The Ex Oriente Film workshop's inaugural session took place from 17-21 June in La Rochelle, France, in collaboration with Sunny Side of the Doc. The workshop, organised by the Institute of Documentary Film (IDF), is a comprehensive training programme specifically designed for Central and Eastern European creative documentary films and series. The focus is on projects in the developmental or early production stage, providing guidance on their development and funding.

A total of 12 feature films and, for the first time, five documentary-series projects received in-depth training (see the news). Participants had a valuable opportunity to work closely with international experts, who offered supervision and feedback on various aspects of their projects. This included discussions on topics, characters and narrative structure, as well as production issues and potential co-production opportunities.

Zdeněk Blaha, the manager of IDF's East Doc Platform, expressed how delighted he was with this year's edition, emphasising the inspirational nature of the event: “It’s all thanks to our fabulous partnership with Sunny Side of the Doc, which will host the new Ex Oriente Series programme in the coming years as well.”

Ruth Reid, producer and leading tutor at Ex Oriente Series, highlighted the immense potential within the documentary-series genre. She noted: “The documentary series is a genre with endless possibilities. It’s one that has challenged our industry’s practices and opens new doors to audiences we have never met before with creative documentaries.”

One of the participants, director Timo Novotny from Austria, who was on site with the series project Exit Only, shared his enthusiasm about the first session, giving it a glowing review: “We had an amazing time with amazing tutors who picked our brains a lot. For the second session, I would really like to know how we can approach the big streamers because I love to think big, and I really want them to come on board.”

The Ex Oriente Film workshop gained added value through its partnership with the American Film Showcase. This collaboration brought along lecturers like Chinese-US director Nanfu Wang (One Child Nation) as well as scriptwriter Victoria Bruce, plus Matthew Syrett, the lead story producer of the series MerPeople. Furthermore, the session benefited from contributions from Diana El Jeiroudi (Republic of Silence [+lee también:
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The second session of the Ex Oriente Film workshop will take place in Germany for the first time, during DOK Leipzig in October. The third and final session will be organised by the Institute of Documentary Film during East Doc Platform in March 2024, in partnership with the One World IHRDFF.