French-based doc sales outfit Lightdox is in Cannes this week with a film bound to appeal to Arctic enthusiasts everywhere. Robin Hunzinger’s Ice Grave, which premiered recently at DOK.fest Munich, is the story of three intrepid explorers who set out to the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon in 1897 – but never came back. Many years later, their journals and photographs were discovered, as were their bodies (perfectly preserved).
“We were lucky enough to work on Hunzinger’s previous film Ultraviolette and the Blood-Spitters Gang (2021) which we premiered at IDFA and it was a wonderful collaboration,” Anna Berthollet, CEO, Sales & Acquisitions, explains how she discovered the director’s work. “When he told us about Ice Grave and the uniqueness of the material he managed to put the spotlight on, we were immediately engaged and were on board from a very early stage.”
Lightdox “loves to accompany filmmakers on the journey” of their films, often from early development and production right through to red carpet.
It might be a surprise given all the specialist doc market events in the calendar (IDFA, CPH DOX etc) but Berthollet describes the Cannes Festival as one of the key events for her. The company has been an attendee at the Marché for “five or six years,” with a booth that people can now easily find.
Berthollet elaborates on the importance of Cannes, stressing the profile of her films. “We don’t really work with purely factual content for broadcasters. Our slate is more constituted by films with theatrical potential. I think markets like Visions du Reel and CPH are absolutely important for us because we can target the theatrical distributors focused on documentaries, but when it comes to a wider scope of people we sell to among international buyers, these people would rarely come to events that are purely documentary.”
In other words, Lightbox can reach buyers on the Croisette than don’t turn up elsewhere. Berthollet talks of distributors who would “cross the oceans for Cannes or Berlin” but simply wouldn’t travel to smaller specialist doc events. “Likewise for festival programmers…they would come to Cannes and Berlin and that is the place where we are going to meet them.”
Lightdox is part of the documentary showcase at Cannes Docs and has teamed up with other sales agents with similarly high-quality docs.
“Our slates are very complementary in terms of documentaries we are selling. That [coming together] optimises buyers’ time because they would come if there are five or six of us that they could check out, but they wouldn’t come if it’s only one. We thought that is the best way to go,” she says of the initiative with companies like Cinephil, CAT&Docs, Met Film, Mediawan and Autlook. Each sales agent is given 15 minutes to show excerpts, trailers and to pitch the buyers.
Among the docs Berthollet is foregrounding are Flophouse America, Monica Strømdahl’s highly praised debut feature doc about poverty in the US and the experiences of a precociously bright boy growing up with alcoholic parents with a cramped motel room as a home. Also present is Agatha’s Almanac from Amalie Atkins and about a 90-year-old woman living a solitary but rewarding life on her farm where she gardens relentlessly. Berthollet is also hoping to interest buyers in her IFFR Tiger winner, Fiume O Morte!, about the flamboyant Italian poet, dandy and warmonger, Gabriele D’Annunzio.
Lightdox still concentrates primarily on the theatrical market, “our major source of revenues.”
“I think there is a business there, that’s for sure. The official figures say maybe one third of the audience are not back in the cinemas,” Berthollet reflects of the growth potential. She acknowledges that there are “blind spots.” For instance, films on geo-political subjects or personal stories dealing with social issues struggle for traction.
However, Lightdox has been experiencing “something amazing” with Agatha’s Almanac, “because it is so beautifully crafted,” says Berthollet.
“Since this year, we are trying something different with theatrical distribution,” the CEO explains why the company is now venturing into theatrical releasing itself. Earlier this year, it teamed up with Luke Brawley of Indox to release Ukrainian director Oksana Karpovych’s Intercepted in the UK and Ireland.
“We understood that with some of the films, you don’t need to set up the big machine to release them. To get into classical distribution is immediately to trigger bigger expenses…but still these films can still have some kind of potential outside the festival circuit which we want to explore. We figured out that if we can have control over the costs and promotion, it can be worth it.”
Berthollet and her team arranged around 20 screenings of Intercepted in venues including Bertha DocHouse. It was a successful experiment which Lightdox will now look to repeat.
“Our plan is to expand this model in France in the second half of this year….we feel there is a space for targeted distribution for these kinds of documentaries. Unfortunately, more and more of the classical distributors who were handling documentary are shutting down – so we are trying to figure out an alternative model.”
And, yes, this is a lot of extra work. But Lightdox will be looking to work closely with local partners in the countries where it ventures into distribution.
