• La Ventana Cine and Cábala Producciones arrive at Sunny Side of the Doc with some of their latest projects, mainly in search of co-production and sales.
• The industry meeting, which takes place anually in La Rochelle, France, will be held in person from June 20-23, 2022.
Sunny Side of the Doc, an important market dedicated to non-fiction, annually receives productions from all over the world, mainly interested in generating partnerships with diverse industry agents and with their peers from the sector. This year, two Chilean production companies will be attending this event accompanied by Chiledoc, the sectorial brand of the Chilean documentary.
The Head of ProChile’s Creative Economy Department, Raúl Vilches, comments: «France is a market in the spotlight for our audiovisual industry, which is why ProChile, in collaboration with the different guilds and public institutions of the sector, strongly supports the filmmakers participating in Sunny Side of the Doc, one of the most important film festivals for the sector, in their search for financing and co-production opportunities. This support is part of a broader internationalization effort not only for our documentary filmmakers but also for all the Creative and Cultural Industries, as they contribute to the diversification and add value and quality to our exportable supply».
Paula Ossandón, Chiledoc’s director, states that «we arrive at Sunny Side of the Doc alongside two company houses with significant experience in developing series and content for television: Cábala Producciones and La Ventana Cine, both stand out due to their contingent, innovative approach, and high-impact approach on audiences.»
The transforming gaze of La Ventana Cine
La Ventana Cine, a production company founded by Carola Fuentes and Rafael Valdeavellano, assists the market with projects and films in different stages of development. One of those is Breaking the Brick, directed and produced by Fuentes and Valdeavellano. The documentary, which is already completed, arrives at Sunny Side of the Doc intending to negotiate sales for the film, something fundamental, especially with its upcoming premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest, the genre’s most important film festival in the United Kingdom. Breaking the Brick is proposed as a sequel to Chicago Boys (2015), filmed and produced by the same pair that portrays the economist group that boosted neoliberalism in Chile.
«Breaking the Brick is a film that takes place in Chile but runs through the veins of all of Latin America. We already told the story of the model’s origins in our first film. Today we have registered the end of that cycle, with two characters who initially seem to come from antagonistic worlds but later allow us to understand that they coexist in a country that is mutating, while themselves undergo a profound transformation,» says director Carola Fuentes.
In addition, a project that also portrays transformation will participate in the market. A Journey to the Roots, directed by José Manuel Loyola and produced by Carola Fuentes and Rafael Valdevellano, narrates the story of Adam, a man who returns to his territory to reconvert his community to the Mapuche spirituality and cosmovision. After the death of his parents, he will accept the design of his Pewmas -premonitory dreams- to assume as the new Lonko and recover their ancestral lands usurped by the Chilean state. «For more than five years, the director Jota Loyola has been recording the path the characters have taken during this time. A family that opened the doors of their world to us and has allowed us to reach the depths of their bonds, fears, and dreams. In a country that has changed and that also has made them change in an unexpected way,» adds Fuentes. Adam, a project at an advanced development stage, attends the market looking for co-production opportunities.
Cabala Producciones and its plurality of voices
Another Chilean outstanding production company attending Sunny Side of the Doc is Cabala Producciones. In the last ten years, the production company has maintained audiovisual coverage throughout the Latin American region on science, nature, and environmental issues, with productions such as the series Children of Stars (NTGEO) or Saving Paradise (ARTE). «Sunny Side is an excellent place to strengthen international co-production bonds. In our case, the bond between Latin America and Europe for documentary features and documentary tv series focused on the dissemination of nature, conservation, and science,» says Gonzalo Argandoña, founder and executive producer of the production company.
Chiribiquete, the Lost Civilization of the Amazon is one of the projects with which the production company attendes this year to the French market. Directed by Paul-Aurélien Combré and Gonzalo Argandoña and produced by Diego Rojas and Eric Ellena, the documentary is a journey through the history of the human being in the American continent as it goes through the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon and the Chilean Patagonia. «The call on to the conservation of places so exceptional as this one becomes urgent,» assures Argandoña.
On the other hand, Not One Less, directed by Paula Rodríguez and produced by Gonzalo Argandoña, Diego Rojas and Claudia Rojas, is a documentary series that explores and reveals the thriving Latin American feminist movement based on cases of gender violence and femicide in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico. This is a project in development that, so far, has a Colombian and German co-production but is looking to open new doors in this important non-fiction film market.
«The artistic and content quality of Chilean documentary series is increasingly recognized worldwide. In Sunny Side of the Doc, we are looking to promote the exchange between Chilean documentary series and international television industry agents and boost the interest of countries such as France, Germany, or the Asian region,» adds Paula Ossandón from Chiledoc.
The virtual participation in the Sunny Side of the Doc market in La Rochelle, France, is financed by Prochile and managed by Chiledoc, the sectorial brand of the Chilean documentary.
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