Symposium archive is here.
Documentary Cinema Symposium 2025
A symposium, in its various forms and discussions about cinema, is an integral, creative, and highly engaging part of a film festival. In our daily lives, we read critics' reviews, and during festivals, we ask directors questions in post-screening Q&A sessions. But sometimes, we want to hear and understand what other filmmakers think about our work—those who, out of professional honour and solidarity, refrain from making public statements about their colleagues' films, do not write reviews, but still have opinions that are valuable and perhaps even useful. In other words, this is an outside perspective in a conversation free from marketing-driven praise, one that does not disrupt the festive spirit of premieres and allows for discussions about what truly matters.
At Artdocfest/Riga, the festival team refers to such discussions as Hamburg Breakfasts, drawing inspiration from an old legend about Greco-Roman fighters. In sold-out matches, they would fall dramatically to the ground on the promoter's command, creating spectacular battle moments for the audience. However, in the evenings, behind closed doors in a Hamburg tavern’s basement, they would fight for real.
For the fifth year in a row, Hamburg Breakfasts will take place, where festival guests—directors and producers—gather at the breakfast table to discuss the films screened the previous day. Alongside the Hamburg Breakfasts, the symposium will feature two open panel discussions, where film industry professionals will address pressing challenges and trends in the field.
Kristīne Briede
Documentary filmmaker, producer, and publicist
SYMPOSIUM EVENTS
“Films for Festivals or Festivals for Films?”
March 6, 17:00, Splendid Palace
- To what extent do a film’s content and artistic quality determine its selection for a festival? In today’s landscape, should filmmakers take festival requirements and current trends into account to increase their chances of being selected?
- This discussion will focus on creative freedom versus the need to adapt to festival audiences and curatorial decisions. Should filmmakers develop a festival strategy during the filmmaking process, or should festivals adapt to the diversity of films?
- The panel will help participants understand how to create a film with international potential and provide practical advice on navigating the festival circuit.
- The discussion will feature directors of international festivals, selection committee members, and filmmakers.
“Alternative Distribution for Documentary Cinema”
March 7, 17:00, Splendid Palace
- Today, the distribution of documentary films is no longer limited to traditional cinemas and television. New technologies have significantly expanded the ways in which documentaries can reach their audiences, offering innovative and interactive solutions.
- Digital platforms, streaming services, social media, virtual and augmented reality, as well as unique events and pop-up screenings, allow documentary films to go beyond traditional formats and reach new audiences.
- This discussion will explore alternative distribution strategies, their advantages and challenges, and showcase successful case studies.
- How can a filmmaker find their audience? What distribution strategies are the most effective? How can documentary cinema adapt to the digital landscape?
- The panel will include curators from digital TV networks, platforms, and channels.
ArtdocFest/Riga Symposium
Hot-spot driftage or cameras of the First World are looking for emotions. Is it boring to film at home and whether or not Baltic poetic cinema has lost its voice and nerve in front of the big market? The mission and identity of a documentary filmmaker today. How does cinema change the perception of paradigms?
During nearly 30 years the legendary Riga and Jurmala documentary symposiums (1977-2007) blasted the documentary harvest and raised its strength.
"It was a fresh and ozone-saturated air, which is very important to breathe and feel in the process — not only in one's work but in the collective world, its closest and furthest borders.” /Herz Frank/ 1
We are not the "legitimate" heirs of the symposium, but we are once again inviting documentary filmmakers and scholars together to discuss art, thought and perspective of a modern film and together search for a “Reality reflection in documentary cinema”. 2
Artdocfest/Riga Symposium is a gathering of documentary filmmakers and theoreticians and aims to create a temporary, inspirational space of thought: transfering the knowledge, highlighting the tendencies and discussing the developments within the field. The context of the region, Zeitgeist, films presented at the festival and visions of future perspectives are important and taken into consideration.
1 Herz Frank is a famous Latvian film director, and the Artdocfest/Riga festival Baltic Focus program award is named after him.
2 The title of the first theoretical documentary symposium in 1977.
Symposium archive is here.