The Emerging Producer from Serbia explains how the stories that she's passionate about very often become documentary films

An interview with Andrijana Sofranić Šućur, producer for Serbian company Set Sail Films and selected for the 2023 Emerging Producers programme. Read her EP profile here.

Why do you produce documentaries? Do you see documentary cinema as an instrument of social and political change?
Andrijana Sofranić Šućur: I’m always focused on telling the stories and I believe that each story dictates what kind of a film will be made. Somehow the stories that I’m passionate about very often become documentary films. I love the pace of documentary filmmaking – giving stories and author time to breathe, so to say, and I enjoy intimacy behind documentary crews. Documentary topics are often political and can be considered as an instrument of political change. For me it is just one aspect of how documentaries can influence people.

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Where do you find audiences for your films?
This is a very hard question and I often ask myself the same thing. I feel like cinematic documentaries are having less space than in the pre-pandemic time, and that audience is becoming more and more niche.

If we are talking about local audiences, I would say festivals, since documentary festivals are the only safe haven for author films. If we look at the international landscape after the pandemic, the audience is mostly watching films on VoD platforms and on the web but often looking for lighter or sensationalistic themes. Although, there are more and more documentary and author cinema VoD platforms, which is encouraging, in terms of reaching these niche audiences.  Having that in mind I’m focused on audience design because I think that communication with moviegoers is the key to changing the current situation.

What films have you seen recently and would recommend watching?
Mariner of the Mountains [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Karim Aïnouz if you are interested in essay documentaries about revealing your roots, and This Much I Know to Be True [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Andrew Dominik if you are interested in an intimate account on Nick Cave’s music (and love him in general). I’m looking forward to seeing the animated documentary Aurora’s Sunrise [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Inna Sahakyan
film profile] by Inna Sahakyan somewhere soon.

What projects do you have underway (including fiction films and other projects)?
I’m currently developing two documentaries – short animated documentary Total Eclipse with director Marija Stojnić about the unusual reception of the total solar eclipse in FR Yugoslavia, as witnessed by its citizens shortly after the bombing of the country in 1999; feature hybrid documentary When the Phone Rang with director Iva Radivojević, an intimate reconstruction of one important phone call, where author investigates dislocation and the nature of remembering. In the protagonist’s eleven-year-old mind this phone call erases her entire country, history and identity and hides its existence in books, films and memories of those born before 1995. And feature fiction film Usud with director Stefan Malešević about a hardworking man who after his parents’ death splits from his lazy brother, dividing their farm in two. Everything goes downhill for him, so he goes on a journey to find Usud – the god that assigns destinies.

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EMERGING PRODUCERS is a leading promotional and educational project, which brings together talented European documentary film producers. The programme is organised and curated by the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.

Deadline for applications to the EMERGING PRODUCERS 2024 edition is 31 March 2023.