The first International Film Camp is coming to Mount Taygetos 

The International Film Camp will occur on Mount Taygetos from July 15th to 25, 2024, and is organised by the Creative Documentary Centre of Kalamata (Peloponnese International Documentary Festival).

The programme aims to create a meeting and coexistence space for film academy students worldwide. It promotes short documentaries, encourages networking, and exchanges knowledge and experiences through working in multicultural crews.

Through masterclasses, discussions, screenings and Q&A, it provides a unique opportunity for students, professionals and nature lovers to learn from leading experts in the field and gain hands-on experience in making environmental and wildlife documentaries.

The workshops will be held as part of an intensive program by established European film directors. The program will allow participants to improve their knowledge and skills in documentary-making through masterclasses, discussions, film screenings and Q&A.
During the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to meet a wide range of film professionals who are willing to share their knowledge of research, direction, and understanding of documentary as a tool for social change and environmental awareness.
The film "Camp" and the workshops will be implemented in the communities of Alagonia and Artemisias in Taygetos (altitude 800m), in specially equipped areas, with the participants staying in Alagonia accommodation.
The workshop will last ten days, during which the students will have the opportunity to visit various places of interest in Messenia and Laconia simultaneously.

At the same time, multicultural programs, screenings, excursions, concerts and parties will be organised in small groups. The participants will create 4 to 6 short documentaries under the guidance of the program presenters.

CONDITIONS - PARTICIPATION CRITERIA

Twenty, ten Greek and ten international, student entries of film production, directing, cinematography, sound recording and editing will be selected. The workshops/seminars will be held in English.

Criteria
Those interested should:

To have studied/are studying directing, photography, sound engineering, editing or film production.
Be fluent in English.
Optionally (but will be given particular weight in the selection process), they have participated in the production of at least one short documentary or fiction film.
ATTENTION: Applications from self-taught young filmmakers will be accepted. However, they must submit their work or an excerpt from it.

COST
The cost of participation is set at 600 euros.

The organisers will provide food, accommodation, transport from Athens and Thessaloniki to the village of Alagonia in Taygetos and the necessary technical filming equipment.

Participants are required to have their personal computers.

They are also burdened with the following potential costs:

Transportation (round-trip ticket) from the participant's country/city of origin in Greece and to the group's predetermined meeting and departure point in Athens or Thessaloniki.
International travel health insurance (for participants residing abroad)
Visa issuance costs (if required to enter Greece)

APPLICATION SUBMISSION
Those interested are invited to complete and submit the interest form, where they are requested:
Personal and contact details
Faculty/Department of Study
Brief CV
Justification of interest
Movie link

The deadline for submissions is strictly until May 31st, 2024.

HEAD OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME
Iakovos Panagopoulos

Dr. Iakovos Panagopoulos is an Assistant Professor in the Audio and Visual Arts Department of Ionian University. His field of knowledge is "Film Production with Specialisation: Creation of Audiovisual Narratives."

He completed his PhD thesis in cinema practice, with the primary subject being Theodoros Aggelopoulos's work, at the University of Central Lancashire under the title "Reshaping Contemporary Greek Cinema Through a Re-evaluation of the Historical and Political Perspective of Theo Aggelopoulos's Work." Iakovos also completed his postdoctoral research at the Social and Political Sciences of Panteion University.

He is an active researcher with many international publications. He is an official StoryLab International Film Development Research Network researcher and a scientific associate at InArts (interactive research lab). He is also a researcher at Ergasto 

of Conflict Politics at Panteion University and researcher at the Culture, Borders and Gender Study Laboratory of the Department of Balkan, Slavic & Oriental Studies at the University of Macedonia
In addition to being an academic researcher, Iakovos also deals with cinema in practice. He is an award-winning director of short fiction films.

TEACHERS
Erik Knudsen
Erik Knudsen is a Professor of Media Methodology at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. He has been Professor of Visual and Digital Culture at Bournemouth University, Professor of Film Methodology at the University of Salford in Manchester, UK and Head of the School of Media, Music and Performing Arts at the University of Salford. He frequently visits international film schools where he conducts workshops.

Robert Rombout
Robert Rombout was born in Amsterdam. He is an independent filmmaker and an accomplished speaker, as well as a teacher and jury member. He was a professor at the LUCA School of Arts in Brussels and co-founder and executive of the DocNomads program (an international master's degree in documentary production). He is a professor at the INSAS school in Brussels and a lecturer in France at the University of Paris 8 and the Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg.
For many years, he has held workshops worldwide (in Brazil, Vietnam, China, Canada, the United States, and Lebanon). He has been a documentary filmmaker for over 30 years. In the last five years, he has used other ways of exhibiting his work, with solo exhibitions and retrospectives (Belgium, Holland, Portugal, France, Australia, Azerbaijan).
He recently completed his film entitled "Amsterdam Black & White", a portrait of two places of the same name on the northern and southern sides of the planet, one in the Netherlands, in the province of Dresden, and the other in South Africa, in the province of Boumalanga (90', 2021).

Luke Blazejewski
Luke Blazejewski is a photographer and filmmaker based in Manchester. He works in various genres, including TV shows, documentaries, short videos and digital communication. His clients include the BBC, ITV, the NHS, Greater Manchester Fire Service, the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and the Wildlife Trusts (a federation of 46 local organisations UK, the Isle of Man and Alderney, which focus on wildlife and biodiversity conservation), as well as local authorities and universities across the North West of England.
She uses film and photography to engage people in ideas that facilitate broader positive action and seeks to capture people's imaginations by revealing new perspectives on the world.

MASTERCLASSES

Director of Photography - Katerina Maragoudaki
Katerina Maragoudaki studied cinematography in film schools in Greece, Italy and Australia. Since 1990, she has been a director of photography in feature and short films, for many of which she has been awarded at Greek and international festivals (Drama, Thessaloniki, Alexandria). He has also worked for television in documentaries, series and commercials. Since 1992, he has undertaken the lighting design for over 300 theatrical performances (opera, concerts, musical performances and dance theatres in Greece and abroad). In addition, in August 2004, he undertook the lighting design for the closing ceremony of the gymnastics at the Olympic Games in Athens 2004. Since 2005, he has taught at New York College in the Department of Film Studies, Department of Cinema Photography and Camera. The courses aim at the specialisation and development of students in modern cinema and television.

Editing - Chronis Theocharis
Chronis Theocharis was born in Athens in 1961. He studied cinema, directing and editing in Athens and Paris. He has worked on several important and award-winning documentaries and feature films. He is a member of the Hellenic Film Academy. 1987-present: Editor-Director-Producer. Freelancer for film production companies, advertising and corporate videos, and visual, archaeological and creative documentaries. 2006-2011: Curator Editor-Director of the film archive of the National Audiovisual Archive (EOA).

Sound Engineering/Sound Design - Apostolos Loufopoulos

Apostolos Loufopoulos is a composer, sound designer, and Associate Professor of Sound and Image at the Ionian University, PhD City University, London. He creates sound and music for cinema, video, theatre, installations, and audiovisual applications. His work has been acknowledged worldwide, winning 19 awards in international competitions (Ars Electronica, Bourges, Noroit, Metamorphoses etc.), well-known events (HELEXPO, ADAF, Athens Science Festival, AVARTSFest etc. at the Megaro Musikis, TIF, EMST, Stegi Grammaton and Arts) and recorded in 15 albums. His research concerns soundscapes and music through research projects, conferences and other events. He is a founding member of ESSIM and the Acoustic Ecology Society.

* Upon completion of the workshop, participants will be given certificates of participation.

From Fiction to Documentary: Eclectic Affinities | Dimitris Bavellas

It is a masterclass on the similarities and differences between two film genres that are seemingly close but are entirely different worlds. The students will discuss how we operate in each genre in the script, the production set-up, the directorial approach, how we manage the editing and the always tricky distribution.

Dimitris Bavellas was born in Doorgouti. He studied directing at the Stavrakos School and received acting seminars from Dimitris Mavrikios at the "Theatre of Changes". He has directed feature and short films, documentaries, video clips, television shows, corporate videos, etc. Furthermore, he has worked for several years as a music producer at the radio stations "Flash 96.1", "Melodia", and, most recently, on online Strummerradio. His two feature films, Runaway Day (2013) and The Search for Laura Durant (2019), have won awards abroad and continue to be screened in Greece and abroad.