“We’ve seen a lot of very strong documentaries from the Arab world,” Autlook boss Salma Abdalla notes as she prepares for the world premiere tomorrow, May 24, of Moroccan director Asmae el Moudir’s The Mother Of All Lies in Un Certain Regard. The film is at the crest of what Abdalla sees as a new wave of Arab filmmaking from young talents who can at last find financing for their works from organisations like the Doha Film Institute, the Red Sea, Al Jazeera and others.
“There are a lot of young people in Arab countries and there is a lot of talent but there has been a lack of financing,” Abdalla says of why it has taken so long for this wave to rise. “Not all of these films are interesting for international audiences. Sometimes, they can be very local but some definitely have strong international potential. The Mother Of All Lies is pushing the boundaries of documentary filmmaking.”
The Autlook boss praises the way young director El Moudir uses hybrid elements, reconstructing her childhood neighbourhood in miniature format with models and animation. “It is definitely a documentary and it is based on her personal story, but she is using different tools and creating different elements that she is actually inventing herself. That does make it a different viewing experience from a typical observational documentary. At the same time, she is interviewing different characters from her family. She is recreating a personal and a political space at the same time. It is very fresh.”
In a crowded marketplace, a berth in a major section of the festival like Un Certain Regard “opens doors” for a doc like The Mother Of All Lies. Cannes isn’t known for showing docs – and so there is, arguably, extra prestige in a red carpet screening and a chance to reach audiences that you simply don’t get at dedicated documentary events. Festival programmers, critics and art house distributors will all watch The Mother Of All Lies, and it is bound to have a strong life on the festival circuit.
The company also has other films from young Arab directors in the pipeline – most due to be announced later in the year.
In Cannes, Autlook has had a market screening of Cannes Uncut, the new feature doc telling the history of the world’s most glamorous and tawdry festival in all its glories and contradictions. There has been strong streamer interest in the movie which receives its premiere at the Sydney Festival next month.
Abdalla has been operating out of a booth in the Marché shared with the Austrian Film Commission and very much applauds the way that the Cannes Docs initiative has sought to carve out a meaningful space for documentary in Cannes.
Earlier this summer, Autlook’s Draw For Change won Best Documentary at Cannes Series – a huge boost for a large portmanteau project profiling female cartoonists around the world that has been in gestation for many years – it was developed before Covid. Behind the Lines, one of the episodes in the series, directed by Alisar Hassan and Alaa Amer, and about renowned Syrian cartoonist Amany Al-Ali, is being sold at the Cannes Marché as a standalone feature. It received its world premiere a few weeks ago at Visions Du Reel in Nyon.
Abdalla raises the possibility that other films in the series, for example the US episode directed by Laura Nix, will also have a theatrical life. This is still in development.
“Of course, we have to be aware that there will be holdbacks in place,” the Autlook boss acknowledges the complications that may arise when individual films from the six-part series are licensed to be shown separately in cinemas. Nonetheless, theatrical exposure is bound to heighten interest in the project.
Surveying the market, Abdalla suggests there is a glut of documentaries looking for homes at the moment. “There are too many films that don’t finds sales [agents] at the moments. We get tons of new documentaries.” This over-supply has been caused partly by the streamers’ new acquisition strategy. The major platforms are buying fewer documentaries than in previous years. That means filmmakers are casting around for other ways to get their films seen.
Last week, Autlook announced its pick-up of I Hate Christmas, the new feature doc from Irish director Ken Wardrop, made through Venom Films.
Meanwhile, the company is continuing to sell its Sundance titles, for example Anybody Out There which has been picked up by Conic for the UK, VGTV for Norway and Madman for Australia/New Zealand among other territories.
“We don’t see a rise in MGs for documentaries from art house distributors,” Abdalla acknowledges that the market is still adjusting to the fall-out from the pandemic. “There is less risk taking in the theatrical market and so we are very selective in what we are offering to theatrical distributors…you need to offer a reason [for audiences] to go to the cinema for documentary.”
Films like Sundance hit Smoke Sister Sisterhood and The Mother Of All Lies both, the Autlook boss believes, have that wow factor which viewers simply won’t be able to replicate watching on their TV screens.
