Projects
Projects
Dame Valerie Adams: More Than Gold
Original Title: Dame Valerie Adams-More Than Gold
Directed by: Briar March
Produced by: Leanne Pooley (Eight Productions, New Zealand)
Country of Production: New Zealand
Runtime: 90'
Expected Release: October, 2022
Production Stage: Post Production
Budget: $1,250,000 USD (100% in place)
1st Feature: No
Looking for: Sales Agents, Festivals, Distributors, Buyers
Synopsis:
The inspirational story of one of the World’s greatest shot-putters; Olympic gold medallist Dame Valerie Adams. Tokyo was the Tongan, New Zealander’s 5th Olympic campaign and the culmination of an odyssey that started with a troubled childhood, traversed poverty, health issues and a near death experience…to the top of the sport’s world – where she stands as a role model, a mother, and an athletics icon.
Director’s profile:
Briar March is a filmmaker and Fulbright scholar. Her films have been broadcast on major television networks around the world, have been theatrically released, and are regularly exhibited in film festivals having won over 30 international awards. Her last feature Mother’s of the Revolution premiered at the BFI London Film Festival (2021). Her filmography also includes feature documentaries, A Place To Call Home (2014), There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho (2010), and Allie Eagle and Me (2004), as well as documentary shorts: The Coffin Club (2017), Smoke Songs (2012), Michael & His Dragon (2010), Sick Wid It (2010), and Promenade (2011). In 2011-2012 she was a full-time Instructor in Documentary Film Production at Florida Atlantic University. Briar received an M.F.A in Documentary Film and Video Production at Stanford University, and a B.F.A at Auckland University’s Elam School of Fine Arts.
Producers’s profile:
Leanne Pooley has been a documentary filmmaker for over 25 years. She has directed films all over the world, winning over 30 international awards awards (including Best Documentary at TIFF). Leanne is a New Zealand Arts Laureate, an “Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit” and a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Oscars). Born in Canada, Leanne immigrated to New Zealand in the mid-1980’s and began working for TVNZ. In 1992 she moved to England where she made documentaries for Britain’s major broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 as well as PBS and Discovery in America. Leanne returned to New Zealand in 1999 and established SPACIFIC FILMS. Her documentaries have screened in more than 100 countries and include topics ranging from rugby to the Pope.
Back Home
Original Title: Back Home
Directed by: Nisha Platzer
Produced by: Joella Cabalu (Back Home Productions, Canada)
Country of Production: Canada, Cuba
Runtime: 110'
Expected Release: September, 2022
Production Stage: Post Production
Budget: $249,347 (100% in place)
1st Feature: Yes
Looking for: US and International distributors, sales agents, and film festivals with a track record of working with creative experimental documentaries.
Synopsis:
Back Home follows a sister’s pursuit to get to know her older brother, 20 years after he took his own life. Through intimate recollections re-imagined on 16mm and Super8, and handmade visuals, she connects with the friends who knew him best – his chosen family. Floating between memory and present time, Back Home is a fragmented meditation on the transformative power of grieving in community.
Director’s profile:
Nisha Platzer is a queer artist and filmmaker from Vancouver. Her films meld sounds and imagery that you can dream and drown in. Her last short film, Vaivén (2020) won the best film award at aluCine Latin Film & Media Arts Festival and competed at festivals worldwide including Raindance, Festival Nouveau Cinema, FIDBA and Ji.hlava IDFF. Nisha studied at the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión in Cuba. Her work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council and the National Film Board of Canada. She teaches handmade film workshops and is a member of Iris Film Collective. An alumnus of IDFAcademy, the VIFF mentorship program, and the Hot Docs Doc Accelerator Lab, her work can be found in music videos, narrative and experimental films. Currently, she is in post production on her first feature documentary, Back Home, supported by Telefilm Talent to Watch.
Producers’s profile:
Joella Cabalu is a Filipino Canadian documentary filmmaker based in Vancouver. Her films lay bare narratives about intimacies, identities, and relationships. Her first mid-length documentary, It Runs in the Family (2015) — a personal exploration of acceptance and what the modern queer family can be in the Filipino diaspora — won the Audience Choice Award at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival and a special jury mention at CAAMFest for the Loni Ding Award for Social Justice Documentary. Joella has worked as a producer alongside women directors to realize critically acclaimed short documentaries, including Born Identities (TIFF 2021), On Falling (Tribeca 2020), Biker Bob’s Posthumous Adventure (MDFF 2019), Do I Have Boobs Now? (Slamdance 2017), and FIXED! (DOXA 2017). She is producing her first feature documentary Back Home with support from the Telefilm Talent to Watch fund.
Company of Steel
Original Title: Zalizna Sotnya
Directed by: Yuliia Hontaruk
Produced by: Yuliia Hontaruk (#Babylon`13, Ukraine), Ivanna Khitsinska (#Babylon`13, Ukraine), Alexandra Bratyshchenko (#Babylon`13, Ukraine), Igor Savychenko (Directory Films, Ukraine)
Country of Production: Ukraine
Runtime: 110'
Expected Release: December, 2022
Production Stage: Post Production
Budget: €161,009 (50% in place)
1st Feature: No
Looking for: Sales agents / distributors, co-producers, gap financing
Synopsis:
After enduring horrors during the War in the Eastern part of Ukraine, three young Ukrainian war veterans return home. They try to understand how to live in civil life and to win their private wars. But in February 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine started and they are faced with new challenges of reality. What experience do the heroes gain in these wars, how are they initiated by accepting death?
Director’s profile:
Yuliia Hontaruk is a Ukrainian documentary and feature film director and producer.
2013: Co-founder creative association “BABYLON 13”
2014 Member of the Ukrainian Union of Cinematographers,
2016 Member Ukrainian Film Academy
Producer’s profile:
Babylon’13 is an association of independent filmmakers formed at the beginning of the Revolution of Dignity. The Babylon’13 films traveled around the world, with more than 400 screenings. The films were also broadcasted on the world’s leading TV channels, such as the BBC, TVP, ZDF, RAI and so on. For more than 8 years of it’s activity Babylon’13 has released 7 full-length documentaries on the revolution, annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbass.
Children of the Lowest Heaven
Original Title: Ønskeliv
Directed by: Birgitte Stærmose Mortensen
Produced by: Lise Lense-Moeller (Magic Hour Films, Denmark)
Country of Production: Denmark, Kosovo, Sweden, Norway, Germany (TBD)
Runtime: 80'
Expected Release: May, 2023
Production Stage: Late production / early editing
Budget: € 1,022,400 (85% in place)
1st Feature: No
Looking for: Festivals, sales agent, gap financing
Synopsis:
On the murky streets of postwar Pristina 2009, a group of children sell cigarettes and whisper tales of loss and hope. A decade later these children, now young adults, still fight to survive at the bottom of society in one of Europe’s youngest and poorest nations, where hope is found in religious fundamentalism, or the dream of emigration. A collective portrait of a condition, a state of being.
Director’s profile:
Birgitte Stærmose Mortensen: An internationally acclaimed writer-director of early award-winning shorts and fiction feature films (Darling & Room 304). For the past five years Stærmose has worked internationally as lead director on drama mini-series for HBO, Starz and Netflix (Industry2, The Spanish Princess, In From the Cold and The English Game). She is currently in production on her third feature film Camino. The short hybrid Out of Love, which is an integral part of Children of the Lowest Heaven, was widely awarded internationally and received Best Documentary Award from the Danish Academy.
Producers’s profile:
Film producer, founder, and CEO of Magic Hour Films, a company set up in 1984 and based in Copenhagen. Magic Hour Films develops, produces and co-produces feature documentaries and fiction films for the national and international markets. A large number of productions are international co-productions, and many have received international acclaim, the top winner being Burma VJ by Anders Østergaard with 52 international awards and an Oscar-nomination. Other titles include Into Eternty by Michael Madsen, and Heartbound by Janus Metz and Sine Plambech. In addition, Lise has been teaching international workshops including since 1992 for EAVE, as first group leader, now Head of Studies. Lise also runs a small publishing house.
Bye Bye Tiberias
Original Title: Bye Bye Tiberias
Directed by: Lina Soualem
Produced by: Jean-Marie Nizan (Beall Productions, France)
Country of Production: France, Belgium, Palestine, Qatar
Runtime: 80'
Expected Release: 2023
Production Stage: Post-Production (editing)
Budget: €369,108 (65,13 % in place)
1st Feature: No
Looking for: Gap financing, festivals, international sales agent & distributors, french distributor, buyers, co-producers
Synopsis:
30 years ago, Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass left her native village Deir Hanna in Galilee to follow her acting dream in France. Camera in hand, her daughter Lina questions her mother’s bold choices and the way the women in her family – who she has left behind – have influenced her life. How do those who live on the screen of our memories define who we are today ?
Director’s profile:
French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker and actress, based in Paris. After studying History and Political Science at La Sorbonne University, Lina started worked as a programmer in film festivals, such as the International Human Rights Film Festival in Buenos Aires, among others. Her debut feature documentary Their Algeria premiered in Visions du Réel 2020 and received several award such as First Film prize in CINEMED 2020, Best Arab Documentary in El Gouna Film Festival 2020, Best Feature Length Arab Documentary at Amman International Film Festival 2021, Best Documentary Award at Cinemania Film Festival 2021. Lina acted in three feature films directed by Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbass and Rayhana. She is currently developing her second feature documentary Bye Bye Tiberias, and works as a co-author & researcher on fictions, documentaries and TV series such as Oussekine (Disney+).
Producers’s profile:
Jean-Marie Nizan is a director and producer of documentaries and audiovisual programs. After studying architecture, he turns toward moving images. His films are broadcasted on Canal+, France Télévision, TF1 or Arte. He directed films about cinema in Iran, China, Thaïland, Argentina and in Australia, about the work of Daniel Buren and a documentary on Robin Wood for Arte. With Beall Productions, he dedicates himself to the production of documentaries, including Boléro, A Global Hit by Damien Cabrespines and Anne-Solen Douguet (Arte), Philippe Doumic, the twinkling eye by Sébastien Cauchon and Laurence Doumic (OCS, TV5Monde), The Cinematograph, Birth of an Art by Stefan Cornic (Arte), Mad In Belgium by Yves Montmayeur (Ciné+, BeTV).
Fairy, Einstein and the Cherry Tree
Original Title: Fairy, Einstein and the Cherry Tree
Directed by: Haruo Inoue
Produced by: Mitsuhiro Nakamura (Japan), Makoto Sugano (Japan)
Country of Production: Japan, Kyoto/Hiroshima
Runtime: 50', 90'
Expected Release: September, 2023
Production Stage: In production
Budget: $262,000 USD (35% secured)
1st Feature: No
Looking for: Sales agents, international distributors, Co-producers, strategic guidance, investors, funders
Synopsis:
Sano Toemon, 93 years of age, is a worldwide celebrated cherry blossom expert. Sano – who listens to the « voices » of his beloved cherry trees – has lived through as many experiences as the thousands of trees he cared for but never talked about these. However, he realizes that soon – like the weathered leaning cherry tree he might not be able to save – his juices of life will stop flowing, and his memories will wither away like fallen blossoms. So his grand-granddaughter visits him and, in an intimate conversation, gently rakes together the life lessons he now wants to share with the audience.
Director’s profile:
Inoue Haruo’s film The Reality Behind What We See was selected for competition at 19 international film festivals and won 10 awards including the Best Director Award and Grand Prix. He recently finished a documentary film, Vertigo, in memory of the late poet Jonas Mekas, who was considered the father of American avant-garde art cinema.
Producers’s profile:
Nakamura Mitsuhiro spent his school days in Kyoto and worked as a math teacher at a cram school before entering the TV production business. He has also worked for many years on programs introducing the history, culture, and tourist information of Kyoto and Nara, and has made it his life’s work to make use of his knowledge and connections. Co-Producer, Sugano Makoto has been working as a TV program director on art and science documentaries since 2005. In 2017, he also internationally co-produced a documentary of the first female surfer in Bangladesh. He also plays a role as a committee member of Tokyo Docs, the Japanese largest industry event for docs.
Asteroid 2518
Original Title: Asteroide 2518
Directed by: Amanda Ruttlant
Produced by: Amanda Rutllant (Make More Meaning Media, Chile) Constanza Luzoro (Pataka Animation, Chile)
Country of Production: Chile
Runtime: 62'
Expected Release: April, 2024
Production Stage: Late Production
Budget: $229,847 (31% in place)
1st Feature: Yes
Looking for: Co-producers, gap financing, strategic guidance, festivals.
Synopsis:
As I struggle tu understand my heritage, an autoimmune disease will push me to undertake an unexpected journey through time and space.
Director’s profile:
Amanda Rutllant is a Chilean/Brazilian Documentary Filmmaker and Master in Sociology, passionate for digital and new narrative aproches as well as found footage and home movies. She has worked for the United Nations and International Think Tanks as a consultant in narrative analysis. She started her career in documentary filmmaking in 2014 with her short film Of the 90’s and something, selected to the 10th version of the Rengo International Film Festival. She has directed and produced several short documentary films and has been AD in viral contents for social media. In 2019 she was executive director of the digital platform OpinaDocs, showcasing new chilean short documentarty film talents. She currently works in her own production company/digital marketing agency. Asteroid 2518 is her first feature film.
Producers’s profile:
Constanza Luzoro has a degree in Audiovisual Communication with a mention in Scripts for Film and Television. After working for five years at the Santiago International Film Festival, SANFIC, she worked as an assistant director in several national productions. After, she begins to dedicate herself exclusively to audiovisual production, writing and collaborating in scripts such as the short film A history of two women by Max Sotomayor, the winning documentary of InEdit 2019 Something is happening produced by Red Bull and directed by Tomás Alzamora, the children’s animation series Guitarra y Tambor (PUNKROBOT; HYPPE), and Dream in (STOON). In 2018 she teamed up with Kike Ortega to found the audiovisual content platform PATAKA, where she currently produces the 2D animation series Outlandish, winner of Corfo Series 2018, and developed the Stop Motion webseries Pajarones.
A Place of Our Own
Category: Film Bazaar Goes to Cannes
Directed by: Ektara Collective
Produced by: Ektara Collective
Country of Production: India
Original Title: Ek Jagah Apni
Genre: Feature film
Language: Hindi
Runtime: 90min
Completed in: 2022
Laila and Roshni, two transwomen, are looking for a house after they are evicted from the place they rented. It soon becomes evident that their search for a home is also their ongoing search for a place in this society that wants to keep them away in a section that can not be the centre.
Lapalissade
Category: Ukrainian Features Preview
Directed by: Philip Sotnychenko
Produced by: Halyna Kryvorchuk (Viatel), Valeria Sotnychenko, Sashko Chubko (Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema)
Country of Production: Ukraine
Original Title: La Palisiada
Genre: Feature film
Language: Ukrainian, Russian
Runtime: 110
Completed in: 2022
Synopsis:
Two old friends, a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist investigate a murder of a colleague whose widow they both loved when they were young. Immersed in memories of the past, they unconsciously create a future for their children where they reap the fruits of their parents’ lost hopes.
Bury Me When I’m Dead
Category: Buyers Showcase
Directed by: Patrick Clement
Produced by: Amanda Freedman & Nicholas Santos (8890 Productions)
Country of Production: USA
Genre: Drama, Horror
Language: English
After failing to keep his wife’s dying wish, a series of tragic events leads Henry to believe she’s returned to get revenge.