Call for applications: CHANGE co-production training course 2023–2024

We offer a tailored programme that will take place over three residential workshops with the aim of stimulating and qualifying inter-regional co-production and connecting documentary projects to regional and international markets. Participants will be tutored by regional and international experts.

The first two workshops will consist of five full days of group work, plenaries and individual meetings; the third workshop will take place in the framework of CPH:DOX and consists of workshop days, pitching the projects at CPH:FORUM and debrief of the pitching and developing strategies for the teams and projects after the workshop.

Between the workshops, participants will work on project development with specific tasks and assignments.

The workshops

Development: 4–8 November 2023, Tbilisi

We will dig deep into the core of what the teams want to tell, re-enforce the storytelling and focus on the ambition of each film in terms of impact, awareness and change.

Co-production: 15–19 January 2024, Chisinau

We will expand the participants’ knowledge of each other’s reality, production environment and financing structures. The pros and cons of co-production are used to strengthen each project, preparing them to meet the international market.

Encounter: March 2024 during CPH:DOX in Copenhagen

The projects will be pitched at CPH:FORUM and encounter the international market, leading to the formulation of tailored strategies for each project.

The participants

Upcoming teams – director and producer – with a documentary project in development from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine can apply. We are committed to providing equal opportunity to all. We focus on projects set in these countries that are open for co-production, and we welcome projects in the intersecting fields of documentary and journalism.

The working language is English, and participants should be comfortable with reading, writing and speaking English.

The film project shall:

• Demonstrate that it covers topics of public interest in a professional and ethical way.

• Have an idea of how to reach intended audiences and be a call to action.

• Seek to have an impact on the public debate, leading to potential social, political or cultural change.

Priority is given to productions focusing on issues of gender equality, marginalised groups and minorities, diversity, social change, current affairs and/or human rights.

There is no participation fee. CHANGE provides tutoring, travel, lodging and living costs. Participants will cover local transportation costs themselves.

Application deadline: Monday, 7 August 2023

For further information, please contact Satu Elo, satu@eave.org.

Download the CHANGE application.

This call is organised in collaboration with the film festivals and organisations:

• DocudaysUA – Ukraine
• MOLDOX – Moldova
• CinéDOC-Tbilisi – Georgia
• Golden Apricot – Armenia
• DokuBaku – Azerbaijan
• Georgian National Film Center – Georgia

Some applicants may be invited for an online interview in August to further clarify the application. Final selection will be announced in early September 2023.

The partnership behind CHANGE

EAVE is a professional training, project development and networking organisation for audiovisual producers. Founded in 1988, our objectives are to provide professional training opportunities and to bring producers from different regions of the world together with the aim of facilitating co-production relationships. We believe that the support of independent voices, creative imagination and culturally driven companies within the global media industries is an urgent necessity in the 21st century. Through our work we aim to contribute towards the creation of strong networks of producers and to encourage the exchange of knowledge and skills which will strengthen independent production across the world.

CPH:DOX, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, is one of the biggest documentary film festivals in the world. A festival that continues to develop and expand, presenting a programme that ranges from the works of major international directors to new talents, from large-scale theatrical releases to film and video works in the field between cinema and visual art.

IMS (International Media Support) promotes journalism and documentary film to strengthen the capacity of media to reduce conflict, strengthen democracy and facilitate dialogue. Our work is geared towards helping locally-based public interest media operating in areas of armed conflicts, humanitarian crises and rapid political change to provide the public and civic organisations with public interest content they can trust and use. IMS work in more than 40 countries across four continents with a staff of about 160 people.