DOCNZ E-Newsletter

#27 - Sept 2009

Kia Ora! Spring is in the air and DOCNZ is already preparing the next Summit and Festival which will be held in March 2010. Here is the latest from the DOCNZ hub.

The DOCNZ Team

In this issue

DOCNZ Festival - Call for Submissions
DOCNZ 2010 - Call for Sponsors/Donations
DOCNZ Summit - Crossing Over: The Truth is Out There
Industry News
Guangzhou International Documentary Festival 2009
Other Calls for Submissions

1. DOCNZ Festival - Call for Submissions

DOCNZ 2010 is open for submissions and the official deadline is coming up soon. As in previous festivals, we seek the latest documentary works from New Zealand and around the world.

We are now accepting submissions via withoutabox!

The official submission deadline is 11 September (no fee) and the extended deadline is 9 October (fee applies).

View sumbission details.

2. DOCNZ 2010 - Call for Sponsors/Donations

The Documentary NZ Trust is a not-for-profit organization. In order to assist us with our mission of promoting and advocating the importance of documentary films and filmmaking in New Zealand, we seek sponsors and donations from people like you!

Companies, organizations and individuals are welcome to join current DOCNZ partners and support DOCNZ 2010 (Summit and/or Festival). Packages of incentives are available for various levels of support so please call Dan at 09 360 0329 or email dan@docnz.org.nz. Private donations are tax deductible.

3. DOCNZ Summit - Crossing Over: The Truth is Out There

DOCNZ Summit is New Zealand’s documentary annual industry event. The 4th DOCNZ Summit will be held in Auckland early March 2010 and will last 5 days. The Summit’s main theme is documentary and crossover media. We like to hear from you about any suggestions/ideas you may have for topics and speakers. The event will include master-classes, seminars, one-on-one meetings and the popular pitching forum.

A new addition to the Summit will be DOCNZ Lab, a 2-day lab for selected applicants from all creative fields like filmmaking, graphic design, web design, gaming and live performance to work together to develop new prototypes for documentaries using traditional and crossover media.

Please submit your suggestions by Monday, 30 September to summit@docnz.org.nz

In the next newsletter, we will announce the details and deadline for submissions for the 2010 Pitching Forum and the DOCNZ Lab.

4. Industry News

Joint Appeal for Release of Maziar Bahari

The Iranian documentary filmmaker Maziar Bahari is currently enduring a show trial in Tehran. In the morning of July 21, Iranian militia arrested Maziar Bahari at his mother’s house. He has been detained ever since.

No formal charge has been made against Bahari and he has not been allowed to see either a lawyer or a member of his family.

Maziar Bahari has achieved widespread international acclaim through films such as Along Came a Spider. He is an active member of the Iranian Documentary Filmmakers Association and an important role model for many young Iranian filmmakers.

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has initiated a petition to the Iranian Justice Minister Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi (which you can sign).

Screen Hub launching New Zealand edition

On August 24, Screen Hub, Australia's online daily newspaper for film and television professionals, launched a dedicated New Zealand edition.

For those unfamiliar with the Australian publication, Screen Hub mixes old-fashioned investigative journalism with a wicked sense of humour "wrapped up in a large amount of defamation insurance".

NZ Correspondent, Keith Barclay ("who crawled out of the art department"), has been appointed to be the editor of the New Zealand edition. Screen Hub promises that it will bring the same kind of investigation and analysis – as well as the bread-and-butter tracking of deals, productions and international sales and ratings – delivered daily by email.

For those wanting to track what's happening in Australia, NZ subscribers will also get complete access to the Australian stories and jobs, as well as our own edition, without having to change website.

Assume Nothing in Dok Leipzig

Kirsty MacDonald’s documentary, Assume Nothing, (DOCNZ 2009 Special Mention) was selected to the next Dok Leipzig Film Festival in Germany.

Watch the Assume Nothing trailer.

An Ordinary Peron now available on DVD

DOCNZ 2009 Best Short NZ Documentary, An Ordinary Person, is now available on DVD (educational). Director Susan Potter also set up a Facebook group accessible from the News page on the An Ordinary Person website.

WIFT Awards: Congratulations to this year’s winners

Great Southern Film & Television Woman to Watch: Chelsea Winstanley
MiNDFOOD Greening the Screen: Redflame Media
Images & Sound Success in Television: Jaquie Brown
WIFT NZ Unsung Heroines of the Screen Industry: Natalie Crane & Glenda Paterson
South Pacific Pictures Achievement in Film: Arani Cuthbert
WIFT NZ Entrepreneurship: Janine Morrell-Gunn
WIFT NZ Outstanding Contribution to the Screen Industry: Caterina De Nave

Congratulations

We like to congratulate the following films which were originally pitched at the DOCNZ Summit and have recently received tremendous acclaim and/or been premiered.

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls – Arani Cuthbert pitched the project at DOCNZ. She also met up with director Leanne Pooley there and the rest is history. They made magic together and the film is now New Zealand’s highest grossing theatrical documentary. It received the Audience Favourite Award at the recent Melbourne International Film Festival and will also screen at the Toronto International Film Festival and International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. The film won Arani Cuthbert WIFT’s South Pacific Pictures Achievement in Film Award.
Lost in Wonderland – Director Zoe McIntosh pitched the project and won the Best Pitch which was awarded both an entry to AIDC and a cash prize which enabled her to travel there. The film recently premiered at the NZ International Film Festival.
Toki Does New York – screened at DOCNZ 2009, the film is up for best Editing at the Qantas Film & Television Awards 2009. Director Dan Salmon also won the Best Pitch Award at DOCNZ Summit 2009 for his new project which he will pitch overseas.
Tom and Barbara Burstyn, who participated in DOCNZ Pitching Forum 2009, premiered their film The Way We Are at the NZ International Film Festival to much acclaim.
Annie Goldson, pitched Brother No 1 at DOCNZ Pitching Forum 2009 and met our Canadian guests Peter Gilbert (Hoop Dreams) and Pat Ferns at the Summit. Pat worked with Annie on her pitch of the film at HOTDOCS and Peter Gilbert is now collaborating with Annie as cinematographer of the film.

5. Guangzhou International Documentary Festival 2009

Auckland City is a sister city of Guangzhou and we will be seeking to consolidate our relationship both as between the two cities and also between the DOCNZ and Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival, China (GZ DOC).

DOCNZ will be leading a delegation of filmmakers and industry to GZDOC in 2009. A NZ Day will be held in Guangzhou and a series of events and activities will be organized to encourage filmmakers from both countries to meet and develop business and creative collaborations.

GZDOC started as Guangzhou International Documentary Conference in 2003. GZ DOC endeavours to “bring China to the world and have the world know China” and has been developing itself towards an international, professional and market-oriented festival.

GZ DOC holds Documentary Screening, Competition, Market, Forum as well as workshops and builds a platform for Chinese documentary industry to communicate with their international colleagues. GZ DOC 2009 will be held 7-11 December this year.

6. Other Calls for Submissions

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Missoula, Montana 12-21 February 2010. Deadline: 4 September (regular), 20 October (final).
FIFO Pacific International Documentary Film Festival, Tahiti 26-31 January 2010. Deadline: 1 October 2009
Kompetisi Film Dokumenter Indonesia 2009 Deadline: 20 October 2009