Lab Doc

For documentary writing

The LabDoc accompanies each year eight Laureates from the Mediterranean basin in writing their first or second documentary film. The projects are selected by a committee of six experts composed of producers and authors.‍

The projects can be promising first drafts, embodied, offering a singular look, which are part of a formal and substantive requirement. The LabDoc then offers support by qualified and recognized speakers through three sessions of one week each, spread over six months in order to transform this first draft into a real construction of a filmic narrative.

The LabDoc aims to develop the quality of documentary writing of emerging authors from all Mediterranean countries so that it becomes films that circulate. Each edition ends with a pitch day in front of production and distribution professionals.

Labdoc was created in 2020 and co-founded with Jean-Christophe Victor.

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Alaa
Ashkar

I think it was the positive energy, the relaxed yet caring atmosphere, the quality of the projects and the people involved that most appealed to me. I learned a lot on a human level from this experience. In this magnificent place, we had the freedom to think freely, and we were free in the way we worked with each other. We were accompanied by two female directors who complemented each other just as we directors complement each other. It was a real pleasure!

Lab Doc Laureate
Aurélia
Makdessi

When I came here, I didn't really have any expectations. I arrived without knowing what I was going to find, I knew what I was going to do, of course, but I didn't have any specific expectations. As time went on, I realized that it totally met my needs and the needs of the film, because I was pushed to my limits. It was absolutely necessary. Above all, they listened to my desire for a film, which was fundamental. My project evolved enormously, from a conceptual project to a film project. That was a big step forward, and I also realized that writing wasn't just a job for you to tell your own story, but that you were there to tell a story that had to be understood by others. Ultimately, you have to have an intelligible discourse, and that's what I think I've succeeded in doing over the course of the Lab Doc sessions.

Lab Doc Laureate
Joel
Cartaxo Anjos

It's quite a powerful setting, spending a week with people in an isolated bubble. Something is built up. I'll be delighted to come back to Lab Doc. It's an ideal setting for developing a project, exchanging ideas and even making progress in writing a future project.

Lab Doc Laureate

A Lab for documentary stories from the Mediterranean

The LabDoc has the specificity to welcome stories borrowed from the richness and issues of different cultures that have in common the Mediterranean, cultures that have sometimes crossed in the course of history in beautiful achievements, but also collided, leaving a colonial legacy often in need of stories.

The links have been woven despite the Mediterranean. Common questions emerge. The LabDoc is a place of meetings and creation for new talents who write and film from the Mediterranean. The LabDoc's laureates represent tomorrow's strength, that of a creative cradle that only asks to take off!

The LabDoc's ambition is to spread a common light, by proposing a space of the sensitive, of reflection on what connects us from one shore to the other of the Mediterranean. This residency is positioned as a laboratory of creation, but also of reflection in order to respond to the needs of storytelling of the authors of the Mediterranean countries from north to south.

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

This session takes place in Marseille during 5 days and is animated by an experienced writer-director. It will be devoted to the issues of dramaturgical construction and the creative potential of each project, according to the modes of distribution (cinema, television, transmedia, etc.). It will also offer the expertise of a co-intervenor writer-director as well as the intervention of an experienced producer. It will alternate between personalized, face-to-face exchanges and group reflection workshops.

At the end of this session, personalized work plans will be sent to each participant for the Skype interview and the 2nd session.

Individual Skype interview, with the referent facilitator, to make a progress report between the two sessions.

After an evaluation of the progress of each project by the participants, they will benefit from the crossed views of the duo and the other participants. This 5-day session in Marseille explores the issues, possibilities and constraints of project construction through the use of images, sounds and editing, with the expertise of one experienced editor per project. Face-to-face exchanges between participants and instructors are privileged, as is the reflection on the production strategy. At the end, a collective assessment will be made and individual objectives will be set.

An individual Skype interview with the referent facilitator will allow for a progress report between the two sessions.

After a group assessment of each participant's progress, the objective of this session is to finalize the writing of each project according to the current writing requirements of documentary files, but also to know how to present them. It alternates between individual sessions, participants in pairs, and group sessions. This session lasts 5 days and takes place in Marseille.

This session lasts 5 days and takes place in Marseille. It offers a preparation to the pitch and offers to the participants to put it into practice in front of professional speakers (writer-directors, producers, broadcasters, festivals...) who will give them their feedbacks.

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The LabDoc, a singular space:

In Sharing

The Lab Doc is a creative space combining the synergy of the group with the personal approach of the author, with a benevolent spirit and openness as common rules to protect it.

In Freedom

The Lab Doc still offers a real freedom of creation, without formatting, with an accompaniment without judgment, in a framework of competence, expertise and exchanges.

Of Opening

The Lab Doc is open to professional and recognized contributors in writing and directing, image, sound, editing and production in order to allow the authors to mentally construct the images of their film, to nourish it, to guide their choices from the writing stage.

In Movement

It is a question of accompanying the author so that he/she weaves links in a back and forth movement between reality and its conceptualization, from the writing and shooting phases, directing him/her towards the keys capable of building the dramaturgy of his/her film.

To Bring to light

At the end of the edition, each project submitted by its author will be confronted to the eyes of professionals from the production and/or broadcasting industry during a pitch session for which the winners will be prepared during two intense days.

Of Community

There is always a before and after Lab Doc. Indeed, the Lab is lived as a real professional and human adventure that creates links that last. The Masterclass and the Pitch also offer a space of transmission with students of the university of AMU. It is also the links that are created with the producers of the Southern Region, and more broadly with the French and Mediterranean producers, by offering them access to projects of emerging authors who will have been brought to a professional level.

Lab Doc 2025

Bring your first or second documentary film project to reality by joining a group of passionate scriptwriters, with experts on hand to support you every step of the way.

Apply now

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