Nick Cunningham

The first session of the 20th Ex Oriente Film training programme is currently taking place in La Rochelle (June 17-22) in co-operation with Sunny Side of the Doc. The 3-part programme (which travels to Ji.hlava IDFF in October before concluding in Prague in March 2023) is focused on the development and funding of creative documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe.

Kazz Basma, Head of Sales and Acquisitions at Sideways Film, gives the lowdown to BDE on his 3-film Sunny Side slate, comprising a doc about the outlawed Chinese spiritual group Falun Gong, an examination of gun violence in the US and the struggle to save marine wildlife in Hawaii. “They very well represent our profile as they are all ambitious, timely stories that can connect with broad audiences [served by] public broadcasters, commercial broadcasters and the platforms.”

Getty Images Senior Business Development Manager Emmanuel Prosnier talks to Business Doc Europe about his company’s offer to the international doc industry at Sunny Side 2022. “I haven't yet seen a kind of content we don't have,” he explains of the company’s 480 million visual assets. He will also seek to remind doccers of the benefits of archive both to the bottom line and, more importantly, the environment.

Finnish filmmakers will present no fewer than six new documentary projects during Sunny Side 2022, including the rally doc series ‘The Flying Finns’; the dramatic ‘Untold Arctic Wars 2’ about the significance of the Arctic region during the Cold War and ‘Carmen’, the coming-of-age story of a Finnish Romany girl with a passion for dancing, whom the filmmakers follow for seven years on her way to adulthood.

Kathryn Bonnici, Head of Acquisitions & Development at French/UK Java Films, talks to Business Doc Europe about her specific priorities at Sunny Side of the Doc 2022 and why the La Rochelle market meets her business needs.

Chilean production companies La Ventana Cine and Cábala Producciones arrive at La Rochelle looking for co-production and sales on four projects that include Breaking the Brick, which world premieres at Sheffield; and Chiribiquete, the Lost Civilization of the Amazon, a journey through the history of the peoples living along the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon and Patagonia.

Sheffield DocFest announced June 16 the Focus: Filmmaker Talent initiative, devised by Guest Curator Asif Kapadia who has invited six filmmakers to make a short documentary, in and around Sheffield, during the festival. All filming is to be undertaken in a single day and the final work will be screened on the last day of Sheffield DocFest. The initiative is supported by Amazon Studios, Canon and The Kurious.

DOK Leipzig “emphasises its long-term connection to Eastern Europe” with a programme of current feature-length films offering insights into life in the region’s countries. This year’s retrospective will focus on docs by female filmmakers from the GDR while this year’s homage is dedicated to renowned Serbian documentary filmmaker Mila Turajlić. Emphasis placed on in-person Festival and Industry presentation and attendance in 2022.

With total doc support for this round just short of €1m, one of the recipients is Lynx Man, directed by Juha Suonpää and pitched at Nordisk Panorama Forum 2021. Other projects include a doc about the repatriation of the Sámi ancestral heritage from museums (Homecoming) and a non-linear narrative of Tom of Finland’s house in Los Angeles (Tom House the VR Experience).

Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated animated film (also Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner in the World Cinema Documentary) tells the story of his childhood friend’s extraordinary physical and emotional journey from Afghanistan to finally building a new home in Denmark. The film was produced by Final Cut for Real.