Swiss-based sales outfit Lightdox has announced the pick-up of Robin Hunzinger’s Ultraviolette and the Blood-Spitters Gang, which won IDFA’s ReFrame Award for Best Creative Use of Archive. The film is produced by Milana Christitch for Ana Films (France).
After the death of his grandmother Emma, Robin Hunzinger and his mother Claudie find a carefully preserved collection of letters which Emma received from a girl called Marcelle. In the 1920s, Emma and Marcelle met at school in Dijon. Secretly, love blossomed between the two teenage girls, but after two years they parted ways…The voiceover quotes from the eloquent letters of Marcelle, a daring young woman ahead of her time, who rejects adult life with its coarseness and restrictions, and goes her own way with a group of kindred spirits (IDFA notes).
“The story of Marcelle and Emma transcends time, place, and any other boundaries. Ultraviolette and the Blood-Spitters Gang is a delicate testimony of young love, true friendship, teenage rebelliousness, of finding one’s way in the world and it’s as beautiful as it is timeless,” said Lightdox CEO and founder Anna Berthollet.
“We at Lightdox are passionate about innovative and lively use of archive materials, and we’re confident that Robin Hunzinger’s artistic achievement and intense emotions this film conveys will be the same hook for the audience as it was for our team.”
Earlier this month VICE Media Group announced the acquisition of Lars Edman and William Johansson Kalén’s Arica for the second season of ‘The Short List with Suroosh Alvi.’ Each episode features the full documentary accompanied by Alvi in conversation with the filmmakers. Other titles in the series include The Bubble by Valerie Blankenbyl and Tuija Halttunen’s How To Kill A Cloud.
“This series aims to bring conversations ordinarily available only to a film-festival audience and takes a deeper dive, making them accessible to the millions of VICE viewers around the world. The films are immersive insights into global issues and subcultures. It’s a new way to watch compelling documentaries for free, at home,” said the VICE Media Group statement.
In Arica, a Swedish mining giant dumps hazardous waste in Arica in northern Chile. The health of thousands of inhabitants is subsequently affected. Now the survivors are seeking justice in a ground-breaking transnational corporate accountability trial. Arica has won nine international awards including the Grand Prize at the EcoFest Romania 2021, Reporters WIthout Boarders Human Rights Award at FIGRA 2021, and Best Documentary Award at Nordische Filmtage in Lübeck 2021.
“We’re thrilled to be rolling out season 2 of The Short List and putting a spotlight on incredibly diverse filmmakers and films from around the world,” Alvi said of the VICE programme. “These are important films that VICE would have made if we could have, but we didn’t. So we decided to create a platform for the next wave of talented filmmakers. And they’re available for free. Which is pretty cool.”
