IDPA and DD National signing M.O.U to showcase documentary films . Plans to create a Welfare Trust for Independent producers on the anvil says Mike Pandey

The Independent Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) has made a milestone achievement with the signing of a 5-year contract with Doordarshan to showcase documentaries from all across India., Mike Pandey , the President of IDPA and documentary film maker disclosed this at a press conference which he addressed along with Priti Chandriani , IDPA General Secretary at the 45th IFFI in Goa today. Mike Pandey said that the MOU has been signed with DD National , and under the MOU, the documentary makers will be paid substantially , which will help them to recover their costs to an extent. Explaining the significance of documentary films, Mike Pandey said that they have an educational purpose and must be promoted in partnership with the government as well as banks/institutions under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). For this, IDPA proposes to approach the government to set up a TV channel for value based educational films for which the IDPA will partner with the government and various other agencies. Such a channel will help to achieve better programmes like Swachhta Abhiyan, women’s and children’s health, environment conservation among others by showcasing these issues with the help of documentaries, he added. Giving more details, the IDPA President said that IDPA is trying to create a Welfare Trust for Independent Producers to help them in times of crises. The documentary film makers are educators of future , what they are capturing today will be part of history tomorrow eg documentary films on Jawahar Lal Nehru. Accordingly, the IDPA plans to hold festivals in Universities across India, he added. Mike Pandey said that they are willing to create IDPA centres in states for regular screening of documentary films . He urged the organisers of IFFI to give opportunity to documentary film makers to showcase their films at the IFFI for which a documentary lounge should be created to enable buyers and other film makers to view the films , discuss and negotiate. Documentary film makers should also be honoured and given awards at the IFFI, he added. Answering a question on agreements for co-production with foreign film makers, Mike Pandey said that several bottlenecks exist including getting clearances and double taxation among others.