Cannes Docs

Runtime: 80'

Expected release: 2022

Production stage: Production

Budget: $312,459

Budget in place: 22%

Looking for: Co-producers, Funding, Pre-buys, Sales Agent

Synopsis:

Teenage girls Madina and Negin are studying music at the first and only music school in Kabul, Afghanistan’s National Institute of Music (ANIM), founded in 2010. They navigate their way between family criticism and Taliban threats. As a new European tour is coming up, both girls suddenly vanish. One day I receive a phone call: Madina wants to share her story.

Director’s profile:

Sahra Mani is a multiple award-winning lmmaker. Her full-length documentary lm, A thousand girls like me (2019) was screened at many lm festivals such as HotDocs, Shef eld, IDFA and won more than 25 awards worldwide including: Three GOLD Awards at New York Festivals TV & Film, One World Media Award 2019, Full Frame Film Festival, San Francisco Film Festival…
She works as a producer and director focus on human rights, equality and justice.
She has organized several lm festivals; training and mentoring in Afghanistan.

Runtime: 75', 52'

Expected release: January 2022

Production stage: Early Production

Budget: $381,724

Budget in place: 57%

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Funding, Pre-buys, Sales Agents, Distributors, Platforms, Broadcasters, Festivals

Synopsis:

How do you build a “new life” when you’re born without opportunities? Through a creative act, eight teenage girls who lived on the streets of Bogota give life to a fictional classmate. As reality prevails and fiction fades, the innocent game becomes a descent into hell where their luminous faces guide us to the depths of the dark world they once inhabited, only to emerge with new skin.

Director’s profile:

A filmmaker and journalist, Clare has spent more than 15 years working on various social issues ranging from the armed conflict in Colombia and sexual violence as a weapon of war to the spread of cumbia music in Latin America and Europe. Her debut Amazona premiered at IDFA, was DocsBarcelona’s opening film, was distributed in 11 countries, was nominated for the Fenix Awards and the Goya Awards and won 3 Colombian Academy Awards. She was twice a winner of the Colombian National Journalism Award. She was selected for IDFAcademy, Dok.Incubator, GoodPitch and Campus Latino, and her projects have been supported by Ibermedia, Sundance, Catapult, IDFA Bertha Fund, Tribeca and the Colombian Film Fund. She has directed several documentaries and doc series for TV channels. She is a founding member of Casatarantula and DOC:CO Distribution and Promotion Agency.

Co-director’s profile :

Filmmaker, architect and photographer. Cofounder of Casatarantula and DOC:CO Distribution and Promotion Agency. His debut AMAZONA (producer, codirector, DOP and sound) premiered at IDFA, opened DocsBarcelona, was nominated for the Goya Awards, won 3 Colombian Academy Awards and was distributed in 11 countries. As a producer his films have competed at IDFA, Cinema du Reel, Dok Leipzig, Sheffield, DocNYC and won awards at Torino IFF, Bogoshorts and DocuDays-UA. He has coproduced with France, Scotland, Chile, Romania, Denmark, Brazil and US, and his work has been supported by Ibermedia, Sundance, Catapult, IDFA Bertha Fund, Tribeca, Colombian Film Fund and Señal Colombia TV. He has been selected for La Fabrique, Dok Incubator, EAVE, IDFAcademy, GoodPitch, Tribeca Network, Campus Latino and IFP. Nicolas is a member of the Colombian Film Academy, Global Impact Producers and Cinema 23.

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: November 2022

Production stage: Developement

Budget: €500,000

Budget in place: 15%

Looking for: Co-production, Funding, Pre-buys, Sales Agents

Synopsis:

In a distant world, dotted with the crumbling remnants of a once vast city, an anonymous investigator searches for information about a missing person named Nour. When the investigator is almost ready to abandon his search, he encounters a dream-like apparition of Nour, who describes his disappearance.

Director’s profile:

Marouan is a filmmaker based in Cairo. His films drift in the unmarked territory between fiction and documentary. His last feature, Dreamaway, was selected by The Egyptian Critics Association as The Best Egyptian film of 2019.
Tom Rosenberg is a filmmaker based in Berlin. He makes films about people trying to manage the anxieties arising from trauma and extreme violence. His work has won awards and been screened at international film festivals. Tom is also a licensed private investigator.

Producer’s profile:

Mark Lotfy is an Alexandrian filmmaker, producer and writer. He established, in 2005, the production company ‘Fig Leaf Studios’, and produced award winning, and officially selected films in Egyptian and international festivals It has acted as a sole incubator of young visual artists and directors since 2005, as a result it produced over 200 audio-visual projects since 2005, till date.
(2020) – ‘I m afraid to forget your face’. Short movie directed by sameh Alaa .(Egypt/France) (Palm d or /Cannes festival 2020
(2019) – ‘Unaired interview’, middle length Documentary, Directed by Mohamed salah (Egypt) [Officially Selected at Berlinale Film Festival cinemal
(2018) – ‘Dream Away’, Feature Documentary, Directed by Marwan Omara (Egypt) & Johanna Domke (Sweden) [winner of Hot Docs-Blue Ice Fund / Berlinale Talents Grant ; officially selected in Chicago Karlovy Vary / London Film Festival]

Runtime: 75', 60'

Expected release: May 2023

Production stage: Development, Pre-production

Budget: $784,000

Budget in place: 12,3%

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Funding, Co-production

Synopsis:

Pour the Water as I Leave is a feature length animated docufiction about the exodus of Bosnian people during the Balkan Civil War in the 1990s. Interviews with eight Bosnians about their experiences of war and refugee life are seamlessly woven into a fictional narrative through animation, dance, prose and soundscape. The narrative flexes and moves between what is real and what is imagined.

Director’s profile:

Daniela Repas is a Bosnian born visual artist based in Portland, Oregon. Her work depicts storytelling through multiple mediums, from drawing and animation to installation and film. She has shown her work nationally and internationally, from New York to New Zealand. She is a recipient of the prestigious Dorothy Lemelson Scholarship and an alumna of the Pacific Northwest College of Art, where she earned an MFA in Visual Studies.In 2019 she was a recipient of the Princess Grace Award for film and an IEFTA selected emerging filmmaker. Filmography:Pour the Water As I Leave (2021) feature film: director, writer, animator; Dogs of Home (2020) short film: director, writer, animator, editor, camera; Thank You for Supporting the Arts (2018) feature film: story, editor, camera; Mnemonics (2017) short film: director, writer, animator, editor;Bearing Witness (2016) short film: co-director, writer.

Producer’s profile:

Jessica Daugherty is an award-winning producer of documentary film and television, and co-founder of the production studio, Shrine13. Her films have screened at festivals across the US, Europe and Australia. Her film career started as an Associate Producer for documentary filmmaker, George Stoney. Her documentary feature films include Billy Joel: A Matter of Trust – The Bridge to Russia (Showtime, 2013), and Free to Rock (ARTE 2017) (dir. Jim Brown), Thank You for Supporting the Arts (Blacktop Films) (DOCLA 2018 Best Producer Award). Short film credits include “La Tienda” (Vimeo Staff Pick 2020) (dir. Karina Ripper), “Alto’s Library” (Blacktop Films), “LAVIRRA” (Shine13), and music videos “ARTAX” (Dust On Snow), and “Libations of Oceania” (Nhktar). She is a member of the Documentary Producers Alliance, The Living Theatre, founding member of Al Límite international arts collective, and co-founder of NettNett Radio.

Producer’s Note:

I dedicate my work to art and films that will change and channel the quotidian, colonialist narrative towards an equitable, empathetic, and humane existence. Pour the Water As I Leave is an essential story, not only for Bosnian people, but for all those who have ever been forced to leave their home, and for all those who receive them. The world continues to meet refugees from every corner, and so we cannot share this personal yet universal story quickly enough. This is an Emergency and we must signal through the flames, as Julian Beck said and Antonin Artaud instructs. My role as producer on “Pour the Water As I Leave” will be to build the support structure and add kindling every once in a while.

Runtime: 105', 90'

Expected release: January 2023

Production stage: Late Development/Financing

Budget: €1,353,380.11

Budget in place: 27.5%

Looking for: Sales Agent, Pre-Buys, Additional Funding (especially AR/Interactive funding streams)

Synopsis:

For centuries, whaling ships roamed the seas hunting for great cetaceans, as the tip of the harpoon in a killing industry that had become essential to a rapidly modernizing world. The work was arduous, dangerous, yet handsomely rewarded. Albeit forgotten by history, it was also largely performed by intrepid Black and Indigenous men in search of adventure and a dignified livelihood, at a time when men of colour had few other options. Many were Cape Verdean. Retracing whaling routes across three oceans, The Whalers reclaims a powerful narrative of steely determination, lost ancestry, and the forging of a multiracial and multicultural floating society that still echoes today.

Director’s profile:

P.J. MARCELLINO is an award-winning Cape Verdean-Canadian producer/director. He was formerly a journalist, researcher, and political analyst. Having directed short formats, his first mid-length, AFTER THE WAR: MEMOIRS OF EXILE (2014) was shortlisted for an Obama-Biden White House SAMHSA Voice Award in 2015. His debut feature documentary, the critically acclaimed WHEN THEY AWAKE (2017) premiered on opening night at Calgary International Film Festival, collecting awards and nominations internationally. Marcellino is a graduate of Seneca College’s Documentary Filmmaking Institute in Toronto. He is also a member of the Directors Guild of Canada and the Canadian Academy, a recipient of the Rigoberta Menchú Social Award, and a fellow of Geena Davis’ BFF Foundation and Netflix-Banff Diversity of Voices Initiative. He directs THE WHALERS with Jerri THRASHER (THE LAST WALK, ARCTIC CHILLS, FOOD FOR THE REST OF US).

Producer’s profile:

Pedro Soulé is a Cape Verdean producer based in the city of Mindelo, a leading cultural hub in the Portuguese-speaking world and the cultural heart of the archipelago. A business management graduate, Soulé worked in various industries before co-founding Kriolscope Agency with writer/director Nuno Miranda and finding himself immersed in film and media production. Soulé produced Miranda’s KMÊDEUS (Eat God), a 2020 Rotterdam International Film Festival and Tribeca’s We Are One Festival hit, and was the local producer for Pedro Costa’s acclaimed VITALINA VARELA, and RTPs show CLUB ATLAS feat. DJ Branko and Dino D’Santiago. In 2020 he co-founded Baobab Film Collective to produce afrocentric TV drama. He is part of the 2021 EAVE Producer Workshop cohort with Baobab’s SOLOMON & THE MACHINE (8 eps) and is a lead producer in a diverse slate of Cape Verdean shorts and documentaries in development.

Runtime: 70', 90'

Expected release: January 2023

Production stage: Late Development

Budget: €215,000

Budget in place: 17,5%

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Funding, Co-producer, Pre-buys

Synopsis:

In 1965, in a secret operation, a group of 31 young Cape Verdeans, including a woman, embarked for Cuba, to receive military training to free the country from the clutches of colonialism. A story of ideals, utopias, and betrayals. The portrait of a youth who launched into a utopian and almost impossible adventure, guided by the dream of the liberation of their country, believing another future was possible.

Director’s profile:

Elson Santos was born in Cape Verde. He holds a Degree in Communication from the Pontifical Catholic University in Brazil, with a focus on Advertising. He has 16 years of experience in Communication and Marketing, working in both the public and private sectors. Santos worked on the production of the first edition of the Oiá Festival – International Film and Audiovisual Festival of Cape Verde and participated in the first PALOP reflection group on documentary cinema at the CPLP Film Festival held in João Pessoa, Brazil. Passionate about the rich oral tradition of the islands, he believes that documentary cinema and visual arts have a crucial role in the preservation and dissemination of Cape Verde’s living and invisible memories. “Nós, Povo das Ilhas” is Santos’ debut into documentary film as a Director and Producer. Elson is a grantee of HotDocs Blue Ice Fund.

Co-director’s profile:

Lara Sousa is a Mozambican filmmaker who studied documentary filmmaking at the EICTV (Cuba). Sousa’s short films have an essayistic and self-referential aesthetic. She combines her political vision with a poetic language, searching for a “non-place” between Mozambique and other realities. Lara’s movies have been selected for several festivals, including Dakar’s Biennale 2020. She was selected to Berlinale Talent Campus and to Talent Campus DocStation. Her project Katalina, Kalunga, Karonga – Sea Waved Tales was the winner of Digital Lab Africa in the Digital Art Category. She is a fellow of Digital Lab African and Realness Creative Producers Indaba. Her project, The Ship and the Sea, was awarded at Durban Film Market 2020 with the IDFA Bertha Fund Award. Lara is grantee of HotDocs Blue Ice Fund and Sundance Documentary Programme.

Runtime: 80'

Expected release: 2022

Production stage: In Financing

Budget: €90,000

Budget in place: 35%

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Funding, Co-producer, Sale Agent

Synopsis:

A filmmaker despairing for mental peace goes through the unavoidable journey of facing her depression.She speaks to others about their mental health as Africans and undergoes practices that mark ending of suffering. The characters in 3 countries have the commonality of difficult experiences, but also the desire to overcome. Images of transcendence are woven with poetry to build a rich observational film.

Director’s profile:

As a director Sara Chitambo is passionate about telling authentic, emotionally compelling stories and serious about continually mastering her craft as a filmmaker. She holds a Masters Degree in Documentary Film Production from Sussex University and has wide range of experience in television and film production.

2020 – RIFT – Short Film – Screened at Kasi 2 Kasi Queer Film Festival 2020 – Writer/Director
2019 – Present – Sara is the spokesperson for Sisters Working in Film and Television
2018 – Script Editor and Technical Advisor – MTV Shuga
2018 – Writer/Director – Short film Cecilia’s Escape
2015 – Directed and Produced the South African Segment of Reflecting Her
2014 Director/Producer- The Capacity of Cap City
2010 – 2013 – Script Editor and Social Media Manager – Intersexions TV Show
2010 – DOP and Editor on Climate Theatre

Producer’s profile:

Cati has raised finance for feature films, such ‘The Letter Reader’ (2019), ‘The Tokoloshe’ (2018) ‘Mrs Right Guy’ (2016), Vryslag (2015) and the cult classic Gog’Helen’ (2012) Career highlights include developing and producing the Oscar winner Tristan Holmes’ first feature film, “The Fragile King” (release date 2021), developing feature films with award-winning storytellers such as Zola Maseko, Pieter Grobbelaar, Stephina Zwane, and Adze Ugah; and ultimately and above all being a proud parent of two ‘born-free’ babies.

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: January 2023

Production stage: In-production

Budget: $583,000

Budget in place: 49%

Looking for: Funding, International Sales Agent, Distribution/Pre-buys, Festival Programmers

Synopsis:

Growing up, throwing up, love, loss and finding freedom in China.
This documentary follows four of my friend’s unique personal stories in Chengdu’s underground party scene during the last year before the Chinese communist party shuts down their secret “freedom” spaces forever.

Director’s profile:

This is Ben’s second feature length documentary and 6th year coming back to Chengdu. He speaks Chinese. His first feature DON’T BE A DICK ABOUT IT won the 2018 Audience Award at IDFA and is being distributed by Oscilloscope. He now works directing commercials and music videos. His works include Cannes Silver Lion Advertising award, Vimeo Staff Picks, NYT Op-Docs, and some of his films have millions of views. His previous short films have gotten into 50+ festivals around the world including Tribeca (GNARLY IN PINK) and Slamdance (WHAT I HATE ABOUT MYSELF).

Producer’s profile:

Sol Ye is a bilingual producer based in Beijing, China where she earned her B.F.A degree in Creative Producing at Chapman University. Her past works have won awards at Cannes Critics’ Week (SHE RUNS, 2019) and generated over 150 million views on the internet (GENERATIONAL GRAVITY, VICE Media/Tencent Video, 2019). She lined produced the first China-Serbia co-production, and has worked on major Hollywood-China productions including Disney’s MULAN, where she served as the China Assistant Production Manager. Sol’s most recent short HAVING A GOOD TIME was officially selected into the 67th San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Runtime: 70', 52'

Expected release: June 2022

Production stage: Production

Budget: €356,000

Budget in place: 51%

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Funding, Pre-buys, Festivals

Synopsis:

Elena, Italian by adoption but born in Romania, is about to turn 30 years old and feels the need to discover the missing piece of her story: her biological family. To do so, she decided to make a journey by car from Piacenza to Bucharest with an unusual and surprising travel companion: her newfound brother Gerard. Siblings and at the same time perfect strangers.

Director’s profile:

Elena Rebeca Carini, born in 1990, grew up in Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna but studied in Milan, Rome and abroad. She graduated in Visual Arts at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and in Cinematographic Art at the Rome University of Fine Arts, where she realise several short films. Since 2012 he has been training professionally in cinema through practical courses, artistic residencies and experience on set, in different roles, working with authors such as Sergio Rubini, Daniele Ciprì, Manetti Bros., Gianni Amelio and Marco Bellocchio, Mimmo Calopresti. The land you belong is her directorial debut.

Producer’s profile:

After having produced as independent Jali Road and Buracos – the first two documentaries by Matteo Ferrarini – Matteo Pecorara founded Small Boss in 2014, for which he manages fundraising and public relations with commissioning editors. His responsibility is also to accompanying the projects through the current market realities as well as the expectations of Small Boss’ partners. In 2021 he hold a training course on documentary production at the University of Parma.

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: February 2022

Production stage: Production

Budget: €485,000

Budget in place: 52%

Looking for: Co-producers, Funding, Pre-buys, Sales Agent

Synopsis:

After falling from the 8th floor, my cat Tito has been left paralyzed. Looking for a solution, I typed “spinal cord regeneration” on the Internet and found myself embarked on a clinical test on human patients in China… as a director to make a film, as a woman to save my cat. During this journey, other older and more intimate wounds resurfaced. I will try to fix them too.

Director’s profile:

Alessandra Celesia was born in Italy (Aosta) in 1970, and lives between Paris and Belfast.
In 2011, she directed The Bookseller of Belfast. Coproduced by ARTE, the film was shown at Visions du Réel, Lussas, Festival dei Popoli…
In 2013, Mirage à l’italienne premiered at Cinéma du Réel.
In 2017, Anatomia del miracolo, coproduced by ARTE, was selected in Locarno (Étoile de la Scam).
She has recently completed the short documentaries The Child I will be and Come il Bianco (FIDMarseille…).
She has been developing The Mechanics of Things since 2019 (When East Meets West 2021 – EWA Network Membership award).
The shooting of her forthcoming feature The Flats is planned for 2022 (Eurimages, Region Sud, Screen Ireland, CCA Brussels, Media, BFI, Northern Ireland Screen, RTBF, Scam). It won 2 awards at Pitching du Réel 2019 and was selected to the Docs Ireland Marketplace Belfast.

Producer’s profile:

Jean-Laurent Csinidis has been a film producer since 2010, when he created Films de Force Majeure, a production company based in Marseille (France) that he has been leading ever since. Over time, he specialized in cinematic author-driven documentary films and international coproduction.
As of today, he has produced or coproduced 25 films which have been shown at Cannes, Berlinale, Locarno, Venice, Visions du Réel, Cinéma du Réel… His filmography includes films like GAME GIRLS (2018, Berlinale, FIFIB Jury Grand Prize), A LAND IMAGINED (2018, Golden Leopard at Locarno), STILL RECORDING (2018, 5 awards at Venice Critics’ Week), THE LAST HILLBILLY (2020, Deauville, ACID Cannes, IDFA Jury Special Mention) or LITTLE PALESTINE, DIARY OF A SIEGE (2021, awarded at Visions du Réel).
He is a member of networks such as EAVE or Eurodoc, and is regularly involved in training and teaching activities.

Runtime: 90', 52'

Expected release: November 2021

Production stage: Post production

Budget: 750 000€

Budget in place: 80%

Looking for: Fundations, Private Funds, TV Presales

Synopsis:

Two scientists, Sergei Zimov and his son Nikita, have taken on a mission to save the world from global warming.
How? By attempting to repopulate the Siberian taiga with species long since disappeared.
Back to the Ice Age, and Welcome to Pleistocene Park.

Director’s profile:

Denis Sneguirev was born in Nijni Novgorod in 1976. Since 1998 he lives and works in France. For the last 15 years he has made documentary films in collaboration with french and german tv stations (Arte, ZDF, France TV) as well as independently (Between the Bear and the Wolf, awarded at Visions du Réel 2008). The range of the topics he’s working on goes from underground culture to political or ecological issues. He particularly favours strong, controversial characters who bring messages of hope. Notorious films : MADA UNDERGROUND, 52′, 2016 – awards: Silver Medal of the best documentary – Prix Harambee of the best documentary about Africa – festivals:FIPA (Biarritz-France), Sheffield Intl Doc Festival (UK), FIFA (Montréal Canada), Festival international de Saint-Louis (Sénégal), Ethnografilm Festival (France)

Producer’s profile:

Caroline Roussel
ARTURO MIO is an independent production company created in 2000 by Caroline Roussel. The company counts today more than 50 documentaries, 4 feature films and numerous original productions, short films, web series. Every year the films produced by Arturo Mio are selected in the main international festivals and rewarded. Berlinale, Locarno Festival, Sheffield Doc Fest, etc. The films produced by Arturo Mio marry creative originality and the ambition to reach large audiences.

Cyrille et Gilles Perez
13 PRODUCTIONS: Prix Producteur Procirep, primés dans de nombreux festivals, nous produisons près de 20 documentaires par an, des magazines pour la télévision, des fictions et des longs métrages, et nous exploitons un catalogue riche de 400 œuvres.

Alon Knoll
TAKE FIVE is the result of a close collaboration between two film enthusiasts, Alon Knoll and Gregory Zalcman. Over time, Take Five has expanded its spectrum, between documentaries, short films and feature films, our aim is to produce films offering an original point of view, a strong narrative and artistic approach.

Vladislav Ketkovich
ETHNOFUND (RUSSIA) was established in 2000 and has produced more than 20 documentaries, mainly international coproductions.We won number of prizes at different IFFs including MDR Award for Best East European film at DokLeipzig.

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: 2023

Production stage: Late development

Budget: $216,922

Budget in place: 10%

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Co-producers, Funding

Synopsis:

When an unplanned baby enters the lives of a conservative mother, mentally ill daughter and detached gay son, the dysfunctional trio travels back in time through their diaries to mend ruptured bond, rewrite memories, and prepare for a new cycle of motherhood. A creative documentary exploring the cycle of motherhood, plotted by the present with stories and sounds of the past.

Director’s profile:

Quang Nong is a filmmaker based in Hanoi. Although his first documentary about gay dating app was banned, it led to his participation in the Queer Asia project, where he directed two documentaries about queer culture in Vietnam. He went on to work as a content manager for United Subversive – a Singapore documentary platform featuring Southeast Asian subculture influencers. He’s also a member of Doc Cicada – a documentary development initiative.
Quang is an alumni of IDFAcademy, Asia Doc and American Film Showcase. The project won the Most promising project at SGIFF Southeast Asian Film Lab and received the IDFA Bertha development fund.

Producer’s profile:

Trang Dao currently works as a professional screenwriter/director/ producer for both commercial and independent film, and involved intensively in producing TV programs in Vietnam for European channels. Her short animation and films have won in various film festivals, both locally and internationally. Trang is an alumna of Asiadoc’s workshop for documentary producers, NAFF Fantastic Film School, Docs By The Sea, HANIFF Talent Campus, Southeast Asian Film Lab. She’s the founder of doc cicada – a documentary development initiative.

Runtime: 80'

Expected release: February 2023

Production stage: Development

Budget: €181,626

Budget in place: 63%

Looking for: Funding, Pre-buys, Sales Agent

Synopsis:

Libuše has been capturing her “rock-n-roll” life full of twists and turns in thousands of pictures and autoportraits. Yet the sudden photographic success after 53 years of work has not helped her to see her real self in the mirror. She is still searching for herself, the place where she belongs, as she goes through piles of negatives and diaries while working on a new book.

Director’s profile:

Klára Tasovská graduated from New Media department at Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and from Documentary Film department at FAMU in Prague. Her mid-length documentary essay Midnight (2010) was screened at several international fi lm festivals (Ji.hlava IDFF – Special Jury Mention, Visions du Reél Nyon, EMAF Osnabrück – Newcomer Award etc.). Her feature-length debut Fortress (2012) directed together with Lukáš Kokeš was awarded Best Czech documentary at Ji.hlava IDFF 2012, it competed at CPH:DOX 2012 among other European festivals and was nominated for LUX Prize 2013. Klára worked for Czech/Slovak office of HBO Europe as consultant for documentary films development. Her last film Nothing Like Before co-directed by Lukáš Kokeš premiered at IDFA’s First Appearance Competition 2017.

Producer’s profile:

Lukáš Kokeš studied at Film Studies department at Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague and at the Documentary department at FAMU in Prague. He works as cinematographer and editor on his own projects as well as in collaboration with other directors. This was also the case of feature film Fortress (Best Czech Documentary award at Ji.hlava IDFF 2012, LUX Prize nominee, etc.), which he made together with Klára Tasovská as co-director, cinematographer and co-editor, and Nothing Like Before (2017, IDFA First Appearance Competition 2017) as co-director and cinematographer. He collaborated on development of original drama series Wasteland (2016) produced by HBO Europe. He teaches dramaturgy at FAMU in Prague. With Klára Tasovská he is co-founder of Somatic Films production company.

Runtime: 90', 58'

Expected release: September 2022

Production stage: Last stage of development

Budget: €920,000

Budget in place: 27%

Looking for: Pre-buys, Funding

Synopsis:

SONGS OF EARTH is a symphony. An audio-visual composition of the earth’s primordial forces. The sounds of earth are put together to make music. It’s a meditative experience. The camera takes you inside of nature’s smallest components and outside to the great wild panoramas. My father (84) takes us to the valley where he grew up and where generations have been living alongside nature in order to survive.

Director’s profile:

Margreth Olin is a Norwegian award winning director and producer, most known for her documentaries. Her international breakthrough came with the film “My Body” in 2002.
Filmography: Self Portrait (2020), Childhood (2017), Doing Good (2016), Cathedrals of Culture (2013), Nowhere Home (2012), The Angel (2009), Lullaby (2006), Raw Youth (2004), My body (2002), Gluttony (2000), In The House of Angels (1998), My Uncle (1997), In the House of Love (1994).

Producer’s profile:

As both a director and a producer: Self Portrait / Selvportrett (2020) ; Childhood / Barndom (2017) ; Doing Good / Mannen fra Snåsa (2016) ; Nowhere Home / De Andre (2012).
As a producer: Hans + Liv (2021) ; Isolation Row / Fengslet og Forlatt (2018).

Runtime: 75'

Expected release: January 2023

Production stage: Development

Budget: $750,000

Budget in place: 15%

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Funding

Synopsis:

Madame Négritude is the true story of Suzanne Roussi Césaire, the rebellious writer and wife of the Caribbean’s most famous politician Aimé Césaire.

Director’s profile:

Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s work has screened all over the world, including at the Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of Art and at the New Orleans Film Festival, Doclisboa, True/False Film Festival and BlackStar Film Festival. She was named on Filmmaker Magazine’s 2020 list of “25 New Faces of Independent Cinema.” She is the recipient of a 2020 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship and a 2019 Rema Hort Mann Award, a 2019 UNDO / Ford Foundation fellowship, a 2015 TFI Future Filmmaker Award and a 2014 Princess Grace Award in film. Her first feature film Madame Negritude has received support from San Francisco Film Society’s Rainin Grant for the screenwriting phase, and was a finalist in the 2020 Venice Film Festival’s prestigious film lab the Biennale Cinema College.

Producer’s profile:

Christine Sanders is a producer and writer based in Los Angeles, CA. In addition to producing independent films like Madame Négritude, she is an Executive Producer at BuzzFeed where she manages a team of writers, producers and directors. Prior to BuzzFeed, she was the Director of Production at the Wall Street Journal Custom Studios, where she oversaw production for branded content videos including the viral campaign Cocainenomics for Netflix. Sanders has received numerous accolades for her work including a Webby, Cannes Lions, and Telly Award. In 2018, she was a featured creator in Essence Magazine, Afropunk, Mic, Ozy and other publications for her digital series Barely Adults. Sanders has also worked at MTV Networks as an associate producer and the Food Network in development. She is a graduate of New York University with concentrations in Journalism and Africana Studies.

Runtime: 90', 50'

Expected release: October 2022

Production stage: In Production

Budget: $95,000

Budget in place: 61%

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Pre-buys, Funding, Co-producers

Synopsis:

As a millennial in South Korea, Arum looks back on her youth. She grew up to love her country, under the clout of her parents, who did pro-democratic resistance movement in 1987. In 2021, Arum, the director and protagonist of <Patriotic Girl> has discovered the contradictions of her parents’ patriotic faith and starts to wonder “has our democracy really advanced?”

Director’s profile:

Arum Nam(1995) is a documentary director based in Seoul, South Korea. She’s doing a master’s degree in documentary at Korea National University of Arts. Her previous short documentary, Pink-Femi, got awards from the Seoul Women’s Independent Film Festival, the University Film Festival of Korea, and screened at several film festivals. Her first feature film – PATRIOT GIRL – is on production stage. The project won BEST PITCH and EBS Docuprime Commissioning Award at DMZ international documentary festival, and JICA award at Jeonju International Film Festival.

Producer’s profile:

Yoonsoo is a S.Korean documentary producer. She studied Film and Philosophy at Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. She directed a short documentary film which is screened at EBS International Film Festival. Joining SonaFilms in 2021, she has been working as an associate producer for various films. currently, she is producing PATRIOT GIRL.