Sunny Side of the Doc, the international market and meeting place for the documentary industry, finally returns as in-person event in the historic French port of La Rochelle today (June 20).
The theme of 2022’s event, which has run online for the past two years, is ’New Voices’, with a focus on emerging filmmakers, voices, territories and formats.
“We’re coming out of two years of incredible changes in the industry and the world being upside down. We didn’t want to do a copy and paste of Sunny Side 2019,” says Mathieu Béjot, Sunny Side’s director of strategy and development, citing the impact of Covid, the rise of streamers and more diverse storytelling. “We think it’s very important this year that we start afresh.”
Exhibiting in-person
Some things will stay the same though. Sunny Side’s exhibitor hall, located by La Rochelle’s harbour, quickly booked out this year and has more than 80 confirmed exhibitors from over 20 countries. “Everybody is really keen to get together again,” says Béjot. “We have all missed the energy, the serendipity and the level of interaction that in person markets bring.”
Among the exhibitors is Japanese broadcaster NHK, which is making its first trip to an international market for three years.
Not everybody, though, will be able to travel to Sunny Side this year because of the ongoing impact of Covid. China usually sends a big delegation but will be absent this year due to travel restrictions and lockdowns in the country. Others will be reluctant to travel for health, economic or sustainability reasons, says Béjot, so key elements of Sunny Side will run online as well as in-person.
Pitching sessions
This includes one of the centrepieces of Sunny Side, its pitching sessions which see filmmakers pitch projects to an auditorium full of documentary decision makers. Forty-eight projects are in Sunny Side’s official selection – many of them echoing the ‘New Voices’ theme of this year’s event.
Among the selection, 40% are first or second films, and they come from 22 countries including new territories being seen and heard for the first time at Sunny Side, including Jordan, Iceland, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates and Slovenia. There is also a 50-50 gender split between entries from male and female filmmakers.
Sunny Side has also sought to attract pitches from voices from countries that are seldom heard in the market, says Béjot. “The idea was to really open the doors and windows and to bring in some fresh air.
Béjot adds: “By ’New Voices’, we mean emerging talents. They can be filmmakers, they can be producers, not necessarily young, but emerging. Sometimes people join the industry at a later stage in their life, especially from underrepresented communities and countries.”
He explained Sunny Side used the term “New Voices” for its 2022 focus rather than “Diversity and Inclusion” because the latter resonates very differently around the world. While diversity is a strong focus for the US, UK and some Western European countries, it ‘doesn’t ring a bell’ in locations such as Hungary, Mexico, Japan or China. Diversity will still be addressed at Sunny Side, but “’New Voices’ is wider than just diversity and inclusion,” says Béjot.
The 48 projects being pitched at Sunny Side will be presented across eight pitch sessions split into three major categories: Genres (Global Issues, Wildlife & Conservation, Science, History, Arts & Culture); Digital Creation (Immersive Experiences and Digital Na(rra)tive Stories); and Talent Hub New Voices.
The Digital Creation genre is focusing on content produced for platforms such as YouTube, TikTok or Twitch through to podcasts. “This is very much linked to the ‘New Voices’ theme,” said Béjot. “A lot of the people producing for these platforms are not traditional producers.”
400 decision-makers
The pitches take place in front of over 400 factual decision makers from all over the world, who will either be in the room or watching virtually via a livestream.
This year, however, the pitches will be pre-recorded. Béjot says this will level the playing field for participants as some will not be able to travel and others dislike pitching in front of a crowd in an auditorium. The quality of the pitches has risen as a result, he says.
90% of the producers pitching projects will attend the festival, where their pre-recorded pitches will be followed by a live onstage Q&A. Those producers unable to attend will be able to participate remotely, as will decision makers who cannot travel to Sunny Side.
Many of the festival’s talks and panels will also be live streamed, while others will be recorded and will run online after the event.
Factual focus
Elsewhere at Sunny Side, there will be keynotes speeches, channel showcases and panels with speakers from broadcasters such as the US’s PBS, Japan’s NHK, France’s TF1, the UK’s BBC, Germany’s ARD and Belgium’s RTBF. Many speciality channels will also be at Sunny Side.
Béjot says the festival will explore the big issues in each documentary genre, with a particular focus on how programme makers and funders are adapting to the post Covid world.
“We’re just coming out of a pandemic, and I think the documentary sector is recovering maybe more slowly than other genres, because of the specificities of documentary,” says Béjot. “It’s much more difficult to have a Covid protocol when your documentary implies travelling internationally, meeting outsiders and shooting on site instead of the studio.”
Running alongside Sunny Side is the parallel Pixii Festival, which is hosting immersive experiences around La Rochelle.
Sunny Side of the Doc, in partnership with B2B Doc, IDF, Pitch the Doc and Docudays, is also organising the Talent Hub Ukraine, which will present four Ukrainian projects selected for their international potential.
There are also special screenings, including Jacques Perrin’s 2010 classic natural history doc Oceans and Florian Schewe’s The Hungarian Playbook, which won Sunny Side’s Global Pitch 2021. The Hungarian Playbook follows the struggle of a handful of young journalists against the propaganda machine of prime minister Viktor Orbán.
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