In the Special Screenings selection, meanwhile, there are more documentaries on show, some giving an insight into politics past and present. "Maidan", by Sergei Loznitsa looks at the current situation in Ukraine. Ossama Mohammed’s "Eau Argentée" examines political unrest in Syria. Gabe Polsky’s "Red Army" looks at Russian hockey during the Cold War, and Yves Jeuland’s "Les Gens du Monde" celebrates the 70th anniversary of the French newspaper Le Monde, which has covered a war or two in its time. The Directors' Fortnight will also present documentary veteran Frederick Wiseman's latest work "National Gallery".
But for a broader taste of the documentary universe, one need look no further than the Marché du Film’s Doc Corner which includes a mini market for documentary sales companies, a video library, experts consultations and access to scores of leading documentary delegates, including, this year, sales agents such as Rise and Shine World Sales (Germany), CAT&Docs (France) or Cinephil (Israel) as well as international documentary festivals:IDFA (Netherland), Visions du Réel (Switzerland), CPH:DOX (Denmark), DOK Leipzig (Germany), FID Marseille (France), Planete+Doc Film Festival(Poland), Jihlava IDFF (Czech Republic), and Doc Lisboa (Portugal).
Herewith a series of Q&As with some of this year’s attendees:
Stefan Kloos, Managing Director of Rise and Shine World Sales
Q) How useful is the Doc Corner in Cannes?
A) Rise and Shine: We think it’s a great initiative to put a special focus on documentaries for the international theatrical market during the Marché du Film. The Doc Corner allows buyers to get in touch with all of the key players in documentary distribution in one space and we are happy to be part of this group.
Q) What is your focus there this year?
A) Rise and Shine: We are happy to meet with theatrical distributors from all over the world and key festival representatives. On top of our current films, we have a nice package of upcoming releases up our sleeves, which we are happy to discuss at an early stage.
Q) What films or projects will you take to Cannes?
A) Rise and Shine: We will have two market premieres with the multi-award winning Swiss film “Neuland” – a real runner up to Philibert´s “Etre et Avoir” - and “Children 404,” directed by Pavel Loparev and Askold Kurov, one of the directors of “Winter, Go Away.” The film for the first time touches on the effects that the anti-gay laws in Russia have on young people. The film will world premiere at Hot Docs, and we will show it to a market audience for the first time in Cannes.
Q) Can you describe your company and any recent hits?
A) Rise and Shine: We are one of the world’s leading boutique sales agents for documentaries. Recent theatrical hits are the funny Finnish self-experiment “My Stuff,” which has sold to more than a dozen territories since our Cannes market screening last year. Other highlights include the award-winning Reggae/Jamaica-tale “Journey To Jah,” which was shortlisted for the German Film Awards, and “Everyday Rebellion” by the Austrian Oscar-candidate Arash Riahi and his brother Arman, both of which have been selling well after their market premiere at the Berlinale this February.
Luciano Barisone, Director of Visions du Réel and Gudula Meinzolt, Head of Doc Outlook International Market at Visions du Réel: (25 April – 03 May)
Q) How useful is the Doc Corner in Cannes?
A) We are very happy to have a strong presence once again at the Doc Corner at the Marché du Film. It is a great opportunity to connect with documentary professionals from all over the world, to share the passion and the expertise to produce, and to find audiences. It’s all about networking and collaboration. Having a dedicated space at the Doc Corner allows us to gain time and gives us good visibility within the Marché. Thank you for welcoming our community!
Q) What is your focus there this year?
A) Our festival ends on the 3rd of May, so we're not in Cannes to see recently completed films but mainly to gain information about works in progress that could be ready for our 2015 edition. And to reach out to those who don't yet know us - or at least not well enough.
Q) Can you describe your festival and any recent hits?
A) Visions du Réel is one of the biggest international festival markets dedicated solely to documentary production. We're interested in documentaries, which adopt distinctive cinematographic approaches and aesthetics rather than TV-formatted products. The Festival is an ideal launch pad for young filmmakers. In recent years films such as “El Lugar Mas Pequeno” (The Tiniest Place) by Tatiana Huezo Sanchez, “Il Castello” (The Castle) by Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti, “De Regels Van Matthijs” (Matthew’s Laws) by Marc Schmidt, “Le Thé Ou L’électricité” (Tea or Electricity) by Jérôme Le Maire, “Hiver Nomade” (Nomad Winter) by Manuel Von Sturler, “American Vagabond” by Susanna Helke, “Les Chebabs De Yarmouk” (The Shebabs of Yarmouk) by Axel Salvatori-Sinz, “Ranadeh Va Roobah” (Trucker and the Fox) by Arash Lahooti and “Elektro Moskva” (Electro Moscow) by Dominik Spritzendorfer and Elena Tichonova, after having premièred with us in Nyon, have gone on to considerable festival success and sales across various countries.
Q) What films or projects will you take to Cannes?
A) Five films forming part of our 2014 selection will be available for viewing in the Marché du Film library:
“Städtebewohner” by Thomas Heise
“Les Tourmentes” by Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd
“Endless Escape, Eternal Return” by Harutyun Khachatryan
“Garden Lovers” by Virpi Suutari
“Domino Effect” by Elwira Niewira and Piotr Rosolowski.
FIDMarseille (July 1-7 , 2014)
Q) How useful is the Doc Corner in Cannes?
A) The Doc Corner is the place to meet and exchange with professionals. Within the Marché Du Film, the Doc Corner allows FIDMarseille to promote the festival as well as the FIDLab, our international platform for co-production support. It also allows us to highlight a selection of films from our festival. Finally, we use the Doc Corner to promote DOC ALLIANCE, a collective of seven European festivals that we are part of: dafilms.com
The goal of Doc Alliance is to support and promote the diversity of the films screened at these seven festivals and to reach the largest audience through two initiatives: Doc Alliance Selection and the VOD portal Doc Alliance Films.
Q) What is your focus there this year?
A) The press conference of the 6th edition of the FIDLab, our international platform for co-production support. It will take place on Tuesday, May 20th at 5pm at the Région PACA pavilion of the Village International Pantiero. Professionals who want to learn more about the FIDLab and find out about the selected projects are welcome.
Q) Can you describe your festival?
A) FIDMARSEILLE, Festival International de Cinéma is one of the main competitive international festivals in France. During seven days, in early July, it aims to be a must-go and convivial festival, not only for filmmakers, professionals and programmers from around the world, but also for the audience.
First published at http://www.marchedufilm.com/en/actualite/63
