Locarno Festival is supporting eight South Asian producers
LOCARNO, Italy: It can be challenging to be a producer in South Asia, a region with a severely limited independent film infrastructure.
Which is why Locarno Festival is stepping in to help. For the second year of a threeyear initiative focused on the region, this year’s Open Doors Lab is an intensive networking and training programme for eight producers selected from the South Asian countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“We don’t want to impose any ideas,” explained Sophie Bourdon, head of Open Doors. “The idea is for the producers to find their own adaptation of what we do in the western film industry and take it back to their own country and region, while becoming more internationally engaged.”
The initiative is overseen by Bourdon with Delly Shirazi, Lab head of studies, who has also worked with Doha Film Institute, and brings in international film professionals (including Locarno industry delegates and guests, partners from TorinoFilmLab, Initiative Film, ACE, EAVE and OLFFI, and sales agents, distributors, script editors and fund executives) to talk candidly with the producers about their role in the industry.
Particular focus is placed on the importance of both the development and postproduction stages, which can be overlooked in privately backed film cultures where filmmakers are encouraged to start shooting the moment they have the budget. In contrast, the Lab encourages producers to be more entrepreneurial, and to consider the financial benefits of taking the time to develop and finish projects.
“The trick is to open the door to our world,” says Bourdon. “We want them to understand it and play with it, and try to work with it from their region.
They’re coming from an industry where one person generally does everything.
We talk to them about how to apply for public funds, when and how to work with a local co-producer, how to work with a sales agent and distributors, and so on.”