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Description
DOC.DREAM services s.r.o. has been organizing the Media and documentary workshop for 13 years. The workshop offers students of journalism, film studies etc. a chance to improve their writing under the guidance of leading Czech journalists, critics and theorists, who guide the seminar’s participants in learning to see documentary film from many different angles, subject it to analysis, and find and form arguments that best support the main theses of their texts.
Starting from 2020, the organiser will offer to serious applicants a chance to learn to think about documentary film in broader, international context.
The Media and documentary workshop 2.0 will offer lectures, seminars and workshops and practical mentoring by excellent Czech and international journalists and film critics.
After the workshop, 5 selected participants will be offered a chance to visit one prestigious documentary film festival (e.g. IDFA, FID Marseille, DOK Leipzig, Visions du Réel, CPH:DOX or Doclisboa) from where they will write their critical reflections on contemporary documentary films and trends with help of one of the tutors.
The partner organisation is the Norwegian magazine Modern Times Review with the editor-in-chief Truls Lie and contributors like N. Young, N. Holsworth and C. Grey. These excellent journalists and film critics will become the mentors in critical writing about documentary films.
Final texts (produced during the workshop and after the international festivals) will be published at dok.revue, the Czech on-line magazine on doc. films. The best articles will be offered for publication to the Modern Times Review.
The upgrade of the workshop 2.0 enables the dialog not only between the Czech and Norwegian film critics and journalists, but also the social and cultural dialogue. It will help in the profesional growth of the young Czech film critics and journalists and enable the exchange of experience and points of view in the field of film criticism.
Summary of project results
Young film critics often don''t have opportunities to enter the professional world and they learn the craft only in an academic environment. The project promoter´s goal was to help them grow professionally and give them the chance to become (published) film critics during their studies.
At the same time, Czech criticism often focuses only on local productions and doesn''t reflect the international context, which has changed thanks to the cooperation of doc.revue and Modern Times Review and the exchange of texts.
The project promoter carried out several activities aimed at the professional development of young critics - the Media and Documentary 2.0 Workshop (2020 and 2021), the participation of selected participants in festivals abroad, their mentoring and the subsequent publication of texts on the doc.revue portal. These activities were important as they gave the participants the opportunity to be part of the professional sphere, to participate in selected events and also provided them with valuable know-how through tutors and mentors. Their texts were published online on the doc.revue and Modern Times Review websites and found their readers.
The project also included a text exchange between Modern Times Review and doc.revue, which aimed to broaden the author base of both media and bring new insight and new topics.
They also focused on publicity, running a campaign promoting the project''s outputs and the project itself on Facebook, Instagram and newsletters, which made it easier for the texts to find their readers.
The main output is the participants´ texts,published on doc.revue and on the Modern Times Review website, lessons in cultural criticism and the texts exchanged between the two. The outputs were fulfilled and the project helped to the development of both media and to the education of all participants. Some of the authors had texts published on the web outside the project, and one of the participants from Year 1 helped organize Year 2. The collaboration between doc.revue and Modern Times Review has also continued after the end of the project.
The project contributed to the education of the participants, their involvement in the professional world, the transfer of know-how and experience. We helped these participants in their future careers and provided them with a space to publish their texts in Czech and international media. The exchange of texts between doc.revue and Modern Times Review contributed to the expansion of the content of both media and the promotion of Czech culture and cultural criticism abroad.
Summary of bilateral results
The project was built largely on a partnership with Modern Times Review (MTR). Authors from this medium were tutors during workshops and mentors for selected participants. They helped participants with the production of their texts and with preparing them for publication. They passed on important know-how, often specific to a medium operating in the international English language market. The second important part of the project was the exchange of texts between MTR and the doc.revue. Thanks to this, we were able to publish selected texts free of charge, thus expanding our content with important texts and bringing more variety to our readers. The publication of Czech texts on MTR also benefited both parties - it put Czech texts and Czech documentaries in an international context and for MTR it meant expanding the content with texts on topics they do not normally focus on. The partnership between the two media has allowed the exchange of texts, which has expanded the content of both portals to include texts and authors that readers would not otherwise have encountered. The exchange of texts has also allowed both to expand their readership through a greater variety of content. The project thus brought new topics and inspiration to both parties, from which they still draw today. The cooperation opened a dialogue between the Czech and Norwegian sides and provided a space for sharing know-how and experience in the world of documentary publishing. Although the project has now ended, the editor of the doc.revue and the editors of MTR are in contact about a follow-up collaboration that should aim to continue the exchange of texts and inspiring dialogue or perhaps even meetings at festivals abroad.