The CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator training program for women-identifying documentaryfilmmakers has announced its official selection for 2023. The sixth edition of the Accelerator features ten carefully curated documentary projects, with authors from Europe and the rest of the world.
The announcement came after the CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator showcase at Cannes Docs of 4 new projects almost ready for launch onto the international market.
Commenting on the 2023 selection of projects, which will be developed across three modules, CIRCLE program director Biljana Tutorov states: “After five years of existence and numerous completed and award-winning films, I believe that CIRCLE has cultivated a unique sensibility that brings together those interested in film as an art form, language, and engagement. This year, it was particularly difficult to make the final selection among 130 applications from 52 different countries…Our new cohort shows great promise, and we can’t wait for a new circle of connection, creative work, and inspiration to begin.” See selections below.
The workshop writes how, “themes of belonging, displacement, and nostalgia loom large in several of the projects, which imbibe deeply personal stories with a critical political context. In the autobiographical film Portrait of a Friendship by Faezeh Nikoozad, three friends and filmmakers from Iran offer differing perspectives on the meaning of home, migration, and exile. Berliner by Anna Khazaradze tells the stories of refugees through Nana, an interpreter for the Berlin law enforcement, and an immigrant herself. In No Woman’s Road, directed by Fanny Laure Bovet, three generations of Yenish women, a persecuted ethnic nomadic minority in Switzerland, embark on a journey through their troubled history. In Sites of Resistance director Lisa Smith embarks on a road trip with her father after the death of her mother, visiting places rooted in the collective memory of British Romani traveler families.
“Through the lens of archival and visually innovative approaches, Sisters by Tereza Bernátková shows us poetic black and white images of adolescent girls imprisoned in a mental health institution in 1960s Czechoslovakia. In Kafka in Belgrade Maša Nešković uses dreamscapes and video diaries of iconic Yugoslavian film director and political figure Goran Marković to illustrate his everlasting fight against oppressive regimes, from his student years behind the Iron Curtain in Prague until now. Set in the mountains of Arcadia, Rock, Paper, Scissors by Christina Phoebe chronicles the wounds of recent Greek history through the encounter between a group of friends restoring stone structures and Argyris Petronotis, an architect, historian, and one of the last surviving freedom fighters of the resistance to Nazi occupation. Contradictory perspectives on the background, reasons, and actions of Max Goldstein, the first Romanian terrorist figure, are at the center of Blazing Interwar, a hybrid documentary in three chapters produced by Anda Ionescu.
“Questions of freedom, love, and restriction, albeit in two radically different ways, are at the heart of the last two projects. In Untying the Knot, Chona Mangalindan follows the fight to legalize divorce in the Philippines through the eyes of three courageous women who face social and legal obstacles to break free from their abusive marriages. Finally, in Love School, filmed over the course of a decade, Julia Maryanska documents her own journey from maiden to mother, challenging cultural narratives about womanhood.”
Lead mentors for CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator 2023 are Syrian writer, director, and producer, a renowned Syrian writer, director, and Brigid O’Shea, an industry strategist and co-founder of Diana El Jeiroudi the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE). Other tutors and experts include Gianluca Matarrese (director, producer), Hubert Sauper (director, screenwriter, and producer), Salomé Jashi (director and producer from Georgia), Joanna Solecka (marketing and publicity strategist from Poland), and Charlene Branger (editor from Belgium).
Module 01 will take place at Evia Island (Greece) from June 19 to 24. Module 2 will take place in Serbia in September while Module 3 will run in January 2024.
The selected projects for the CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator 2023/2024 are:
- Berliner Director. Producer: Anna Khazaradze (Georgia). Additional producer: Nino Chichua. Production company: 1991 Productions (Georgia)
- Blazing Interwar. Producer: Anda Ionescu (Romania). Directors: Andra Tarara, David Schwartz. Production company: Tangaj Production (Romania)
- Kafka in Belgrade. Director: Maša Nešković (Serbia). Producers: Ena Bajraktarević, Maja Medić. Production company: Marienbad Film (Serbia). Co Producer: Hrvoje Osvadić (15. umjetnost, Croatia)
- Love School. Director, producer, writer: Julia Maryanska (Poland,USA). Co-producer: Marc J Francis. Production company: Re/Culture Media
- No Woman’s Road (Switzerland). Director: Fanny-Laure Bouvet (Switzerland). Producer: Youmi Haefelin-Roch. Production company: Kumoshika (Switzerland)
- Portrait of a Friendship. Director: Faezeh Nikoozad (Iran, Germany). Producers: Julia Cöllen, Karsten Krause, Frank Scheuffele. Production Company: Fünferfilm (Germany)
- Rock, Paper, Scissors (Greece). Director, producer, writer: Christina Phoebe. Production company: Scribble Films (Greece). Co-production company: Late Bloomers (Greece)
- Sisters (Czech Republic). Director: Tereza Bernátková. Producers: Natalia Povlove, Dagmar Sedláckovà. Production company: MasterFilm (Czech Republic). Co-production: FAMU
- Sites of Resistance. Director, producer, writer: Lisa Smith (UK). Production company: Patrin Films Ltd (UK)
- Untying the Knot. Director, producer: Chona Mangalindan (Philippines). Production company: MONSOON FILMS (The Philippines)
