Call for applications: Verzió Young Documentary Film Critics Workshop

Call for applications: Verzió Young Documentary Film Critics Workshop, Budapest, November 21-25, 2023

If you like watching and writing about documentaries, we invite you to apply for the Verzió Young Documentary Film Critics Workshop, which will take place within the framework of the 20th Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in Budapest, Hungary. The workshop will focus on methods and approaches to writing about non-fiction films. A team of international and Hungarian tutors will guide participants through the intricacies of structuring and publishing critical texts; polish their writing and editing skills; and introduce participants to the existing platforms and publications that feature critiques on nonfiction film. The workshop is open to aspiring and early-career film critics. The working language of the workshop will be in English. Attendance of all workshop sessions on site during the festival is required for participation.

The 20th Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival takes place 22–29 November 2023 in Budapest and several cities across Hungary. 

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.

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.

Consultant:

Anna Babos

Babos Anna is a critic and programmer. She studied film curatorship in Donostia-San Sebastian and participated in the programming practices of various Spanish institutions. She contributes to international and Hungarian journals and magazines, including magyar.film.hu, where she was a member of the editorial board for over a year. Currently she edits the publications of the distributor, Cinema Niche and programs the film cycle of Partizán, one of Hungary's leading media.

What to expect?

  • Writing-intensive workshop on 21–25 November 
  • Free accreditation at the 20th Verzió FF
  • Access to Verzió industry events
  • Hands-on learning from international tutors 
  • Networking with the international documentary community
  • Immersion into a documentary human rights film festival with documentaries from all over the globe
  • Meeting other young film critics, directors, and producers of documentary films

What do we expect from you?

  • A passion for documentary cinema
  • High-level verbal and written English skills
  • Some experience writing film reviews 
  • Attendance of the workshop’s tutoring sessions, masterclasses, and (select) festival screenings

The workshop is free of charge.

Reimbursement for travel and accommodation is offered for 1-1 participants from countries participating in the Doc Around Europe festival network. 

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, and one film review or a short essay, maximum 3 pages in length and double-spaced. If your submission was not originally written in English, please translate it to English. Please indicate that it is a translation. 

Deadline: September 8, 2023
(early applications are welcome and considered in order of submission)

Deadline extended until September 18, 2023!

Applicants will be notified about the selection results via email latest by 30 September 2023. 

For more info write to info@verzio.org.