Montreal, April 12, 2022 – The Forum RIDM is pleased to be back for a fourth consecutive year with Docs-In-Progress - Canadian Showcase at the Cannes Film Market in partnership with Telefilm Canada and in collaboration with the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (Toronto). Docs-In-Progress gives the opportunity to producers and filmmakers of four selected Canadian projects that are currently in production to fly to Cannes and present their films to an audience of buyers, distributors, festival programmers and international sales agents.
The Cannes Film Market, a crucial event for film industry professionals, is returning to its in-person format and will take place from May 17 to 25, 2022.
Prior to the event, the Forum RIDM will offer participants pitch training and personalized workshops for their presentation at the Cannes Film Market. Docs-In-Progress will be an opportunity for these producers and filmmakers to pitch their project and present an excerpt of it in the hopes of launching their film on the international market.
The projects selected for the Docs-In-Progress - Canadian Showcase 2022 are the following:
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Director: Nisha Platzer
Producer: Joella Cabalu
Nisha Platzer is a queer artist and filmmaker from Vancouver who graduated from the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión in Cuba. Her films meld sounds and imagery that you can dream and drown in. Her last short film, Vaivén (2020) won the best film award at aluCine Latin Film + Media Arts Festival and competed at festivals worldwide including Raindance, Festival du nouveau cinéma, FIDBA and Ji.hlava IDFF. Her work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council and the National Film Board of Canada. She teaches handmade film workshops and is a member of Iris Film Collective. An alumnus of IDFAcademy, the VIFF mentorship program, and the Hot Docs Doc Accelerator Lab, her work can be found in music videos, narrative and experimental films.
Joella Cabalu is a Filipino Canadian documentary filmmaker based in Vancouver. Her films lay bare narratives about intimacies, identities, and relationships. Her first mid-length documentary, It Runs in the Family (2015) — a personal exploration of acceptance and what the modern queer family can be in the Filipino diaspora — won the Audience Choice Awards at the Seattle Asian American Film Festival and Vancouver Queer Film Festival and a special jury mention at CAAMFest for the Loni Ding Award for Social Justice Documentary. Joella has worked as a producer alongside women directors to realize critically acclaimed short documentaries, including Born Identities (TIFF 2021), On Falling (Tribeca 2020), Biker Bob’s Posthumous Adventure (MDFF 2019), Do I Have Boobs Now? (Slamdance 2017), and FIXED! (DOXA 2017).
Caiti Blues
Director: Justine Harbonnier
Producer: Nellie Carrier
At the end of her studies in literature, Justine Harbonnier, who lives between France and Canada, directed her first short documentary film: Il y a un ciel magnifique et tu filmes Angèle Bertrand. Distributed by SPIRA (Canada), the film had its world premiere at MoMA in New York. Between directing more experimental projects, including the video poem Terrain Vague, distributed by the Maison de la poésie de Montréal, Justine has collaborated in the development of documentary films for production companies. Her second short film, Andrew Keegan Is Moving, shown in numerous festivals (FID Marseille, RIDM, DOXA), explores the social transformation of a territory.
A producer and director from Lévis, Canada, Nellie Carrier began her career as a production manager and line producer for production companies Voyelles Films and Art et essai. In 2016, Nellie produced her first feature film, Sashinka by Kristina Wagenbauer (FNC, Seattle International Film Festival, Canadian Screen Awards, Iris 2019). In 2017, she created the company Cinquième maison where she’s made several short films, including Amies (TIFF 2018), Cherche femme forte (Best Short Film at Berlin Short Film Festival 2020, three Prends ça court! 2020 awards) and Nuit blonde (Gabrielle Demers). She also co-produced Marie-Ève Juste’s short film As Spring Comes (TIFF, FNC 2020) and This House (Miryam Charles, Berlinale Forum 2022), both produced by Embuscade Films.
Meezan
Director and producer: Shahab Mihandoust
Shahab Mihandoust is an Iranian-Canadian filmmaker who received his BFA in Cinema in 2014. His practice stands at the intersection between cinema and research. Inspired by ethnographic approaches to research and creation, his work deals with issues of identity and labor in relation to natural and built environments to study how social, cultural and political processes affect people and places. His goal in his practice is to ask how our everyday social and sensorial experiences are formed in response to current circumstances and transformations of our environments. Zagros, his first feature documentary, follows the artisanal creation of carpets across the Western mountains of Iran. Zagros has been shown and awarded internationally in several documentary and ethnographic festivals. Currently, he’s working on Meezan, his second feature documentary, that reflects on labor and everyday life in the border province of Khuzestan, Iran.
Yintah
Co-directors: Michael Toledano, Jennifer Wickham, and Brenda Mitchell
Co-producers: Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano, and Franklin Lopez
Jennifer Wickham is Wet’suwet’en, and belongs to the Cas Yikh (Grizzly House) of the Gidimt’en canadian first nation clan. Jennifer grew up in and around Wet’suwet’en territory, and has actively participated in the nation’s governance system since 2006. Her background is in writing and Indigenous resurgence, with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Victoria. She has worked as an educator, a mental health advocate, and community support worker. She is a founding member of the Indigenous Life School on Wet’suwet’en territory. From 2018 to 2020, Jennifer worked as the Executive Director of the Witsuwit’en Language and Culture Society. During this time, Jennifer managed media relations and communications for the Gidimt’en Camp.
Michael Toledano is a filmmaker and journalist based in British Columbia, Canada, effectively living at the Unist’ot’en Camp for the past two years. Michael has a strong background in photojournalism and documentary filmmaking, and has co-produced several documentaries with VICE Canada on Indigenous communities on the frontlines of Canada’s environmental conflicts. He is known for vibrant, ground-level documentation of social movements ranging from Black Lives Matter Toronto to No One is Illegal.
Brenda Mitchell is Chief K-eltiy of the Unist'ot'en people of the Wet'suwet'en Nation. She has lived in the Wet'suwet'en communities of Witset and Burns Lake all her life, and was groomed to participate in Wet'suwet'en governance from a young age. Brenda is trained as a Wet'suwet'en language instructor and has worked as a post-secondary education coordinator for the Lake Babine Nation Band for decades. Brenda is a grandmother of ten and this fight is about protecting the Yintah for her grandchildren. She believes that this film is an important way to tell her people’s story and listen to the words of her Grandmother Knedebeas who always told her children, “Don’t let no white man take my yintah.”
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, producer and editor Franklin López has been making political films for over 30 years, with a focus on social justice and environmental issues. He has published hundreds of films online since 1998 under the name subMedia, which have been watched by millions, broadcast on international TV networks and screened in alleyways and movie theaters all around the world.
About Telefilm Canada
As a Partner of Choice, Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation dedicated to the success of Canada’s audiovisual industry, fostering access and excellence by delivering programs that support cultural resonance and audience engagement. With a lens of equity, inclusivity and sustainability, Telefilm bolsters dynamic companies and a range of 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 raises private donations which principally support emerging talent. Website | Twitter | Facebook
About Hot Docs
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America’s largest documentary festival, conference and market. Every year, Hot Docs presents an outstanding selection of approximately 200 documentaries from Canada and around the world to audiences and international delegates in Toronto. Hot Docs also mounts a full roster of conference sessions, market events and services for documentary practitioners, including the renowned Hot Docs Forum, Hot Docs Deal Maker and the Doc Shop. Hot Docs also owns the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, a century-old landmark located in Toronto’s Annex neighborhood.
About Forum RIDM
The professional market organized in parallel with the festival hosts a dozen activities for documentary professionals, including workshops and presentations, and facilitates more than 1,500 business meetings.
From left to right and up to bottom: Nisha Platzer, Joella Cabalu, Justine Harbonnier, Nellie Carrier, Shahab Mihandoust, Jennifer Wickham, Michael Toledano.
The Forum RIDM will take place from November 19 to 23, 2022.
Information: ridm.ca/en/forum-ridm / info@ridm.ca
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For interview or visual material requests, please contact:
Caroline Rompré | pixelleX communications | 514-778-9294 | caroline@pixellex.ca