The organizing committee of the Belarusian Filmmakers' Network (BFN) has finalized the list of the participants in the first convention of Belarusian independent filmmakers. From August 18 to August 20, the event will be held in a BarCamp format in Warsaw, Poland.

The BarCamp is expected to be the largest forum for Belarusian filmmakers since the last full-fledged international festival Listapad 2019. BFN received 121 submissions containing proposals for the event’s program, including topics for discussions, master classes, screenings of short films, and presentations of projects in progress.

Vladimir Kozlov, director and writer, will conduct a master class on creating low-budget movies and Maksim Zhbankou, Belarusian culture expert and film critic, will mediate live conceptual discussions.

In addition, representatives of the Belarusian Independent Film Academy (BIFA) will take part in a number of the BarCamp’s events.

The BarCamp will gather more than 70 Belarusian filmmakers from around 20 cities, including Berlin, Białystok, Gdańsk, Haifa, Istanbul, Krakow, Kyiv, Ljubljana, Lodz, Opava, Pavlograd, Poznań, Prague, Riga, Tbilisi, Vilnius, and Warsaw.

Leonid Kalitenya, Manager of BarCamp 2023, comments: "We received many more submissions than expected. The organizing committee had to make difficult decisions. Unfortunately, we had to reject some of the applications. However, we realize the importance of every inspired film industry participant for our shared future in filmmaking. So we have reprioritized the project’s budget to increase the number of barcampers".

Photo by Jakob Owens