Danilo Lazović is a producer, director, and media and cultural theorist. He holds a Master's Degree in Film and TV Production from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. He has participated in various eminent industry programmes like Eurodoc, BDC Discoveries, goEAST East-West Talent Lab, EAVE Marketing, and is an Erich Pommer Institut alumnus. An interview with him, producer for Serbian company DOK33 Production, and now selected for the 2025 Emerging Producers programme (read his EP profile here).

Why do you produce documentaries? Do you see documentary cinema as an instrument of social and political change?
Danilo Lazović: I try to illuminate the abyss. Cinema alone does not change the world, but culture does. A film can stir emotions, provoke thought, and open a door to understanding, but it does not dismantle systems or rewrite history. What it can do is reveal – madness and beauty, despair and hope, the intricate chaos of human existence. That is enough for documentary filmmaking.

How do you achieve and maintain work-life balance and foster overall well-being?
The best I can do is hit the gym. So the more stressed I am – the fitter I become, and vice-versa. There’s something simple and direct about it – physical effort clears the mind. There is an equilibrium in this cycle, an unspoken understanding between body and soul.

Where do you find audiences for your films?
Scattered across the world are souls attuned to the strange and ecstatic. Film festivals become their gathering places, sanctuaries for those who crave something beyond the familiar. The films send out signals, and those who are meant to receive them, do. But, I am also aware of developments in different marketing strategies to help those signals grow stronger and have a wider reach.

What projects do you have underway (including fiction films and other projects)?
Besides In the Capsule, I’ve started developing a project on Zenitism, a Yugoslav avant-garde movement from the 1920s that positioned itself against Surrealism. It was radical, industrial, and full of energy. I see it as a TV documentary, something that brings the movement back into focus but also has a faster pace of production process. The past isn’t just history – it shapes the way we think today.

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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 2026 edition is 31 March 2025.