The specific format of a unique rough-cut workshop emphasizing individual approach to projects brings surprising results: half of the DOK.Incubator films premiere at the big autumn festivals.
Entering the workshop in a late rough-cut stage, the 8 DOK.Incubator participating teams of a producer, director and editor work continuously for the entire a period of six-months (May – October), being in a constant contact with their tutors and focus on dramaturgy, distribution strategy and clever marketing.
DOK.Incubator doesn’t select the participants according the topic of their projects – just the initial quality of the shot material and the potential to grow. However, something connects the first four DOK.Incubator films, heading for their international premiere, and it is the incredible energy of their protagonists. How far would you go to fight for your dream, to stand against a far bigger power, to beat injustice?
Sugar Blog (CZ), which premieres right now at CPH:DOX, is a story told by its filmmaker, who realises during her pregnancy that such a simple thing as sugar is actually harming her unborn child both physically and mentally – the effect the substance has on the whole society. A tragicomic, vibrant and emotional story of one mother’s fight against the global sugar mafia.
International documentary spotlight is cast every year at the IDFA Feature-Length Documentary main competition, where the first docu-musical “The Queen of Silence” (PL, DE) will premiere at the end of November. The film’s director followed astory of a deaf girl from an illegal Roma settling, who escapes her everyday struggle into the Bollywood world. Will the stunning world of rhythm, dance and imagination save 9-year old Denisa from being an outcast in her own reality? But DOK.Incubator represents at the main IDFA competition also Something Better to Come (PL, DK) – a film of the Oscar-nominated director, DOK.Incubator observer Hanna Polak, who has been following her main character - Yula over 14 years on her way out of The Svalka, one of the largest junkyard in the world, right outside of Moscow – home to the highest number of billionaires pr. capita.
To the IDFA First Appearance Competition DOK.Incubator sends two representatives. A disturbing directorial debut providing an insight to the attempt of a father to build an ideal family in Always Together (CZ) – if your father decides for you to live without any civilisation – do you dare to refuse? The second film is an intimate portrayal of “Drifter” (HU, DE), a young rebel Ricsi, a gypsy kid from a rural family, who’s trying to fulfill his childhood dream and become a rally racer. Will his only treasure – a rundown, makeshift BMW – make Ricsi win the lacking respect of own father?
The other four ambitious films from DOK.Incubator 2014 are working on their final-cut right now and preparing the submissions for upcoming spring festival season. The workshop itself starts the new season with the deadline for submissions 3rd March, 2015.
