The introductory workshop was traditionally held in the Cultural Center of Belgrade
The 20th Interakcija (Interaction): student film camp commenced on Saturday, August 9th, with the arrival of fifteen participants, students of film academies from 12 countries (Austria, Brazil, Great Britain, France, Mexico, India, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Georgia, North Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia). Zorana Đaković Minniti, assistant program director of the Belgrade Cultural Center, Dejan Petrović, artistic director of the camp, Predrag Živković, executive producer of Interakcija Camp, as well as director and Interaction alumni – Isaac Knights Washborn (New Zealand/Scotland) for the first time in the role of Camp mentor, addressed the participants at the introductory workshop in the Artget Gallery in the Belgrade Cultural Center.
During their stay at the Camp, from August 9th to August 25th, the participants work on researching stories for their films, and then they will shoot and edit their documentaries. After the introductory workshop, the students traveled to Čačak, Užice and Požega, where, divided into three teams, they shot three short documentaries.
Short documentaries filmed at the 20th Interakcija Camp on the topic of Community will be premiered on August 25th at the closing ceremony of the Interakcija Festival in Požega.
The international production, educational and programming platform Interakcija has been dedicated to short documentary films for 20 years.
From 2006 until today, 304 participants from 64 countries attended the student film camp. 62 short documentary films were recorded, which were awarded more than 25 times at film festivals around the world. A special success was achieved by the film Valley of the Rulers (director Efim Graboj), which was nominated for the prestigious IDA Award in 2019.
Interakcija Festival presents the highest quality international short documentary film, which contributes to pushing the boundaries of documentary film with its originality and innovation.
The program of films that will be shown at this year’s festival consists of three categories. The competition program contains 15 films chosen by directors Dejan Petrović and Luka Papić, and they are exceptional achievements that have been noticed and, many of them, awarded at the most important festivals in the world (Berlin FF, Cannes FF, IDFA, Sundance FF, Visions du Réel, Sheffield DocFest and others). Since 2011, the documentary film workshop has hosted 209 film professionals from 62 countries, and the lecturers and tutors were prominent professionals: Rada Šešić, Vauter Jansen, Iva Plemić Divjak, Vladimir Perović, Želimir Žilnik, Kris Filipone, Džejmi Meltzer, Inka Ahte, Nebojša Slijepčević, Maja Novaković, Dragan Elčić, Marko Grba Singh and Mladen Matičević.
Meet2Talk, a follow-up program aimed at bringing together industry representatives, is one of the platforms that provides all participants with the opportunity to expand their horizons through discussions on topics important to creative documentary film. Meet2Talk takes place during August, at the same time as other Interaction programs. It includes Talks sessions – conversations with established documentarians and experts, and Speed Meetings – a program for networking professionals.
The Teen Doc workshop, through its previous two editions, provided the possibility of education in the field of documentary film and media literacy for over 40 teenagers from Serbia and the region. This year it is attended by 16 participants from Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. The XR program is the youngest segment of Interaction and has been working for the second year to bring immersive technologies closer to documentary filmmakers and the general public. From August 20th to 25th, Požega will host the XR exhibition “XR Interaction without Limits”, supported by the British Council as part of a wider regional project, where 8 exceptional XR works on the theme of inclusion of people with disabilities will be presented.
Striving to support production, education and promotion in the field of creative documentary film, Interakcija establishes an unbreakable network of cooperation, understanding and tolerance that stretches across all continents.
PHOTO: Independent film center Filmart