The 12th Lau Haizetara Documentary Co-Production Forum, which took place yesterday, Thursday 22 September 2016, within the
framework of the 64th San Sebastian International Film Festival, was well received by the public. Twelve European projects, which included subjects such as immigration, sex, war stories, culture or overcoming problems and sacrifice in life, were presented. One of them, “Probation” produced by Giros (Brazil), comes from the FIPA (International Festival of Audiovisual Programmes of Biarritz) a result of the agreement that IBAIA and the San Sebastián Festival maintain with each other and which started in 2007, by the signing of a first agreement which established the bases for the consolidation of this new relationship framework.
The main objective of this Forum and the activities taking place simultaneously is to offer a meeting point for the professionals of the audiovisual sector to promote co-production relationships between European producers linked to the documentary genre.
The forum was held throughout the morning and afternoon: first, it was the turn of the producers, whose projects had been selected, and who, after having worked over the days preceding the forum with professional experts at workshops and having extracted the maximum potential from their projects, could present them before an international panel of Commissioning Editors who did not disappoint: (TVE) Andrés Luque-Executive Producer / (EITB) Aintzane Pérez del Palomar–Co-prod. Commissioning Editor / (ARTE FRANCE) Anne Charbonnel–Commissioning Editor – Chargée de Programmes / (ARD-MITTELDEUTSCHER RUNDFUNK) Claudia Schreiner-Head of Department History, Society and Wildlife / (TREELINE DISTRIBUTION) Elena Mera–International Business / (MOVISTAR+) Iñigo Trojaola-Documentaries Commissioning Editor / (LCP ASSEMBLÉ NATIONALE) Isabella Pisani–Responsible for documentaries / (TV3) Jordi Ambrós Hortensi–Co-prod. Commissioning Editor / (AL JAZEERA) Mohammed Belhaj–EP of In House Production/Production Department / (YLE) Pentti Väliahdet–Executive Producer Documentary Programmes.
In the afternoon, the one-to-one sessions took place in the Festival Industry Club area, a series of individual approximately 20-minute long meetings between the Commissioning Editors and the representatives of the submitted projects, who were able to talk informally with the aim of specifying potential collaboration agreements.
At the same time, and with the involvement of the public, those who went to rooms 8 and 9 in the Kursaal had a chance to attend the CONFERENCE organised by IBAIA with the collaboration of Europa Creativa Desk Media Euskadi, in which Ove Rishøj Jensen (Film Consultant of the European Documentary Network) showed examples of good practices for the distribution and launch strategies of the latest successful documentaries, and tried to provide inspiration and create capacity among the professionals who attended and who, once he had finished, approached him to talk about their interests.
Both for MEDIA and for IBAIA, organiser of the Lau Haizetara Documentary Co-Production Forum, which takes place annually within the framework of the San Sebastián Film Festival Industry Club activities, it was of great value and importance in establishing spaces to consolidate the specialisation and development of new documentary projects. Therefore, they will continue working together in future editions.
The Lau Haizetara Documentary Co-Production Forum is an activity organised by IBAIA and the San Sebastián Film Festival Industry Club, with the collaboration of numerous Basque institutions and organisations whose aim is to develop the audiovisual sector.
