Pitching is one—but not the only—essential moment in the development stage of a documentary project. Like a part of the whole body, pitching plays a functional role in driving and being driven by various other processes in the long journey of documentary production. As Paul Pauwels told IDOCLAB 2024 participants in his session, “Those few minutes when the spotlight is on you are just one part of a much longer process. There will be many more steps, and the outcome of your efforts will depend on all those moments combined.”
Nevertheless, the role of pitching is significant for filmmakers to ensure a smooth process from pre-production and post-production, to the distribution of their documentary projects. Like an “open house”, a pitching forum allows filmmakers to meet and connect with potential funding sources who are expected to partner with them to realize their documentary projects. Furthermore, the pitching forum can also serve as a mutually beneficial long-term networking tool for the documentary practitioners in the future.
Considering this, the second workshop of IDOCLAB 2024 focused on equipping the participants with intensive facilitation in the form of courses until the final pitching presentation. A total of eight teams consisting of directors and producers of selected IDOCLAB 2024 documentary projects conducted the final pitching on Friday, November 8, 2024 at GAIA Cosmo Hotel, Yogyakarta. Not only by mentors, the IDOCLAB 2024 pitching forum, which will determine the three projects to be awarded production funding, was also attended by a series of professional panelists. They are Swann Dubus, (French filmmaker), Amelia Hapsari (Ashoka Communications Director), and Thong Kay Wee (SGIFF Program Director).
“The pitching forum is an important part that cannot be left out of the whole process of working on a documentary project because it is very serious. Pitching becomes a real laboratory to improve the capacity of directors and producers. Hopefully, through this IDOCLAB pitching forum, we can produce more documentaries that tell the story of who we are—who Indonesia is.” Thus said Marlina Machfud as Pamong Budaya (Cultural Advisor) of the Indonesian Ministry of Culture in her brief speech at the final pitching forum of IDOCLAB 2024 on Friday (8/11).
There were eight selected projects that had the opportunity to present their pitches to the mentors and panelists at IDOCLAB 2024. The eight project titles are: Radu (A Ghost Story from Reba), Agoni dan Batu-Batu dari Timur (Agoni and Stones from the East), Naga-Naga Telah Menghilang (Dragons Disappearance), Masih ada Ikan di Laut (Fish on the Sea), Bonus Umur (The Extra Years), The Final Days of Alverno, Gejolak Insan Muda (The Turmoil of Young People), and The Unknown Prologue.
Each team had seven minutes to present their proposal and show a trailer of the documentary project they were working on. Various themes ranging from history, family relations, indigenous people, nature and the environment, social and economic issues, human rights, to the topic of self-existence were present in this pitching forum. In line with the mission map initiated by IDOCLAB, the diverse themes of these documentaries are expected to be able to represent the authentic visual reality of Indonesia that is also connected to actual themes in the global community.
Covered by Hesty N. Tyas on 8 November 2024. (Ed. Vanis/Trans. Naufal Shabri)
