Algiers - How can documentary producers and distributors in the Southern Mediterranean region make best use of the funding, coproduction and distribution opportunities available to them? How can one connect both sides of the Mediterranean to enable these works to exist and to circulate? Euromed Audiovisual is to hold a conference on documentary production in the Arab world today on Tuesday, January 28 at 3pm at the Filmathèque Zinet in Algiers.

The event is to be held on the fringes of the Algiers European Film Days, a festival organised by the EU Delegation in Algiers with the participation of the cultural services of EU member states.

During the conference, Jad Abi-Khalil, director of DOCmed, a professional training programme co-funded by Euromed Audiovisual, will present a funding guide for producers with a documentary project. Euromed Audiovisual experts will also present studies on the sector in the region, as well as legal databases.

Regularly updated and available on the programme's website, the legal database offers access to laws relating to copyright and to the audiovisual industry across the region. The programme will also present the South Mediterranean Film Catalogue launched at Cannes 2013, which gathers information about 130 fiction and documentary films produced in the region between 2011 and 2013, including 12 Algerian films.

The EU-funded Euromed Audiovisual III programme aims to contribute to the development and strengthening of the capacity of the film sector in the ENPI South region (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Tunisia) and to contribute significantly to mutual understanding, intercultural dialogue and cultural diversity, in line with the “Strategy for the Development of Euro-Mediterranean Audiovisual Cooperation” approved by Euromed culture ministers in Athens in May 2008.