In 2009, the DOCNZ Summit will be held 23-25 February in Auckland. The Documentary New Zealand Trust organizes the DOCNZ Summit. Our mission is to organize and run an industry event designed to bring local and international filmmakers, industry and officials together for master-classes, panel discussions, co-production opportunities and other industry networking events. We anticipate that we will have a huge influx of overseas filmmakers, industry and government officials attend.

In the past, the DOCNZ Summit has, through the DOCNZ Pitching Forum and networking events, successfully enabled filmmakers to introduce and pitch their projects to seek funding and sales.

Filmmakers have found the master-classes and seminars useful to up-skill their knowledge as well as be informed on international trends and developments. The networking opportunities have allowed filmmakers unprecedented access to international and national commissioners, buyers, sales agents and festival programmers. DOCNZ Summit provides all of this in one location in New Zealand rather than for individuals to travel to various festivals and markets overseas at great cost.

DOCNZ Summit is associated with the Expanding Documentary Conference which will be held 21-22 February. Together, this will make the combined events the pivotal and key documentary event of New Zealand. Both events will be held at the Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland.

The Documentary New Zealand Trust will inaugurate the DOCNZ-Goethe Institut German Scholarship which will select a mid-career documentary filmmaker to visit Germany and develop a documentary in the process. This is the first ever documentary film scholarship in New Zealand and the German authorities are working hard to make it a success. Further, a delegation of senior German filmmakers and industry will visit. Auckland City is also supporting this as there is a sister relationship with Hamburg which we will also promote through this German Focus. International filmmakers and industry are being brought to New Zealand as part of our initiative to develop co-production opportunities and to also teach new skills to our filmmakers.

Contact:

Postal Address

The Documentary New Zealand Trust
PO Box 90943
AMSC
Auckland 1142
New Zealand

Tel: +64 9 360 0329
Fax: +64 9 360 0163
mail: info@docnz.org.nz
web: www.docnz.org.nz

[SOURCE: DOCNZ Summit]