THE EDN CONGRESS IN THESSALONIKI
The first annual EDN Congress, the fruit of the collaboration of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century with the European Documentary Network (EDN), took place on Tuesday, March 17, 2009, with the support of the Thessaloniki Municipal Culture and Youth organization.
As the organizers stressed, this is the establishment of an annual congress, so that it can provide a platform for research, dialogue and action for the international documentary industry.
The Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century, Dimitri Eipides, launched the congress. He said that the meeting of documentary producers from all over the world is extremely important, and stressed that the congress is a wonderful opportunity for the exchange of opinions and the exploration of possible international collaborations.
In his greeting, the Deputy Mayor of Culture and Youth of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, Vassilis Gakis, stressed that the city supports this new institution that helps the development of documentary production. As he noted, important film and television professionals meet for the first time on a European level and it is particularly important that this is taking place in Thessaloniki, the city that loves documentaries and has been hosting the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival for the past 11 years.
The president of the Board of Directors of the European Documentary Network (EDN), Mikael Opstrup, noted that the first annual EDN Congress gives the EDN network the opportunity to grow stronger. “This is the first step toward the development of collaborations between producers and documentary filmmakers from all over the world. We are here in order to share our experiences”. Mikael Opstrup urged the participants to share their experiences and to speak of their successful strategies, as well as the obstacles they each face in their country during the entire process of making a documentary from production to distribution.
Attending the Congress were: Mikael Opstrup (Denmark), Valerie Kontakos and Apostolos Karakasis (Greece), Orna Yarmut (Israel), Tibor Kocsis (Hungary), Dorota Roszkowska (Poland), Irena Taskovski (Czech Republic), Serge Trefaut and Alexander Corn (France) , Joan Conzales (Spain), Raffaele Brunetti (Italy), Martina Durac (Ireland) Steven Seidenberg (UK), Cay Wesnigk (Germany), Katjia Draaijer (Netherlands), Lars Loge (Norway) et al.
