Sunny Side 22

Elina Kewitz of Cologne-based New Docs arrives at Sunny Side with a brace of new titles, one of which, Ithaka - A Fight to Free Julian Assange by Ben Lawrence, has taken on even greater significance for buyers following the UK Home Secretary’s decision on June 17 to approve the US government’s request to extradite the Australian founder of Wikileaks.

The first session of the 20th Ex Oriente Film training programme is currently taking place in La Rochelle (June 17-22) in co-operation with Sunny Side of the Doc. The 3-part programme (which travels to Ji.hlava IDFF in October before concluding in Prague in March 2023) is focused on the development and funding of creative documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe.

Kazz Basma, Head of Sales and Acquisitions at Sideways Film, gives the lowdown to BDE on his 3-film Sunny Side slate, comprising a doc about the outlawed Chinese spiritual group Falun Gong, an examination of gun violence in the US and the struggle to save marine wildlife in Hawaii. “They very well represent our profile as they are all ambitious, timely stories that can connect with broad audiences [served by] public broadcasters, commercial broadcasters and the platforms.”

Getty Images Senior Business Development Manager Emmanuel Prosnier talks to Business Doc Europe about his company’s offer to the international doc industry at Sunny Side 2022. “I haven't yet seen a kind of content we don't have,” he explains of the company’s 480 million visual assets. He will also seek to remind doccers of the benefits of archive both to the bottom line and, more importantly, the environment.

Finnish filmmakers will present no fewer than six new documentary projects during Sunny Side 2022, including the rally doc series ‘The Flying Finns’; the dramatic ‘Untold Arctic Wars 2’ about the significance of the Arctic region during the Cold War and ‘Carmen’, the coming-of-age story of a Finnish Romany girl with a passion for dancing, whom the filmmakers follow for seven years on her way to adulthood.

Kathryn Bonnici, Head of Acquisitions & Development at French/UK Java Films, talks to Business Doc Europe about her specific priorities at Sunny Side of the Doc 2022 and why the La Rochelle market meets her business needs.

Chilean production companies La Ventana Cine and Cábala Producciones arrive at La Rochelle looking for co-production and sales on four projects that include Breaking the Brick, which world premieres at Sheffield; and Chiribiquete, the Lost Civilization of the Amazon, a journey through the history of the peoples living along the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon and Patagonia.

The La Rochelle-based market, enjoying its 33rd edition, will take place 20-23 June, following two online editions. With a theme of New Voices, 48 projects from 22 countries will be presented across 8 pitch sessions. Over the four days, 2,200 industry delegates from 60 different countries are expected be in attendance.