EAVE IMPACT examines how to finance and premiere a documentary
- In the third episode of the second season of EAVE IMPACT ONE-TO-ONE, documentary producers Malene Flindt Pedersen and Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen get down to the nitty-gritty of doc funding
In the third episode of the second season of EAVE IMPACT ONE-TO-ONE (see the news), two documentary producers, Denmark’s Malene Flindt Pedersen, co-founder of Hansen & Pedersen Film & Television and former head of development of Short and Documentary at the Danish Film Institute, and the Netherlands’ Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen, partner at Amsterdam-based film production company and photography agency Halal and head of the associated documentary film department HALAL docs, examine the struggles involved in financing and securing a festival premiere for a documentary.
With Pedersen’s statement that “there is a hierarchy of the works that are hard to finance: fiction series, documentary and fiction films” serving as a useful starting point, the two producers unpick how difficult it is to finance a documentary, compared to a feature-length fiction film. They also agree that the funding schemes have been designed to provide more support for fiction, and they suggest different methods of getting a documentary financed more easily through new platforms and by tackling different genres. With the recent success of documentaries at festivals, and taking as a prime example Pedersen’s latest film, Fat Front, which premiered at IDFA, they give useful tips on how to get a documentary financed, as arresting visuals, a catchy title and a good teaser are always needed.
Watch the video below:
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