Oscar-nominee to keynote at MIPDOC 2008

American scriptwriter, director and producer Alex Gibney

Gibney is involved with two Oscar-nominated documentary films, Taxi to The Dark Side as director and No End in Sight as executive producer. With his non-conformist style, Gibney has won many nods including the Independent Spirit Award, WGA Award, and Emmy Awards and his films are selected for many international festivals, including Sundance and Berlin. He made his name through his ambitious and sometimes provocative documentaries, on the burning issues of the day, including Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Taxi to the Dark Side; on society issues, including Sexual Century, Soldiers in the Army of God; and on music, like Herbie Hancock: Possibilities and Lightning in a Bottle.

Lynne Kirby, SVP original programming and development, Sundance Channel, will interview Gibney after his keynote on Sunday 6 April.

Trailblazers

Chosen for their innovative and pioneering work, the five MIPDOC Trailblazers of 2008 are: Rea Apostolides, producer (Greece); Bon Hwan Ku, director (South Korea); Yufuko Kuroda, director (Japan); Daniel Cross, director, producer and executive producer (Canada); and Karin Slater, director (South Africa).

They were selected by a global jury of reputed international documentary associations and festivals, including Documentary Organisation of Canada, European Documentary Network (EDN, Denmark), Encounters Documentary Festival (South Africa), EBS International Documentary Festival (EIDF, South Korea) and the association of All Japan TV Programs (ATP).

The third MIPDOC International Trailblazers is also partners with the Sundance Channel, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and the Korean Broadcasting Institute (KBI).

“MIPDOC's vitality is driven by the creative and innovative professionals that network together from all across the documentary world. As the world's largest screening event for the Documentary genre, MIPDOC gives these programmes and, indeed, all doc projects a chance to shine,” says Paul Johnson, television division director of Reed MIDEM.

In 2007, MIPDOC saw record participation, welcoming 469 companies from 60 countries. 1311 programs were presented, including 944 new programs.

For more information, go to www.mipdoc.com.