Sunny Side '21

The Ultimate Joker is Polish, former Communist era spin-meister Jerzy Urban who, according to director Krzysztof Dzięciołowski and producer Agata Jujeczka, “gave us political spin, fake news and polarising politics long before Donald Trump, Andrzej Duda and Jair Bolsonaro were an itch in their daddies’ pants.”

Kārlis Lesiņš gets aboard with Business Doc Europe to explain his latest doc project Nord Express, about the Rail Baltica project, the new (and increasingly complex) high speed rail line that is supposed to link the Baltic states with central and northern Europe.

When Armenian filmmaker Inna Sahakyan discovered the story of the extraordinary Aurora Mardiganian, a star of Hollywood’s silent era, when going through the Zoryan Institute archives, she finally found a way to tell her story of the Armenian genocide.

Jayson McNamara’s new doc tells the story of Nora Cortiñas, Argentina’s “godmother of democracy,” who was transformed from conservative “housewife” into trailblazing activist after the kidnap and disappearance of her son Gustavo in 1977, presumed murdered by the dictatorship. Nora’s inspirational activism has continued undiminished, McNamara tells BDE.

Sunny Side will present a June 23 case study of 8 BILLION, developed by Waterbear and described as “an exciting multi-media initiative and online community for shared visions, hopes and beliefs joining forces to defend Planet Earth.” Waterbear answers questions on the project posed by Business Doc Europe.

Latvian director Dāvis Sīmanis discusses his cinematic quest to understand immortality with Business Doc Europe. “Whenever you are making a film about immortality, it means you are making a film about death,” he maintains.

Loose talk in a Warsaw restaurant brought down the Polish government, but the transcripts of those conversations, it seems, may have been made on the orders of the Kremlin. Konrad Szołajski’s investigative doc seeks to get to the heart of the matter.

Together with Central and Eastern Europe partners, IDF will present the region’s doc industries at Sunny Side plus a catalogue of 40+ projects. Additionally, it will publish results of a survey of CEE representation at key doc events, and will showcase new projects in development and production. Sunny Side also hosts the Ex Oriente workshop.

The Finland showcase at this year's Sunny Side features seven new doc projects in development. “We want to reflect upon #storytellingmatters by sharing interesting stories by Finnish documentarists that highlight how important themes resonate across the globe,” says Vera Ruokonen, Audiovisual Producers Finland project manager.

The Chilean offer at Sunny Side of the Doc includes the Chile-Canada miniseries Extreme of the Americas, about climate change, which is selected for the market’s Wildlife & Conservation pitch section, as well as four other new doc projects to be presented June 21 during the market’s Chilean presentation.