Documentary film - a dilema

During the workshop entitled "Documentary Film from Est to West", the directors and the jury members debated the issue of production and broadcasting of documentary films on a national and international level.

Florin Iepan: Things are going better now, in Romania, then they were 10 years ago, film production is higher, but the number of producers with co-producers are still low. Why is it so hard for Romanian producers to get contracts with the Westerners?

Susanne Brandstatter (Austria): It is not a personal problem, it is a matter of profesional trust, a general situation in Europe.

Sabina Pop, documentary director and producer: The Romanian National Television has no money, this would be the problem.

Florin Iepan brought into the discution the fact that in Timişoara new television stations have appeared and are highering personal, but there is still no money for independent producers.

Răzvan Georgescu: With few money, with well prepared people, with a reputation and suport from a independent producer a symbol for succes can be achived.

Florin Iepan: A solution could be a station of our own, of documentary producers. Our stations present only local issues that have no international interest.

Susanne Brandstatter (Austria):You have to know how to present local stories to be of international interest.

Milan Knezevic, director of a large number of documentaries, says that Serbia is dealling with the same situation. At Belgrade the same subjects are beeing discussed.

Herman Barth (Germania), orator of retorical and dramatical structures in film: It is dificult to bring a foreign producer in another country, it takes time.

Susanne Brandstatter (Austria): Producers must seek diferent options to organise in such a way that people understand the value of the documentary film.

The moderator of the workshop entitled "Documentary Film from Est to West", Florin Iepan, drew a conclusion: I'm glad that it wasn't a very animated discution, that we could reach the real problems that documentary films confront at a national level and also at a international level.

Răzvan Georgescu: We are all dealling with the same problem, no matter if we are from Eastern or Western Europe. In the end the problems are the same, the introduction of Romanian documentary producers on the European market, is, in fact, an achievable thing. Unfortunately, it is not a matter of the system, but it is reduced to networking relationship.

Fori DOMAN
Simina CONDESCU
Flori DOMAN