VIFF 25^th Annual Film & TV Forum Announces Five

Days of Programming

Vancouver, B.C. – The VIFF 25^th Annual Film & TV Forum kicks off with an expanded issue of the successful creative documentary pitch forum, Storyville Vancouver and follows up with thematic streamlined programming on DOC Day, FILM Day, TV Day and New Filmmakers’ Day. The five days of seminars, workshops, master classes and networking opportunities are scheduled for presentation at the Vancouver International Film Centre from September 28 – October 1, plus New Filmmakers’ Day, October 2. From the creators of groundbreaking dramatic and reality-based series, and from Oscar-winning editors to international buyers and commissioning editors, the Forum hosts the very best of filmmakers from around the world.

Storyville Vancouver, in partnership with BC public broadcaster Knowledge Network, is scheduled for presentation on Tuesday, September 28. Aimed at stimulating the co-financing and co-production of the creative, feature length documentary, Storyville has attracted leading international broadcasters to Vancouver to enable filmmakers from the Pacific Northwest to develop long-term strategic relationships and enhance project development. Pre-selected creative, feature length documentary projects, at various stages of development will be publicly pitched to commissioning editors with accredited Forum observers in attendance. Participating commissioning editors include: Murray Battle, Director of Independent Production & Presentation, Knowledge Network; Randy Brinson, Executive Director of Content Development, KCTS 9; Hans Robert Eisenhauer, Head of Thema, ZDF/ARTE; Tom Koch, Vice President, PBS Distribution; Tomoko Okutsu, Producer, Program Development Centre, NHK; and Greg Sanderson, Executive Producer, BBC Storyville.

According to Katrin Bowen, Creative Director of The Forum, “We’ll release the full slate of guest speakers at the VIFF media conference on September 8th but, for now, here’s a sneak peek at some of our creative writers that are participating on TV Day. Interesting Times, Interesting Characters features Vince Gilligan, creator of the Emmy/Peabody/WGA Award-winning AMC series Breaking Bad, and Eric Overmyer, co-creator of Treme and writer on The Wire and Homicide: Life on the Street. Gilligan and Overmyer will discuss the process of developing the key elements that makes for truly great drama and audience loyalty. So You Wanna Write a Comedy…features Emmy award-winning Michael Schur, co-creator, Parks & Recreation and Dave Finkel, writer, United States of Tara as they share their insight on creating characters, story and formatting for a successful comedy series.”

Charlie Kauffman

The 25^th annual Film & TV Forum takes place in the Rogers Industry Centre at the Vancouver International Film Centre, 1181 Seymour St., September 28-October 1, plus New Filmmakers’ Day, October 2. The Vancouver International Film Festival acknowledges the generous support of Telefilm Canada and our major corporate partners Rogers Communications and Visa Canada.

The 25th edition of the Vancouver Film & TV Forum runs from Sept. 28 – Oct. 1
plus New Filmmakers’ Day, Oct. 2.

The 2010 Forum is proud to stimulate the development, co-financing and co-production of the creative documentary by creating Storyville Vancouver, an opportunity for filmmakers based in the Pacific Northwest to pitch their projects to an international forum of commissioning editors.
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What do we mean by a ‘creative documentary’?  Here is our definition:

The creative documentary is the crown jewel of the non-fiction world – passionate, cutting edge, filmmaker-driven, in-depth, up close and personal… These are  projects that take the writer’s/director’s point of view on a real-life subject  in a ‘creative’ manner and require significant writing and research before  filming begins. The format for a creative documentary is therefore relatively  free form and open to the creative team’s interpretation of the subject at hand.
The style and approach used in the cinematography, editing and final composition  of the film makes a statement in and of itself and reflects the filmmakers  underlying POV on the topic or person being considered. The film should be  complete,contained and thoroughly explore a tangible subject or person. A creative  documentary is not: open ended, investigative, educational, “DIY” in style nor  like a news report, a docusoap or a reality show. A creative documentary can  examine a historical event or person but, once again, it must be done in a unique  and creative fashion and not simply recount the past. Numerous examples of the
creative documentary can be found by searching the term on-line.
For more information, please phone: (604) 685-3547, email: forum@viff.org, web: viff.org/forum