RPFF industry: Lecture "Art of pitching vs pitching of art. Reflections on slow pitch"

Lecture by Robert Zuber, Head of PRO programme at ZagrebDox (Croatia), in English. Free entrance.

Does the increasing competitiveness within the documentary film industry result in more high-quality documentaries? Is it the right model for the documentary film market? Pitch as a format for presenting documentary projects has established itself as the only existing, relevant way for authors to present themselves and their projects. But is it the only possible way to achieve visibility and potentially attract new partners for your project? Is there an alternative to the sometimes extremely stressful process in which, over the years, how you pitch seems to be more important than what you pitch? Is there a possibility of creating an environment for presenting projects in which the process is reversed – in which the pitching of the art (of documentary) is more important than the art of pitching? In a non-competitive atmosphere, without the stress of a "winning" atmosphere? It seems not. But if that is correct, can we prepare ourselves for that stress so that, in the end, we pitch our art, not the other way around?

Robert Tomić Zuber is a journalist, director, and producer with over twenty years of experience working as a journalist and editor in the Croatian press, on radio and television, as well as for international media such as the BBC. He has received two awards from the Croatian Journalists’ Association for his work. Over the past decade, he has directed four feature-length documentaries. From 2013 – 2016 he was Head of Documentary Production on Croatian national television. Today, he is a freelancer, the owner of a production house, TOROlab, and a lecturer at Zagreb’s Faculty of Vern. He works as Head of Studies of Balkan Documentary Centre, and Head of Industry of ZagrebDox. He is also the founder and director of RAFF - Rab Film Festival in Croatia.

RPFF 2025 industry sessions supported by National Film Centre of Latvia and Creative Europe MEDIA.