The arrival of autumn marks one of the busiest periods for documentary production in terms of markets and festivals. In this sense, as a production company established in Barcelona, we are lucky to be near one of the most renown documentary markets nationwide, MEDIMED,

held in Sitges and beginning this Friday for the 15th consecutive year. For this special occasion, we’ve interviewed the director of market Doladé Sergi, who explains the news, the reasons and the secrets of this 15th edition.

1.This year is the 15th edition of the market. Are you holding any special celebration?

Every year we celebrate that we exist, but this year we’re celebrating the more than 250 documentaries produced during the last 14 years (“Google and the World Brain” among them), thanks to PITCHING FORUM and especially thanks to the good judgment of professionals who have joined the project selection committee year after year. We also celebrate the volume of business that the market’s Videoteca generates in absolute terms and we’ve created a new formula that will give a twist to traditional pitching: the ANTI PITCH. We will open MEDIMED House in Hotel Capri where participants can pitch while playing ping pong and table football next to the pool!

2. Why is MEDIMED held in Sitges?

Try to find a town in the Catalan geography like Sitges! You won’t!
It is located in a privileged place, 25 minutes far from Barcelona and the airport. It has an enviable microclimate and it’s one of the few Catalan cities with seaview. Visit the coast and you’ll understand what I mean…

3. What differentiates your market from the others?

The same that differentiates you from me. Each has its own personality. With every market you can achieve different results and objectives and when you work with public money, that has to be the absolute priority. With very few resources, you have to achieve great goals that can be tangible and intangible. What strictly differentiates us from the others, only producers and broadcasters can tell. My answer would be invalid.

4. What feedback do you receive from the participants?

They want to come back year after year! Unfortunately it is not possible. MEDIMED can only accommodate 250 participants and their accreditation is by invitation only. Producers must be selected to present a project or attend meetings one-on-one with buyers and distributors. Over the years, we have formed a large family integrated by TV executives, experts, distributors and producers from Europe and the southern Mediterranean coast that don’t want to miss it.

5. What are the keys to a good pitch?

You must know your project and what you want very well, have stage control, and especially understand that it is an exercise of trust, where being persuasive is essential. A pitch is a staging of the virtues of the project and must be well defined so that the commissioning editors want to know more after the 14 minutes. Seducing and convincing them is a challenge.

6. What kind of projects is MEDIMED looking for?

Good projects. Solid and interesting for the market, useful for the audience and that provide high quality and original creative elements. We could say that most of the selected projects deal with human rights, current geopolitics, the recent past of humanity and art forms. We look for originality in the approach of the documentary work and we like to discover new talent. However, there is a non-negotiable criteria: the project has to be attractive to international television slots.

7. What is the most exciting thing that new technologies can offer to documentary and how is MEDIMED responding to the change that these technologies bring?

The mere fact that the new technologies are already useful and accessible to the creators of audiovisual content is exciting. This year, with the support of Creative Europe MEDIA Catalunya Office, we organize the first edition of MDMD CROSSTRAINING, an exclusive 48-hour stage for 7 Spanish producers who are developing a webdoc project. They will have the unique opportunity to have 7 international experts guiding their projects so they can improve key aspects to ensure funding. We are very happy to have Amélie Leenhart from Tribeca Film Institute, Clint Beharry from Harmony Institute, Gerry Flahive from Modern Story, Théo Le Du from Cosmographic, Miguel Campos from TVE, Ferran Clavell from TVC, Jordi Martin from Ubisoft and Alex Pearson as moderator. As you can see, a new challenge that marks a new direction…

8. What are MEDIMED’s plans for the next 15 years?

The English say that there is no better improvisation that the one that is well planned. In MEDIMED we take care of every last detail regarding the aspects of the program content, the selection of projects and finished documentaries, and guests because we want them to have the highest quality experience and to inspire us to reinvent ourselves. The premise is to maintain quality and make no concessions to artifice. This is the plan!
This year we have chosen a leitmotif that can also answer your question: NOMADS OF DOCUMENTARY, in dedication to all the nomads who express stories from all over the world honestly and ethically through narrative documentary. In the next 15 years we will follow their path and once a year we will call them to come to Sitges, the essential, true business and meeting point for nomads of documentary.