Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event launches a new lab concept - EmPOWR Sustainable Stories Lab - that focuses on sustainable development in the film & TV industry with an aim to encourage creators and production companies to take on positions as role models. The lab presents an innovative, collaborative process to reimagine the current power structures of the Nordic storytelling and production landscapes.
EmPOWR Sustainable Stories Lab is initiated by longtime facilitators and coaches Valeria Richter and Helene Granqvist from Nordic Factory. According to them, it’s time to step up on the global arena and do everything possible to implement sustainable development across the ecosystem of the film & TV industry. “We can all contribute with something. We created EmPOWR Lab to encourage and empower creators and production companies to take on positions as role models for establishing new narratives - off and on screen. During the lab, we present a holistic view on sustainable development and a diverse gaze as natural parts of the exploration of projects in the early stages of development. The aim is to create a positive impact, inspire, change mindsets and strengthen the core packaging and outreach strategies with a sustainable approach in mind. None of us can do everything, but we can all do something,” Richter and Granqvist add.
Sustainability is also one of the cornerstones of this year’s programme of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event. “I’m thrilled that the long-time collaboration we’ve had with the POWR workshop has transformed into this new innovative lab and that we have four strong projects and production companies represented to kick off this new journey with us”, says Marge Liiske, Managing Director of the Industry @Tallinn & Baltic Event.
During the lab, four Nordic and Baltic project teams and a number of guest speakers take part in a 3-day collaborative “think-tank”-workshop in Tallinn. The projects, selected by the mentors, include the series and a feature film. At the story development process the lab proposes to imagine more inclusive and sustainable structures for people and projects to emerge within.
Freddy Neumann, one of the three mentors in the lab working with strategy and communication, comments: “We need to understand, hands-on, how diversity and sustainability can become the qualities and methods that they in fact are, how they are part of a project’s natural DNA. They are not creative sacrifices, they are qualifiers and we need to upgrade our rhetoric and test the best ways to use them creatively.” Also, Swedish eco producer Ronny Fritsche and diversity consultant Sally Fenaux Barleycorn from Spains are involved in the Lab as mentors.
Contributing projects in the first EmPOWR Lab are:
**THE FOOL **/ TV-series / Aurora Studios / Finland
Anniina Leppänen - producer
Marjo Airisniemi - screenwriter
ROSE MANOR / TV-series / Anagram Sverige / Sweden
Ann Lundberg - producer
Fredrik T Olsson - screenwriter
SWEET SIXTY / TV-series / Tuffi Films / Finland
Elli Toivoniemi - producer
Anna Ruohonen - screenwriter
BEYOND THE VISIBLE FLOWERS / Feature film / Kartuliois / Estonia
Tiina Savi - producer
Jaanika Arum - screenwriter