35th Sunny Side of the Docs unveils selection 

Sunny Side of the Doc has unveiled the selection for its 35^th edition, running June 24-27 in La Rochelle, France. The selected projects will be presented across seven thematic pitch sessions.

Australia will be back in force this year, with a total of seven documentary projects. Five further projects are selected for the Innovation WIP support programme dedicated to innovative documentary creation.

GLOBAL ISSUES

• Bukal Bukal. Produced by: EarthStar Films (Australia). Directed by: Rhoda ROBERT AO. Logline: Henrietta Marrie sets out to return her family’s inheritance but first she must face not only the British museum that holds it, but the worldwide racism that keeps it there.
• Inside Gaza. Produced by: Factstory, AFP – Agence France Presse (France). Directed by: Hélène LAM TRONG. Logline: This film is a powerful document that tells the inside story of a war that the vast majority of international media have not been allowed to cover. The story of journalists reporting under rocket fire and propaganda from all sides, witnessing human distress while organizing their own survival as well as that of their relatives and friends.
• Silence of the Lams. Produced by: EZ Films (Ireland). Directed by: Ciaran DEENEY. Logline: A curry-war has broken out in a working-class community in Dublin, Ireland. A son has opened up a Chinese take-away right next door to his dad’s long-standing operation. It’s big news, everyone is talking about it, but they’re not talking to each other.
• Tales and Sentences. Produced by: Little Big Story (France). Directed by: Alexandre DONOT-SABY. Logline: Nora Gruber is a ‘sentencing films’ director, hired by convicted felons or their lawyers to tell the stories that led them to commit their crimes, with only one targeted viewer: the judge. Tales and Sentences is a reflection on cinema, its social role and justice, in an America where the truth’s worth as much as the art of telling a good story.
• Water on Fire. Produced by: Uhuru Productions (South Africa), Lu Films (France). Directed by: Rehad DESAI. Logline: Hit by cyclones and droughts, Madagascar is the first country to experience climate induced famine. A young activist mobilises villagers to prevent a mining company set to extract rare earth minerals for the global energy transition. The mine will have devastating impacts on local communities’ land and water and intensify the climate crisis.
• Yesterday’s Weirdness. Produced by: Shipton House Pty Ltd (Australia). Directed by: Ben LAWRENCE. Logline: Journalism is dead. Long live journalism.

NATURE & CONSERVATION

• Eagle Man. Produced by: Wild Pacific Media (Australia). Directed by: Nick ROBINSON. Logline: An ornithologist’s unique friendship with one of the world’s most powerful avian predators, the wedge-tailed eagle, leads to a journey of personal growth and scientific discovery.
• Empalikino. Produced by: Ripple Productions Ltd, WildlifeDirect (Kenya). Directed by: Eric MWANGI. Logline: In the heart of Ol Kinyei conservancy, a Maasai tribesman navigates the delicate balance between protecting his community’s cattle and coexisting with the majestic yet perilous lions, finding forgiveness and acceptance in an enduring struggle for harmony.
• Fields of Gold. Produced by: Riverbank Studios (India), National Geographic Society (United States). Logline: A seed is the origin of life. And the control of seeds must remain in the hands of farmers who grow with love and their sweat every season. In a climate unstable world, climate resilient crops are crucial. The solutions already lie within communities. Shifting the power from mechanised to the basics, ensuring seed sovereignty, one farmer at a time.
• Frontline Rangers. Produced by: Regen Studios, New Dream Productions, Margee Brown (Australia). Directed by: David COOK. Logline: Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough may be the chosen faces of the climate movement, but it’s Australia’s First Nations Rangers who are healing ecosystems and restoring balance that are the heartbeat.
• Mirador, Soundscape Through Japan. Produced by: NHK Enterprises (Japan). Directed by: Azusa MARUYAMA. Logline: Aspiring young musicians journey in Japan, unveiling sounds of nature and ancient wisdom. The sounds transform into a captivating music piece by the musician. A sensory musical adventure, weaving together the harmonies of nature, culture, and sustainability, all captured with breathtaking cinematography.
• Snow Globe. Produced by: Hazel Pictures (United States). Directed by: David SAMPLINER. Logline: When his father dies and his hometown records its first snowless winter, filmmaker David Sampliner ventures out into our vanishing winter landscapes to discover the wonders of snow and why it matters. In forging a path through grief, he finds glimmers of hope for snow’s future—and ours.

SCIENCE

• Ancient Baby Beasts. Produced by: Rotating Planet Productions (Canada). Directed by: Ari COHEN. Logline: For the first time, science and innovative technologies are revealing the mysterious world of dinosaur and ice age babies, changing not only what we know about how they were born, grew, raised and socialized, but uncovering missing links in earth’s evolutionary story.
• Artificial Intelligence: The Great Pompeii Puzzle. Produced by: Elephant Adventures (France). Directed by: Paolo SANTONI & Martin BLANCHARD. Logline: In Pompeii, tens of thousands of fragments lie in boxes like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. How do you match up 15,000 scattered pieces by hand? The task is colossal. Artificial intelligence and robotics are ready to take up the challenge.
• Destination Proxima Centauri. Produced by: Somadrome Films (Spain), Little Big Story (France), Nordic Eye Productions (Sweden). Directed by: Ruth CHAO. Logline: Year 2175. The first hibernated-crew interstellar voyage departs to Proxima Centauri on board of a nuclear-fusion-propelled spaceship.Scientists at the forefront of physics and biology work now on ultra-fast propulsion and life support systems, that will allow us to make this possible.
• Marine Heat Waves: When The Deep Blue Sea Turns Red. Produced by: Good to Know, Saint Thomas Productions (France). Directed by: Jacques MITSH. Logline: Underwater heatwaves ravage oceans in silence, decimating entire species and battering coastal cities with storms. Why is the sea heating up? To find out, let’s climb aboard Jules Verne’s Nautilus to revisit the underwater landscape 150 years later. Retracing this voyage means understanding climate change and redefining our vision of the sea.
• The Brain Garden. Produced by: Storyland Pty Ltd (Australia), Windfall Films (United Kingdom), Yuzu Productions (France), Genepool Productions (Australia). Directed by: Randall WOOD. Logline: The Brain Garden is made by a multi-award-winning filmmaker who has recently experienced a severe brain injury. Combining neuroscience, ecotherapy and art therapy, his healing is now well underway. With his family’s help and the help of colleagues, Randall Wood is documenting his extraordinary journey towards recovery and the stories of people around the world who share this path.
• Unconventional Gardeners. Produced by: Zenit Arti Audiovisive, Dirk Manthey Film (Italia). Directed by: Alessandro BERNARD & Paolo CERETTO. Logline: In an ancient valley devastated by a hurricane, two visionary scientists listen to the genius loci of the wounded forest. A cinematic journey to the edge of science in search of a new intelligence that can change our future.

HISTORY

• How to Stop a War. Produced by: Kathryn Kennedy (Ireland), Spring Films Ltd (United Kingdom). Directed by: Frankie FENTON. Logline: In a quest to stop a war, a motley crew of activists embarks on a cross-country odyssey, braving political turmoil and internal strife, in a darkly comedic real-time series.
• Letters From Iraq. Produced by: Ocean Films (Brazil). Directed by: Mauricio ZATTONI. Logline: From the Iraqi desert in the 80s, a group of Brazilian workers narrates to their families – through letters, tapes and personal footage – the fear and uncertainties, but also the joy of living in a community amid two major wars.
• One Inch Eastward. Produced by: Sandu Films (Romania), Akajava Films (Ireland), Smarty Pants Shooter (Bulgaria). Directed by: Irina MALDEA. Logline: The decade after the end of the Cold War offered a unique chance for world peace and demilitarisation of international relations. This archival verité film tells the story of the disintegration of that dream in the 1990s, told by the leaders of Russia and the USA in their own words.
• Our Sister Angela – Black Power in the GDR. Produced by: Florianfilm GmbH (Germany), Dare Pictures (United Kingdom), La Lutta (United States). Directed by: Jascha HANNOVER & Katharina WARDA. Logline: In the 1970s, an enthusiastic solidarity movement for Black civil rights activist Angela Davis emerges in the GDR. She attracts hundreds of thousands of people during her visits to the country. But all this enthusiasm is deceptive…. Katharina Warda tells this often-overlooked piece of Black East German history from her personal perspective.
• The Curse of Sugar. Produced by: Hauteville Productions (France), Wonder Maria Films (Portugal), Inicia Films (Spain). Directed by: Mathilde DAMOISEL. Logline: What is the price of sugar, this delicious poison? Beginning with sequences set in the present day, this historical investigation reveals a global system still fueled by the exploitation of land and people that is rooted in its original sin: slavery.
• The Lost City of Sanxingdui. Produced by: Imagissime (France). Directed by: Jacques MALATERRE. Logline: A mysterious buried city. Sacrificial pits, containing 10 000 gold, jade, ivory and bronze artefacts… In the mountain of Sichuan, archeologists, historians and scientists attempt to uncover the truth about a kingdom that has lain forgotten for over 3000 thousand years.

ARTS & CULTURE

• Call Me Sinsorga. Produced by: Al Borde Films (Spain). Directed by: Marta GÓMEZ CALDERÓN & Paula IGLESIAS. Logline: What do we presume a woman can or cannot do? This is the story of a bunch of women who dared to build the place where we all wanted to go but didn’t exist.
• Edgar Hilsenrath The Masturbator. Produced by: Solent Production (France). Directed by: François-Xavier DESTORS. Logline: Edgar Hilsenrath: The Masturbator is an animated documentary journeying through the transgressive world of Edgar Hilsenrath, the first German-Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor who dared to laugh at death.
• Miemeyer 4 Ever. Produced by: Special Touch Studios (France), The Attic Productions (Lebanon), Mayana Films (Germany). Directed by: Aurélia MAKDESSI. Logline: In northern Lebanon, an improbable place revives hope: the International Fair of Oscar Niemeyer, yet officially closed to the public. The walls do not prevent dreams, nor birds from flying.
• Paradise Camp: Homecoming. Produced by: Pilum (Australia). Directed by: Keiran MCGEE & Yuki KIHARA. Logline: Acclaimed Fa’afafine artist,Yuki Kihara brings her Venice Biennale exhibition “Paradise Camp” home to Sāmoa, audaciously confronting climate action, colonialism, and gender identity. She is transforming Sāmoa into a Fa’afafine Paradise.
• Proserpine and the Others. Produced by: GA&A Productions (Italia). Directed by: Francesco MASI & Mariangela BARBANENTE. Logline: Is art simply a reflection of society, or does it actively shape our collective consciousness? Often overshadowed by the magnificence of great masterpieces, violence against women, a phenomenon around which contemporary sensibilities are focused today, has been extensively recounted by Art, from antiquity to the present day.
• The Shape of Blue. Produced by: Intuitive Pictures inc. (Canada). Directed by: Sybilla PATRIZIA. Logline: Two Japanese indigo dyers embark on a transformative, inner journey: one uncovers the profound meaning within the hues of blue, while the other gains a new way to see through his colorblindness. Together, they fight to revive a century-old tradition on the brink of disappearing.

IMPACT CAMPAIGNS

• Every Other Girl. Produced by: Cinatrix Media (Gambia), Iamnativ (Uganda). Directed by: Abdoulie B. JARJU. Logline: In rural Gambia, a filmmaker embarks on a deeply personal journey to confront the centuries-old tradition of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), weaving together intimate family stories, cultural exploration, and a call to action against this harmful practice.
• London You Don’t Know Me. Produced by: Korvin Production LDA (Portugal). Directed by: Ivan KORVIN. Logline: An Irish homeless man. A Pakistani cricket fan. A German gin connoisseur. And a very big army of those who want to make the homeless happy.
• Our land, Our Freedom. Produced by: Twende Films (United States), Afrofilms International (Kenya), Muiraquitã Filmes (Portugal), Autentika Films (Germany). Directed by: Meena NANJI & Zippy KIMUNDU. Logline: A powerful Kenyan woman’s search for her father’s remains becomes an investigation into British colonial atrocities and a grassroots movement to reclaim ancestral land.
• The Myth of Monsters. Produced by: Gather Together (Malaysia). Logline: Beatrice, a late-diagnosed autistic filmmaker, turns the camera to herself as she reveals a lifetime of misdiagnosis and psychiatric institutionalisation. Confronting societal misconceptions, and her lost youth, she grapples with the lonely fight for change and justice as an activist. Will she be the monster we fear all along on this painful path?
• Unwelcomed. Produced by: Amilcar Films (Chile). Directed by: Sebastian GONZÁLEZ MÉNDEZ & Amilcar INFANTE. Logline: Traversing the majestic Andean highlands, Atacama Desert and coastal cliffs, “Unwelcomed” unveils the harsh reality of the migration crisis in the southern world. This choral narrative serves as a living testimony of those who continue migrating despite adversities amid a growing social conflict.
• Yurlu | country. Produced by: Illuminate Films (Australia). Directed by: Yaara BOU MELHEM. Logline: Yurlu Country follows senior Banjima man, Maitland Parker whose final wish is to heal a landscape devastated by mining. The country that once nourished him has now made him terminally ill.

NEW VOICES

• A Satellite for Buru Laï. Produced by: Gedeon Programmes (France), Dreampixies (Switzerland). Directed by: Antonin LECHAT & Suium SULAIMANOVA. Logline: In Kyrgyzstan, a woman is abducted for marriage every 40 minutes. Jibek almost suffered the same fate a few years ago. Now she’s determined to create a better future for women in her country, and she has a plan: build Kyrgyzstan’s very first satellite.
• Confessions of a Female Gamer. Produced by: Agitprop Ltd / Balkan Documentary center (Bulgaria), Thea Films (Bulgaria), Dare Pictures (United Kingdom). Directed by: Dolya GAVANSKI. Logline: An actress reluctantly cast as the voice of a cult heroine discovers the complex inner lives of female gamers worldwide.
• Dreams of the Wild Oaks. Produced by: Seven Springs Pictures (Iran), Lukimedia (Spain). Directed by: Marjan KHOSRAVI. Logline: A race against time to save her freedom: Samaneh, a young Bakhtiari girl in Iran, must find a rare and endangered bird to escape a forced marriage and a tradition of Cease Blood Sacrifice, in a journey that challenges her beliefs and tests the limits of her father’s love.
• Fenced. Produced by: Jonna Mckone (United States). Directed by: Gabriella GARCIA PARDO. Logline: Fences reflect our desires and fears: from our obsession with owning land to the ways we divide ourselves. Fenced questions how the most ubiquitous human structure shapes how we live, where we live, and the rules we live by.
• Show Up. Produced by: NYCT Films (South Africa), Labyrinth Films (Netherlands). Directed by: Andrew BRUKMAN. Logline: Queens of their own South African desert, a queer performance ensemble go on a roadtrip to help shine a light on the extreme violence suffered by our LGBTQIA+ community.
• Solo. Produced by: Donia Films (Tunisia), Dynamo Production (France). Directed by: Amine BOUKHRIS. Logline: Akmal, a young 24-year-old rapper, lives today for one simple reason: the hope of seeing his mother again. The mother who, ten years ago, made a terrible choice: to blindly follow her husband to join the Daech terrorist militia.

WIP OFFICIAL SELECTION

• Animals Talk. Produced by: Little Big Story Lab (France), A_Bahn (Luxembourg). Technology: Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, 6DoF, Installation. Logline: Animals Talk is a virtual reality experience exploring animals languages. Animals talk to each other. What do they say to each other? Try it out, and soon the language of the South African mouse, the rainforest caiman, the California elephant seal, the coastal black-headed gull, the cave fish or the Brazilian warbler will hold no secrets for you…
• Atlas Cinema. Produced by: Etrange Miroir (France). Technology: Immersive show, Mapping. Logline: Atlas cinema is an immersive and sensitive experience using video mapping. Its device allows the manipulation of live images and sounds: Cartographies and animated paintings, archive images, voices and original music celebrate an unknown memory.
• Coral Island. Produced by: Risette, Miyu Productions (France). Technology: Virtual Reality, 6DoF, Installation. Logline: Coral Island is a kaleidoscopic investigation through both science and spirits attempting to answer the question: “Why is coral bleaching?”
• Follow the Carnation. Produced by: Isadora PEDRO NEVES MARQUES & Rodrigo MOREIRA (Portugal & Brazil). Technology: Virtual Reality, 6DoF, Installation. Logline: Follow the Carnation is a virtual reality experience that uses archives pre and post Carnation Revolution – which took place on April 25, 1974 – overthrowing the longest dictatorship in Europe, to reflect on the fragility of modern democracy.
• Uncanny Reverie. Produced by: Studio M.A.R.S (Austria). Technology: Interactive Installation. Logline: Embark on an interactive music journey weaving AI and climate narratives through audience engagement. Exploring the fusion of scientific research and artistic storytelling, it examines how temperature parameters shape the predictability of AI-generated music.