (First Hand Films, Switzerland), Nick Fraser (BBC 4), Mette Hoffmann Meyer (TV2, Denmark), Flemming Grenz (DR TV), Jordi Ambros (TV3 CAT), Paul Pauwels (VRT, Belgium), Marijke Huijbregts, Caroline Behar (France 5, France), Marijke Huijbregts (AVRO, the Netherlands), Rasa Miskinyte (LRT, Lithuania), Dr. Claudia Schreiner (MDR/ARD, Germany), Andrzej Titkow (PTV, Poland), Christian Popp ( RBB/ARTE, Německo),  Sari Volanen (YLE, Finland), Jenny Westergaard (YLE, Finland), Elisabeth Hulten (ARTE France, France), Rada Šešič (Jan Vrijman Fund, The Netherlands), Charlotte Gry Madsen (DR TV, Denmark), Christiane Hinz (VRD, Germany), Katarzyna Malinowska (TVP Kultura, Poland), Claudia Nedelescu (TVR, Romania), Marek Šebeš (ČT, Czech Republic), Andras Monory Mesz (MTV, Hungary)