2nd Symposium 2007

Facing the Factual Future

To see who is coming, please click on the List of Delegates

A changing mediascape is rapidly shifting beneath our reality-based feet. A hyperflow of technological advances are accelerating changes in the production, distribution, broadcast and net-casting of documentary and factual film.

We brought together a dozen top-level practitioners, innovators and thinkers from the documentary, broadcast and next media worlds. They have been adapting to, or creating their own futures. We discussed new types of financing, new methods of production, new kinds of distribution, new ways of marketing. The goal was to highlight fresh models, simulations and stimulations. How can producers, filmmakers and broadcasters learn to create, build and sustain their own future?

With volcanic increases in the number and platforms of channels and outlets, and with a thousand-fold explosion in the number of people working in our world-wide community producing documentary, this was the time to look at the future of documentary.

Public television is competing for eyes glued to corporate TV and a whirling, wild web mix without much loyalty to public space, truthful information, brand, nation or identity. At the same time, public television is thinking about re-inventing itself, moving toward models of public service publishing. Accelerated development in the broadcast and documentary industries means that a generation is now measured in months rather than years.

Alongside this tendency, media technologies are expanding exponentially. Passive consumers are becoming active producers. As television transforms itself as it must, then new forms of partnership are opening up. Viewing habits are changing rapidly, audiences are migrating, in large flocks, away from the conventional broadcast. They still want to be engaged, and new opportunities have opened up for documentary makers.

Many important players in the documentary industry are pushing forward original thinking, new paradigms and inclusive, proactive systems for making and distributing documentary content. Collectively, they are developing flexible ways to foster the necessary market, technological and creative conditions to ensure the production, funding and marketing of documentary's future.

Head of Thematic Sessions:
Christoph Jörg, Discovery Campus

Conceptual Adviser:
Peter Wintonick, Necessary Illusions Productions

Moderator:
Claas Danielsen, DOK Leipzig

topDates & Programme

register Fri, 18 May 2007 - Sun, 20 May 2007

topLocation

Literaturhaus München
Salvatorplatz 1
80333 Munich
Germany

The venue is located in the city centre. Click here for directions

topExperts

  • Roy Ackerman Creative Director, Diverse Production, London, United Kingdom
  • Toby Bottorf Director of Design, WGBH Interactive, Boston, USA
  • Frank Boyd Creative Director, Unexpected Media, London, United Kingdom
  • Heather Croall Festival Director, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Sheffield, UK
  • Bruno Felix Managing Director, Submarine, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Marc Goodchild Head of Children's Interactive, BBC Children's, London, United Kingdom
  • Paula Le Dieu Director of Open Media, Magic Lantern Productions, London, United Kingdom
  • Oliver Morse Company Director, Windfall Films, London, United Kingdom
  • Emily Renshaw-Smith Manager, Development and Production, VC2, Current TV UK, London, United Kingdom
  • Jan Rofekamp President & CEO, Films Transit International, Montréal, Québec, Canada
  • Neil Sieling Acquisitions, New Media, and Special Projects, Link Media, New York, USA
  • Caspar Sonnen Coordinator, IDFA Online & New Media, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Robert Thirkell Creative Consultant, Troubleshooter TV, London, United Kingdom
  • Thomas Wallner Director/Producer/Writer, Xenophile Media, Toronto, Canada
  • C. Cay Wesnigk CEO, OnlineFILM, Bad Schwartau, Germany
  • Femke Wolting Managing Director, Submarine, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
top