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The South African Ikon Documentary workshops are one of the most important part of the development phase of the current series of Ikon. They will serve to introduce filmmakers to the series through the screening of previous Ikon films. These films will be discussed with emphasis on the short form as well as creative techniques used by the filmmakers. We will also invite participants to screen their short documentaries and to talk about their idea, the process, financing and the creation of a platform for these kinds of films. Swedish filmmakers will share their guerrilla tactics in shorts documentary story telling from their experience.

The workshops also serve to ensure national participation in the series and that a broad range of film makes have an opportunity to tell their stories. The workshops will take place in Gauteng, Kwazulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and the Western Cape. Filmmakers will be invited from other centres as well, to ensure broad participation.

We use workshops as a more meaningful and direct method to recruit new filmmakers and new ideas, as well as create a platform where peers can review each others’ films and film ideas in a non-competitive environment.

The workshops are where the first call for proposals and completed short documentary films will be made. There is already a drive underway to consolidate the data-bases from regional and national filmmaker networks to effectively market the workshops to as many filmmakers as possible. Thereafter we will be receiving proposals after which they will be assessed by a panel comprising of all the partners, including RCF, Story AB, SABC and DAC.

During the workshop the idea of the short documentary as a format is explored – as well as the creative formats one can employ in story telling in the short format. Short documentary films are difficult to distribute as single entities and this is why we are working with the SABC and SVT to create a platform for a series of short documentary films. The Ikon platform was very successful in Sweden and ran over 4 years to become one of the most popular documentary programmes with a library of 100 short documentaries. During the workshops, presentations will be given by both South African and the Swedish independent filmmakers that have made short documentary films. Filmmakers will be invited to bring films they have made along and given an opportunity to screen them with a view to interrogating the methods and formats, and give and receive feedback on their work.