extinction rebellion

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Climate action protest group Extinction Rebellion

Projects on climate change movement Extinction Rebellion and the Saudi Arabia women’s football team are among those selected for Sheffield Doc/Fest’s 2020 online marketplace MeetMarket.

The documentary market will take place via virtual video-conferencing from June  8-10 June, with the Alternate Realities Talent Market running on the same dates.

Among the 48 projects from 500 applications selected for the MeetMarket is XR Beyond The Emergency from the UK. Directed by Maia Kenworthy and Elena Sánchez Bellot and produced by Katrina Mansoor, it centres on the ordinary people who are devoting their lives to civil disobedience as part of global climate protest movement Extinction Rebellion.

Also selected is an untitled UK-Canada-UAE co-production following three ladies leading Saudi Arabia’s female football team through its first international season. The project is directed by Sarah McCarthy and Anjali Nayar and produced by Tewe Pannier.

Nayar is also director of US-Canada-Kenya co-production Just A Band, about four Kenyans who drop out of university to form an Afroelectric pop group. Producers on the project include Wanuri Kahiu, who directed 2018 festival hit Rafiki.

Twenty of the 48 projects have a first-time filmmaker attached to direct, while 21 are from directors who have completed one to three films.

The seventh edition of the Alternate Realities Talent Market has chosen 20 teams to match with curators, exhibitors, distributors and funding bodies to assist their storytelling using digital technologies. Those chosen include Screen Star of Tomorrow 2018 Baff Akoto, whose current projects are Leave The Edges and Elevated Swagger.

Thirty countries are participating in the market across both sections.

“We’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response from our global network of industry decision-makers since we announced the plan to run a virtual market this year,” said Patrick Hurley, Doc/Fest’s director of marketplace and talent. “The feedback from participants in Thessaloniki and CPH:DOX has been great and us market-organisers are talking to each other plenty to share tips on best practices.”

The main Doc/Fest programme had been due to run from June 4-9. However last month it was changed to run selected films over a series of weekends throughout the autumn, with talks, panels and artists events.

Doc/Fest MeetMarket 2020 

  • Against the Tide (Ind) Dir: Sarvnik Kaur
  • Airborne (Ind) Dir: Shaunak Sen
  • Are You Wearing You!? (Uga-SA) Dir: Nikissi Serumaga
  • Atomic Hope (Ire) Dir: Frankie Fenton
  • Bam Bam: The Story Of Sister Nancy (Can) Dir: Alison Duke
  • Bella (US) Dirs: Bella Graves, Adam Dietrich
  • Caring for Kathryn (US) Dir: Adam Isenberg
  • Children Of The Mist (Vie) Dir: HA LE Diem
  • Don’t Call Me Mad (UK-Ger) Dir: Zora Kuettner
  • Dreamer (Aze-Cze) Dir: Imam Jabirowich Hasanow
  • Dreaming Walls (Bel-Fr-Neth-Swe) Dir: Amélie van Elmbt
  • Drifting Images (Chile) Dir: Nicolás Tabilo
  • Driver (US) Dir: Nesa Azimi
  • Eat / Sleep/ Cheer / Repeat (Ire) Dir: Tanya Doyle
  • Eskape (Fr) Dir: Neary Adeline Hay
  • F@CK This Job (UK) Dir: Vera Krichevskaya
  • Friends Not Food (US) Dir: Jason Goldman
  • Hello Stranger (UK) Dir: Beryl Richards
  • How To Build A Library (Ken) Dirs: Maia Lekow & Christopher King
  • I Am Sarah (UK-Ger) Dir: Charly Wai Feldman
  • In Whose Name? (Bra-US) Dirs: Veronica Medina-Matzner, Natalia Castro Leite
  • Just A Band (US-Can-Ken) Director: Anjali Nayar 
  • La Vida Es Un Musical (Den-Swe) Dir: Patty Pajak 
  • Landlock (US) Dir: Alex Pritz
  • Made In Ethiopia (UK-US-China) Dirs: Max Duncan, Xinyan Yu
  • Midwives (Mya-Ger-Can) Dir: Hnin Ei Hlaing
  • Murderabilia (US-France) Dir: Nora Mandray
  • Nameless (HK-China-US) Dir: Jennifer Ngo
  • Nightcrawlers (Nor-Swe) Dirs: Petter Aaberg, Sverre Kvamme
  • Of Boys And Men (Den) Dir: Anders S. Jepsen
  • On The Edge (Ind) Dirs: Anupama Srinivasan, Anirban Dutta
  • Our Daughters (US) Dir: Chithra Jeyaram 
  • Polymers (Est) Dir: Denis Shabaev
  • Roma (Ukr-Neth-Den) Dir: Olga Zhurba
  • Siunissaq - The Last Human (Den-Greenland-Nor) Dir: Ivalo Frank
  • Softly In All Directions (US) Dir: Anna Barsan
  • Song Of Giants (UK) Dir: James Rogan
  • Stories From The Debris (Swe-Fr) Dir: Jennifer Rainsford
  • The Break Of The Brick (Chile) Dirs: Carola Fuentes, Rafael Valdeavellano
  • The House Is Still Dark (Den-Chile) Dir: Felipe Roa Pilar
  • The Last Year Of Darkness (China-US) Dir: Ben Mullinkosson
  • The Pathan Sisters (Fr) Dir: Eléonore Boissinot
  • The Sixth Wall (US) Dirs: Noah Collier, Emily Mackenzie
  • The Vinyl Records: Destroy Phallus Oppression (Australia) Dirs: Juhi Sharma, Em Baker
  • To Set A Prisoner Free (Swe) Dir: Reece Smith
  • Untitled Courtney Barnett Documentary (Australia) Dir: Danny Cohen
  • Untitled Saudi Football Girls (UK-Can-UAE) Dirs: Sarah McCarthy, Anjali Nayar
  • XR Beyond the Emergency (UK) Dirs: Maia Kenworthy, Elena Sánchez Bellot

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