Beyond the DMZ to Asia’s Documentary Hub

DMZ industry supports documentary creators in Asia and communication inter-Asia by operating various programs such as fund, pitch, match, and awards.

What is the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival?

The 2020 DMZ International Documentary Film Festival was held for 8 days from September 17 to 24. This festival has been held annually for more than 10 years since 2009. It seeks to inspire the regeneration of Korea, a land with a violent and tragic past, as a venue for a festival that enables people around the world to interact through documentary films that convey messages of peace, communication, and life. Additionally, it seeks to foster fair competition among international documentary film creators.

 

The featured documentary films explore viewpoints in understanding the world around us as mirrors that reflect various insights, evoking pure impressions with genuine reflections of a world that has not been shrouded.

 

What is DMZ Industry?

DMZ Industry provides multifaceted support for stimulating documentary production by discovering promising documentary projects in Korea and Asia and establishing a customized support system that encompasses each stage in the creation process from planning and development to production, as well as investment attraction, post-production, and distribution.

 

As the DMZ Film Festival has emerged as one of Asia's leading documentary film festivals in the past decade, a new role for the festival was sought for the next decade. DMZ Industry has undertaken the development of the film festival as a platform that affects a wider range of documentary film industries beyond those pertaining to the Korean documentary industry. DMZ Industry is strengthening its role as a conduit for exchanges among Asian documentary creators by encouraging close ties between major documentary film festivals and related industrial platforms that are actively operating in Asia. It plans to solidify this foundation for solidarity and collaboration so that it can expand the value of Asian documentaries, uniting related spirits through the language of film and diversity of Asia.

 

Why "Inter-Asia"?

In terms of the global industry, there are physical, cultural, and infrastructural limitations on the introduction of Asian documentary films to wider markets, namely those of Europe and the U.S. Concurrently, Korea is a leader both in terms of the quality and size of the Asian documentary market. Thus, the DMZ Documentary Film Festival plays a major role in the inter-Asian documentary market beyond Korea, and aims to serve a bridging role through which documentary exchanges between Asia and the West can be extended.

 

Programs

1. DMZ Docs Fund: After selecting documentary projects, the DMZ Docs Fund provides supporting funds for production. It also offers in-kind items covering the entire documentary production process from planning and development to post-production and release.

 

2. DMZ Docs Pitch: This is a specialized platform designed to open up opportunities for co-production, investment, and distribution of original and competitive projects. DMZ Docs Pitch is geared for projects in the rough-cut stage in which the first edit has been completed. These projects are introduced to domestic and foreign documentary industry representatives working in the fields of broadcasting, distribution, and investment at pitching events categorized by production stage.

The participants are having conversation in the middle of the "DMZ Docs Match" program

Ⓒ 2019 DMZ International Documentary Film Festival.

3. DMZ Docs Match: This is a business-matching program that aims to foster substantial business outcomes such as pre-purchase, export/investment, and signing of excellent documentary projects carefully selected by the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival. By analyzing the needs and business strategies of each project, DMZ Docs Match enables the arrangement of customized one-on-one meetings between project officials and decision-makers.

 

4. DMZ Industry Awards: Through appropriate recognition, DMZ Industry Awards offers money, in-kind, and matching fund supports.

 

Main selection criteria for funding, pitching, matching, and awards

According to DMZ Industry officials, the most important factor in the selection process is marketability. Documentary creators often struggle with production for a variety of reasons. However, it is often not easy to predict the future marketability of a given work. DMZ Industry evaluates and judges the excellence and marketability of works, and supports necessary areas for creators such as funding, promotion, and mentoring.

 

Of course, a lack of marketability does not mean that a given work cannot be supported at all. DMZ Industry also pursues a concurrent initiative of discovering works that can contribute to society through originality, which is the essence of documentaries.