BRITDOC Festival Returns To Oxford For Second Year

After a hit first year, BRITDOC ‘07, "the energetic festival for documentary film," returns to Keble College, Oxford for three days from July 25 to 27.
BRITDOC will bring together many of the most important and interesting filmmakers and financiers, broadcasters and distributors from the UK and beyond help make, buy and sell, great documentary films.
BRITDOC ’07 will feature everything from the documentary dragon’s den in the annual Pitching Forum; to BRITDOC’s take on the speed dating craze with Would Like To Meet; with talks from internationally acclaimed directors such as Larry Charles (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Borat). In the jam-packed screening programme handpicked to showcase the best in documentary filmmaking from this year running alongside; BRITDOC will demonstrate why British documentary filmmakers are probably the best in the world.
BRITDOC’s special theme this year is 'Documentary meets Art'. Selected because documentary filmmakers have much to share with and learn from artists.
At a time when the commercialisation of television has limited the approaches filmmakers can experiment with, independent artists such as Douglas Gordon, Phil Collins and Gillian Wearing have been making free with documentary ideas and providing a pointed critiques of television’s documentary culture.
The festival will be screening short films by artists, and inviting artists such as Gillian Wearing and Jeremy Deller to join our juries and debate their work. Additionally, BRITDOC will host a stunning photographic exhibition courtesy of the Magnum Agency.
BRITDOC aims to bring those world-class filmmakers together to facilitate international co-productions, generate ideas and share knowledge with the overall aim of stimulating the documentary market in the UK and help filmmakers find funding and market their work.
At the first festival in 2006 more than 650 delegates came together for screenings, masterclasses, panels, pitching opportunities and networking events. Over £400,000 was invested in documentaries pitched at the forum. Films in competition were picked up by other major international festivals, sales agents and international broadcasters.
Visit www.britdoc.org
(SP)