WCF Doc Day 2017

Berlinale World Cinema Fund – WCF Doc Day 2017

Documentary directors are unique students and do not fit in a school. Who is going to help them?  Well, at least there is a counsellor office called WCF who will listen to them…

WCF, the World Cinema Fund, is an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival, supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institute.  Here, many foreign documentary directors get enthusiastic and envy Germany’s strong documentary spirit.  As more countries become somewhat secretive and real communication is becoming difficult, the German government does not interfere but gives a platform to directors telling their stories.  Today’s topic was “The Challenge of the Real: What is documentary?  Questioning the meaning and the interpretation of reality.”

Mr. Vincenzo Bugno, the Project Manager of WCF gave an opening speech, followed by speeches of Dr. Andreas Gorgen, Director General of the Department for Culture and Communication of Federal Foreign Office, and Dr. Lutz Nitsche, the Assistant to the Executive Board of German Federal Cultural Foundation.  They believe in cinema and we cannot agree more with the importance of having a platform for real cinema, which is different from the mainstream media.

By attending WCF Doc Day, we sense that this is not a money making business, but rather a teamwork for the love of cinema.  It is interesting to realize that we are all diplomats who need to listen and understand what others are dealing with through motion pictures.  There were four directors who presented their work, all clearly true believers of cinema.  The key is to remain committed.  The presence of such organization encourages many documentary directors and we hope to hear more from the WCF activities.