CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Verzió Documentary Film Critics Workshop
Budapest, November 5-9, 2024
Are you a working or aspiring film critic, journalist, writer, filmmaker, artist, or currently studying to be one? Are you interested in documentary cinema?
We invite you to apply for the 3rd Verzió Documentary Film Critics Workshop. The workshop is organized within the framework of the 21st Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, 6–13 November 2024, in Budapest and in cities across Hungary.
You will have the opportunity to take part in a writing-intensive workshop with other documentary film enthusiasts from different backgrounds and cultures; receive valuable feedback from peers and tutors to help polish your writing and editing skills in an intimate and supportive setting; and, immerse yourself in the world of a human rights documentary film festival for five days.
The workshop is open to aspiring and early-career film critics. Selected participants will receive free accreditation to the 21st Verzió Film Festival, access to the industry events, as well as networking opportunities with other critics, filmmakers, and members of the international documentary community.
The working language of the workshop will be English. Attendance of all workshop sessions on site during the festival is required for participation. Online participation is currently not possible. Prior to the workshop, we ask you to attend an introductory meeting online where you will meet your fellow participants and the tutors, and discuss the text you will bring with you for the first day of the workshop.
Select texts will be published on the Verzió Blog – the only film blog dedicated to documentary in Hungary. The workshop is free of charge.
Thanks to the Doc Around Europe festival network, we can cover the expenses of accommodation for the time of the workshop & the travel fee up to 200 € for 1-1 participants from the following countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, South Tyrol, Spain, and France.
Tutors:
Pamela Cohn
Pamela Cohn is a freelance film & video curator, arts & culture writer, nonfiction story consultant and dramaturge for filmmakers and moving image artists. She has worked as a professional mentor for such entities as Open City London's Assembly and The British Council / Scottish Documentary Institute’s program, Connecting Stories. Pamela is the author of Lucid Dreaming: Conversations with 29 Filmmakers (OR Books New York & London, 2020) and produces, writes and hosts The Lucid Dreaming Podcast: Conversations on Cinema, Art & Moving Image in cooperation with Lono Studio, London. She has been a contributing writer for MIT’s Open Doc Lab blog site IMMERSE; Filmmaker Magazine; BOMB Magazine; The Calvert Journal; Senses of Cinema; Documentary Association Europe; and works as a freelance writer for film print and web publications, catalogues and artist materials. Pamela created the blog Still in Motion, dedicated to the documentary form, active from 2007 to 2015. She works as a host, moderator and interlocutor for filmmaker talks, panels and roundtables at an array of international festivals and film exhibition events. Pamela is the 2024 - 2025 recipient of the curatorial residency at HIAP - Helsinki International Artist Programme in Finland.
Zsolt Gyenge
Zsolt Gyenge works as Associate Professor at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (Budapest, Hungary), where he teaches courses in film analysis, avant-garde cinema, film theory, film history, and visual communication theory. His field of research includes interpretation theories (phenomenology, hermeneutics), moving image installations (video art) and Romanian Cinema. He is the author of the book Image, Moving Image, Interpretation: A Theory of Phenomenological Film Analysis (published in Hungarian). He is active as a freelance film critic for more than 20 years, and currently is the editor of the scholarly journal on design culture, Disegno.
How to apply?
Please fill out this form; upload a letter of motivation explaining your interests, experiences, and intentions in terms of writing about documentary film, and one short film review or essay, maximum 2 pages in length, double-spaced. If your submission was not originally written in English, please translate it to English and indicate that it is a translation.
Deadline: 1 August 2024. Applicants will be notified about the selection results via email by the end of August.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at info@verzio.org.
Cover photo: Verzió Young Documentary Film Critics Workshop 2023 (photo: Jennifer Varga)