For the second year in a row, Telefilm Canada, in partnership with  Forum RIDM and in collaboration with theHot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (Toronto), is proud to announce the launch of Docs-in-Progress – Canadian Showcase.

This year’sMarché du Film at the Cannes Festival will take place online from June 22 to 26, 2020. The online edition ofCannes Docs 2020 will include 8 showcases from different countries, each composed of 4 docs-in-progress, presented in pitch format followed by a 10-minute excerpt from the film. The Canadian Showcase will take place on Thursday, June 25 from 4:15 to 5:30 p.m. (France time). The event will allow the producers and directors of the four Canadian works to pitch their films to an audience of buyers, distributors, festival programmers and international sales agents.

Leading up to the event, Forum RIDM will provide pitch training to each project’s representatives and provide personalized guidance for their online presentations. It will be an excellent opportunity for the producers and filmmakers to present an excerpt, give a presentation and launch their films on the international market.

 

Here are the projects selected for Doc-in-Progress – Canadian Showcase 2020:

 

LES LIBRES 

Director: Nicolas Lévesque

Producers: Jean-Philippe Archibald, Nicolas Lévesque (Canopée Médias)

Nicolas Lévesque is a Canadian photographer and filmmaker. His documentary projects led him to document various parts of the world, between the Americas, Europe and his home in Quebec. His images are the subject of exhibitions and projects of award- winning editions such as Lutte (Éditions la Peuplade) and Derniers souverains (Éditions Poètes de Brousse). His documentary film In Guns We Trust was honored Best Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013, as well as Interview with a Free Man, in 2015, produced by the National Film Board of Canada. After his documentary We Hunt Seals, he is currently producing a new documentary film, Les Libres, following the release of detainees in search of a new life. Since 2010, he has collaborated regularly with Télé-Québec, TV5, RDI and Radio-Canada in the production of documentaries for television.

Jean-Philippe Archibald has been working in media for several years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in film from the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, and works mainly as a producer and cinematographer. He has directed several short films and earned mentions on the festival circuit.As a cinematographer, he has worked on several productions, including documentaries, fictional films, advertisements and music videos. Since 2015, he has been a partner and producer at Canopée Médias, a production company specializing in documentaries, photography and video as well as content strategy. He produced Les Acteurs du Nord (2016, TV5), Rich in Bollywood (a short documentary selected by numerous festivals), and Les Libres, a feature-length documentary currently in post production, made with the participation of Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch program.

 

PIPELINE IN PARADISE 

Director: Julia Ivanova

Producers: Julia Ivanova (Heartache Productions Inc.), John Ritchie (Screen Door Entertainment)

Co-producer : Ina Mitchell

Julia Ivanova is a Canadian documentary director, producer and editor who was honoured with a retrospective at Hot Docs Film Festival in 2019 as a significant Canadian filmmaker. Ivanova is the creative force behind ten feature and TV documentaries. Her film Family Portrait in Black And White, about a Ukrainian foster mother and her 17 mixed-race foster children, was screened at Sundance and was named Best Canadian Feature Documentary at Hot Docs.

With over thirty years of experience, John Ritchie has overseen the creation of more than 500 hours of factual and scripted films and television series.John acquired production company Force Four Entertainment, became Chief Creative Officer and with his two partners, built it into a powerhouse on the Canadian entertainment landscape. In 2014, Force Four was acquired by Canadian production giant Entertainment One. John produced the multi-award-winning feature documentary 65_RedRoses and has executive produced numerous documentary series. He had the honour of telling the life stories of Terry Fox, Emily Carr,Phil and Tony Esposito, Rick Hansen, and many others, and also produced documentaries in the natural history, science and social issue genres.

 

THE DAWNSAYER

Director: Paul Marc Kell

Producer: Paul Marc Kell

A graduate of Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Paul Marc Kell is a writer, producer, director & cinematographer with nearly twenty years of broadcast and theatrical credits from around the world. Kell’s filmmaking career was launched with the award-winning feature-length film 5 Sides of a Coin (7^th Art Releasing / Lakeshore Entertainment / Starz). In 2015-16, he was the showrunner (writer/director/series producer) of the first 11 episodes of Viceland’s Dead Set On Life with Matty Matheson.Kell’s work has screened at film festivals worldwide, notably Cannes, SXSW, and AFI Fest. Over the past 15 years, he has worked on commercials, shorts, features, TV shows and one-offs that have been broadcast on the CBC, Discovery Channel, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Planet Green, History Channel, MTV, Starz, Showcase, TVO, Knowledge, Canal D, Superchannel, The Documentary Channel, IFC, ABC (Australia), MuchMusic (Canada), and many more.

 

NO ORDINARY MAN 

Director: Aisling Chin-Yee et Chase Joynt

Producer: Sarah Spring (Parabola Films)

Aisling Chin-Yee is an award-winning producer, writer, and director.  Her feature directorial debut, The Rest of Us, starring Heather Graham and Sophie Nélisse premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.  Aisling has produced multiple features including Rhymes for Young Ghouls and The Saver. In 2017, she co-founded the #AfterMeToo movement. In 2018 she was one of the professionals selected for 50 Women Can Change the World in Media and Entertainment inHollywood.

Chase Joynt is a transgender moving-image artist and writer whose films have won jury and audience awards internationally. His latest short film, Framing Agnes, premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, won the Audience Award at Outfest in Los Angeles, and is being developed into a feature film with support from Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch program. Awarded the EP Canada/Canada Film Capital Award for Emerging Canadian Artist at the Inside Out Festival in Toronto, Joynt’s first book You Only Live Twice (co-authored with Mike Hoolboom) was a 2017 Lambda Literary Award Finalist and named one of the best books of the year by The Globe and Mail and CBC. 

Sarah Spring has been working as a producer, writer and film consultant for the past fifteen years. From the first feature she premiered at SXSW about a notorious Montreal street artist, to last year’s Visions du Réel release about memory and grief in a small town, Sarah produces auteur filmmakers with a unique approach to storytelling. The company she co-founded with Selin Murat, Parabola Films, is a boutique production house supporting filmmakers seeking innovative or experimental ways to examine the world around them. Sarah is currently President of the Board of the RIDM and co-chairs the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund, and works with provincial and federal film agencies as a consultant, researcher and manager of special projects.

 

About Telefilm Canada

Telefilm is dedicated to the cultural, commercial and industrial success of Canada’s audiovisual industry. Through funding and promotion programs, Telefilm supports dynamic companies and creative talent at home and around the world. Telefilm also makes recommendations regarding the certification of audiovisual coproduction treaties to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, and administers the programs of the Canada Media Fund. Launched in 2012, the Talent Fund accepts private donations which principally support emerging talent. Visit telefilm.ca and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/telefilm_canada and on Facebook at facebook.com/TelefilmCanada.

 

About Hot Docs

Hot Docs is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing and celebrating the art of documentary and to creating production opportunities for documentary filmmakers. Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, North America’s largest documentary festival, conference and market, welcomes audiences of over 228,000 and more than 2,600 industry delegates to Toronto each year. Year-round, Hot Docs supports the Canadian and international industry with professional development programs and a multi-million-dollar production fund portfolio, and fosters education through documentaries with its popular free program Docs For Schools. Hot Docs owns and programs the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, a century-old landmark located in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood and the world’s first and largest documentary cinema.

 

About Forum RIDM

Since 2004, Forum RIDM, Quebec’s documentary forum co-founded withDOC Québec, has supported and stimulated independent documentary production, enabling discussions among professionals, artists, producers, distributors and exhibitors of every stripe. Now taking place over five days, Forum RIDM has enhanced its program with mentorship initiatives (Talent Lab) and professional sessions that take an active role in the creation of new documentaries and the training of new talent.