Espresso Media, the independent factual distributor, heads to Sunny Side of the Doc with a new slate spanning factual entertainment, premium science, true crime, world affairs, social documentary and history.
“We’re proud to be bringing such a strong and varied slate to Sunny Side,” comments Acquisitions Manager Colette Webber. “In a challenging distribution landscape for independent factual producers, it matters to us that we keep championing ambitious, high quality documentary work across every genre we operate in.”
The Espresso slate is comprised of the following (texts provided by the company). In factual entertainment, the provocative and unexpectedly moving Porn Star University (1 x 73′ / 1 x 54′) sees one of OnlyFans’ biggest stars attempt something nobody has done before: founding a university for porn. Sharp, funny, and surprisingly tender, it is a portrait of modern work, masculinity and reinvention guaranteed to spark conversation. Also returning is High Altitude Carpenters, now in its fifth season (10 x 44′), continuing the story of the Legno House family and their spectacular high-altitude renovations in the Italian Dolomites.
Premium science joins the slate with Infertile: The Toxic Truth About Infertility (1 x 70′ / 1 x 52′), a deeply rigorous and timely investigation into endocrine-disrupting chemicals and their role in the global decline in human fertility. Going further than recent films on the subject, it draws on expertise across reproductive biology, endocrinology and environmental science to make a compelling case that falling fertility is not a lifestyle problem but a chemical one, with consequences that may shape generations to come.
True crime is represented by Chat Room Killers (2 x 44′), from the producer behind Peacock originals Monster in the Shadows and Where is Baby Gabriel, a gripping two-parter reconstructing the case of two men who met online and turned shared violent fantasy into murder.
World affairs figure high on Espresso’s Summer slate. The Deal with Iran (3 x 52′), winner of Best Docuseries at CanneSeries and currently airing on VRT, reconstructs the foiled 2018 terrorist attack at a Paris rally, the conviction of a sitting Iranian diplomat on European soil, and the prisoner exchange that followed. A Game of Double Standards (1 x 52’ / 1 x 83′) revisits the global controversy surrounding Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, exploring how media coverage, political tensions and human rights concerns shaped international perceptions of the tournament, and asking whether Qatar faced scrutiny unmatched by previous hosts. Aquariums: The Dark Hobby (1 x 55′) examines the largely unregulated world of wild fish capture for the aquarium trade, and the activists and Native Hawaiians fighting an industry devastating Hawaii’s reefs and marine ecosystems. The Divine Hustle (1 x 58′) is a portrait of two children and a young father earning their living embodying Hindu deities in North India’s sacred pilgrimage towns, where faith becomes labour and survival is tied to devotion.
Social documentary is led by Digby and Camille (1 x 90′ / 1 x 55′), an award-winning Australian feature from acclaimed filmmaker Trevor Graham. Tender and humorous, it follows two people with Down syndrome who have been together for eight years and now want to marry, only to find their devoted parents standing in the way.
Sports doc Ski Dreams (1 x 58′) follows two young ski racers from tropical Singapore as they chase an unlikely dream: qualifying for the Winter Olympics 2026. Through training, competition and setbacks on the international circuit, they push to prove that elite sporting ambition can come from anywhere.
Rounding out the slate, Osborne tells the remarkable and largely untold story of Adam Osborne: before Steve Jobs and Bill Gates defined the personal computer era, he built the world’s first portable PC, grew a $100 million company in a meteoric rise, and lost everything in eighteen months. A cautionary Silicon Valley tale as gripping as any thriller.
Digital appeal titles include Ping Pong (1 x 75′), following eight competitors with a combined age of 703 years to the World Over-80s Table Tennis Championships in Inner Mongolia, a life-affirming story of ageing and ambition; County Blooms (S1: 5 x 15′ / S2: 6 x 15′), celebrating flower growers, designers and creators across Canada; and adventure series Elbrus (1 x 53′) and Empire of the Winds (1 x 53′), both featuring Arc’teryx athletes in extreme terrain.
Also on the slate is Ireland to Sydney: By Any Means (6 x 58′) and Extreme Frontiers (S1–S3), following Charley Boorman across multiple ambitious journeys.
