June 26, 2019
This year, the Sunny Side of the Doc will celebrate its 30th festival, renown as an important international market of documentary content, specializing in television series and transmedia projects. This year, the delegation that travels to La Rochelle, France, is composed of Claudia Barril (Películas del Pez), Gonzalo Argandoña (Cábala Producciones) Rafael Valdeavellano and Carola Fuentes (La Ventana Cine), Catalina Alarcón (Praxia), Víctor Fajnzylber (Utopics Film) and Paola Castillo, deputy director of the Chiledoc sector brand. The delegation is organized by Chiledoc and financed by ProChile through its line of services.
“At the Sunny Side of the Doc, representatives meet from the French an European industry as well as from Asia, specifically from China, Japan and Thailand. These are markets that haven’t been fully explored and that have great potential,” says Paola Castillo. “Sunny Side has become an effective market for those who make television series, as is the case of Secreto Ancestral, a coproduction between Chile, Mexico and Colombia” -she adds- “we have found partners, such as France TV, Al Jazeera and Nat Geo. It’s a market where you can generate good networks. In addition, Chile has a co-production agreement with France, which has been used by several local producers. ”
The Franco-Chilean coproduction, Megafires, la amenaza global, has reached broadcasting agreements with television stations in France (ARTE) and Japan (NHK). The film follows a heroic international community of firefighters, scientist, activists and experts that study and fight catastrophic mega-fires. The project was selected to participate in the Science Pitch on Wednesday June 26.
When Science meets adventure
La Ventana Cine will present the documentary series Misión antártica, about people who are willing to leave everything in order to travel to the southern tip of the planet, investigating what lies beneath the ice in hopes of finding keys to the future of humanity. It is a project with an international scope that is seeking co-production. Additionally, they are presenting Secreto ancestral, a documentary series that has already begun production and now seeks distribution. The series explores the value of the medicines used by the natives of the American continent, who for the first time agree to share their secrets.
Production company Películas del Pez travels with two projects, La cacería, a documentary about the Comisión Funa, a social and political movement that applies popular justice. A “funa” is a public act of grievance where a crowd gathers in front of the house of a murderer or torturer during the dictatorship (1973-1990) to denounce them publicly in their neighborhoods and through social media. The second project is called Sergio Larraín, el instante, a project directed by Sebastián Moreno, and comprised of a feature length film and a four-episode television series about the Chilean photographer Sergio Larraín.
Aurora, el Titanic del Titicaca is a documentary for television by Cábala Producciones, which mixes exploration, adventure and scientific research, to reveal the wreck of one of the first steam boats in South America: the Aurora, a ship that traveled from Great Britain, crossed by mule from Arica to Lake Titicaca, where it sank. With the help of a humanoid robot, an international team searches for its remains for the first time.
A Chilean representative in a virtual reality panel
Señora Gloria, directed by Victor Fajnzylber, is an autobiographical film that talks about Víctor and his mother, who is sick, and their reunion in the last years of his mother’s life. The film, produced by Mimbre Producciones, is looking for distribution for its international premiere. In addition Fajnzylber will attend the Pixii Virtual Reality meeting as “Cultural Stakeholder” (decision maker), representing the vice-chancellorship of the University of Chile, with the Darwin project in Chile: Immersive Museum of Evolution, in its capacity as executive director.
Catalina Alarcón is the producer of Mi norte es el sur, a documentary that premiered this year at the Femcine Women’s Film Festival. For seven months, the director (Amanda Puga) immersed herself in a journey through Latin America to capture the different sociopolitical realities of the diverse locations, opening up to discover other ways of living. Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile are the countries that become part of the journey.