Jihlava’s Inspiration Forum to include Julian Assange and Masha from Pussy Riot
- JIDFF's platform to enable the meeting of film professionals and significant and provocative personalities is also launching a crowdfunding campaign
The Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival has announced the programme for its Inspiration Forum, a platform intended to facilitate the search for new themes and their interpretations, preceding the filmmaker’s decision as to which subject is to be developed. It brings together film professionals and significant and provocative personalities from outside the film world.
This year, the Inspiration Forum guests will include Julian Assange (via Skype), and Maria Alyokhina (Masha) of Pussy Riot.
At present, there are numerous festival and industry activities focused on the development of an existing topic, the search for co-producers and the extension of distribution possibilities. The Inspiration Forum, on the other hand, presents outstanding personalities from outside the documentary world, who nevertheless appear in numerous documentary films – as they themselves are actors on the world stage.
The entire project was initiated five years ago to open up a debate on topical events – and to reach both festival visitors and filmmakers. Moreover, the Inspiration Forum also helps film professionals to obtain information and feedback that would otherwise be extremely difficult to get. It is curated by Czech documentarian Filip Remunda.
The festival has also launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund the Inspiration Forum. The deadline for contributions is Friday 23 October.
Guests in previous years have included: Gao Xingjian, a Chinese writer, playwright and painter who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, living since 1987 in exile in Paris; members of Femen; Czech artist Kateřina Šedá; Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng, a professor of Political Science at the City University of Hong Kong, and one of the founders of the Occupy Central movement; Russian activist group Voina; and Petr Pavlensky, a Russian conceptual artist and political activist.
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