The 18^th edition of the ZagrebDox International Documentary Film Festival recently drew to a close, and this year, the major Croatian event returned to its usual venues and unspooled close to its original dates. Cineuropa met up with its founder and director, Nenad Puhovski, to gain an insight into this edition of the festival, the changes afoot in the film industry, and his expectations for documentary production on both the local and the international levels.

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Cineuropa: This year, you wrapped the 18^th edition of ZagrebDox; what was this experience like after a series of special editions that you organised for the past two years, and what has changed for the festival?
Nenad Puhovski: Given our firm belief that the film festival is a place where people, audiences, auteurs and other film professionals meet, we have never shown films online. Of course, owing to the pandemic, but also to the earthquakes in Zagreb, we had to adjust the dates of the festival, reduce the scope of the programme, significantly lower the number of guests and organise our industry section online. Our audience supported us, and this year, when we returned to the previous venues and approximately the same dates, they flocked back in significant numbers.

Was it hard to approach “adulthood”?
As far as our “adulthood” is concerned, we consider it only one more obligation, with even less room for mistakes. Yet, as always, we try to maintain some balance between seriousness and informality.

As for the ZagrebDox Pro industry strand, you also altered its format by inviting up-and-coming filmmakers with their projects. How did this decision work for you, and how do you expect to follow up on this initiative in the future?
A lot has changed in the film industry, and also at festivals, in the last two or three years. I believe that we are all closely following these changes. Above all, we are experiencing a kind of globalisation as a result of the possibility for films to be seen anywhere, both geographically and technologically speaking. This, it seems to us, is also true for the classic “industry” and pitching sessions that recently took place mostly online, but also with a significantly altered participant structure. This year's ZagrebDox Pro was a kind of transition and served as research into a future format that we are still exploring – in collaboration with our partners, of course. An additional challenge, naturally, is the fact that no one can predict how the global political, economic and health situation will develop in the next year or so, so it is necessary to prepare backup options. It's not easy, but we've already learned that.

Regarding local productions, in recent years, there has been an evolution in documentary production in Croatia. How would you comment on that?
As always in life, there’s good and bad news in our line of business. The good news certainly relates to new generations of documentary auteurs who are tackling a whole range of important topics, and are doing so in a contemporary way. The various successes at international festivals, and the constantly growing penetration in cinemas, are a clear sign that domestic and international audiences, as well as experts, recognise these achievements.

What are the major problems that documentarians are facing, and did you provide any particular support for them?
On one hand, there were the aforementioned series of earthquakes, the coronavirus pandemic and the increasingly difficult financial situation. It should be acknowledged, however, that the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC) has indeed met the needs of auteurs and producers, and has tried to help us as much as possible – unlike national, especially public, television channels, which neglect domestic independent documentary production to a large extent.

In your experience, what are the demands being placed on documentaries that are being produced locally and elsewhere?
In my opinion, there is a growing pressure for the vast majority of all projects to be made as international co-productions, which, at least when it comes to documentaries, may not always be such a good idea. This can be for quite different reasons, such as the length of the process, or when some topics have a specific national, regional or international perspective that should be acknowledged. However, these are challenges that have arisen because of European integration, but not only that. As a result, the producers must sometimes decide to work on either a no-budget project or a “Europudding” project. Unfortunately, the recent geopolitical situation and economic prospects, as well as specific national problems, are a guarantee that documentary filmmakers will have a lot of work to do in the future.

Nevertheless, at ZagrebDox, we will strive to present our audiences with the world in which we live, in all its fullness, because we believe that this is necessary in order to understand it and to pave the way for some better, although perhaps distant, future.