An interview with Dragana Jovović, producer for Serbian company Non-Aligned Films and selected for the 2022 Emerging Producers programme. Read her EP profile here.

Why do you produce documentaries? Do you understand documentary film as an instrument of social and political change?
Dragana Jovović: Producing films is a profoundly political act. The privilege of working in the film business carries a huge responsibility. We must choose our topics with extreme care and also consider how we are dealing with them, at what time, from whose and which perspective. All the whats, hows and for whoms have to be covered.

The pandemic had an impact on the entire sector. How did it influence your work as a producer? Have the projects that you work on changed?
The pandemic inevitably affected all aspects of our lives, the projects we work on, the work we do.  Our constantly changing schedules require endless flexibility from all of us (to change deadlines, plans, ideas, work remotely and at any time) which in turn causes stress. Money is losing its value and it is more and more difficult to finance films. Festivals, as places of exchanges and encounters, had to find new mode of existence. And most importantly, the pandemic restricted our movements. The reality was easier to bear when we travelled and occasionally moved out of our own contexts. The pandemic has confronted us with the real world. On the bright, personal side I am very happy that the film we have been working on for a long time, Landscapes of Resistance [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Marta Popivoda
fiche film] by Marta Popivoda, found its place, had a wonderful premiere in Rotterdam and a great festival life last year. Also, during the pandemic, authors I have been working with have just more time and inspiration to write again, and so we are now developing their wonderful future films.

What do you think is the future of the distribution of documentary films?
I would like to believe that the future lies in the distribution of documentaries in cinemas, but I am not optimistic that this will be the case.

What projects do you have underway?
I have a slate of projects in different stages of development:  Experimental film Body in Plural by Marta Popivoda, documentaries That Sound High In The Air by Srdjan Keča and I Want You To Know by Maja Medić, debut fiction features Forget The Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves by Marko Grba Singh and Talk To Me Wind by Stefan Djordjević, and Ognjen Glavonić’s long-awaited second fiction feature In The Shadow Of The Horns that is just being presented at Berlinale Co-Production Market.

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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 2023 edition is 31 March 2022.