Extreme of the Americas, a project directed by Miguel Soffia and Kelsey Eliasson, is presented on the official selection in Sunny Side of the Doc, which takes place from the 21st to the 24th of June in La Rochelle, France. In this important non-fiction market and as part of the Chilean delegation led by Chiledoc, four other projects also participate.
Download the complete catalogue here.
Lakes drying up, heatwaves, species extinction, the poles’ melting causing sea-level rise; all of these are part of a phenomenon that we cannot ignore: global warming. Extreme of the Americas, directed by Miguel Soffia y Kelsey Eliasson, is a documentary miniseries that talks about climate change, exploring its consequences through stories of residents, researchers, animal wildlife, and indigenous people that inhabit both of the extreme territories of the American continent, Chilean Patagonia and the Canadian Arctic. «Species are disappearing, and it is a reality that affects geography; it is an urgent issue to address. We decided to do it this way, through a documentary series, because it’s a more complex phenomenon than just a linear story», states Miguel Soffia, one of the directors of this documentary.
The project by the production companies We Are South, led by Soffia, and Wolfhouse Films, from Canada, is a six-episode series that examines local perspectives about climate change. However, it is a global concern; therefore, it is significant to be part of the 32nd edition of Sunny Side of the Doc. «We are aware of what this market means for the documentary industry in Europe, Asia, and North America, so it is an honor and a huge responsibility to represent Chile and Latin America and provide contents with other perspectives, a perspective from the south», comments Soffia.
Extreme of the Americas is the only Latinamerican project in the Wildlife & Conservation Pitch’s selection. Soffia and Eliasson participate along with five other works from Poland, France, Canada, and Finland, adding up to the 42 projects that are part of this important event. Additionally, this year’s international market for documentary and factual content has a high participation of projects directed or produced by women, reaching 72% of the total official selection. «Our outstanding participation in this prestigious festival confirms the recognition that Chilean documentaries have achieved in a market as important as France and, at the same time, supports the work that we are developing with Chiledoc in the internationalization of documentary filmmakers, despite the pandemic and the adaptation of face-to-face activities to an online format. We will deepen our positioning through a series of actions aimed at distributors, sales agents, and decision-makers, especially from the French television industry; this is the focus of our participation in Sunny Side. Creative talent is part of the exportable offer of our country», assures the General Director of ProChile, Jorge O’Ryan.
The Chilean delegation will present four other documentary projects. «We have a high-level delegation attending with projects ranging from series to feature films, from highly contingent themes to others focused on the value of history and heritage. We hope that they forge new alliances and possibilities for both co-production and distribution», says Paula Ossandón, Director of Chiledoc.
Chilépolis, directed by Simon Vargas and produced by Magdalena Hurtado and Ignacio Merino, from the production company Tres Tercios, is a tv documentary that portrays the life of three immigrants from different countries in Chile. In the eight episodes of this program, we learn about their origins and different ways of thinking. It is a work that highlights migration as a human right.
On the other hand, Relentless Memory, directed by Paula Rodriguez Sickert and produced by Paola Castillo from Errante Producciones, is a documentary about a historic finding. The discovery of forgotten files in a museum in Berlin, and through testimonies, reveals how indigenous were deported and stripped of their lands during the military campaigns of the 19th century. In this work, a young Mapuche academic begins a journey travelling the different paths followed by their ancestors one hundred years ago after being displaced from their lands.
Breaking the brick arrives at Sunny Side of the Doc after outstanding participation in the Hot Docs Forum, the most important documentary event in North America. The project, directed and produced by Carola Fuentes and Rafael Valdeavellano from La Ventana Cine, contrast two realities in Chile, a country demanding the neoliberal model’s transformation through a new constitution. The unexpected shifts in the stories of Mariana (50), one of the model’s victims, and Ramiro (70), one of the privileged ones, both in the personal terms and a country level, become evident.
The last of the projects, The Guardian of the Andes, is a journey to the past. In the heyday of the Inca Empire, children were sacrificed in the highest peaks of America to be guardians of abundance: they were the Capac Cocha. This documentary, directed by Fernando Garabedian and produced by Fernando Acuña, Gonzalo Argandoña, and Alex Eduardo Córdova, takes this story and transforms it into a journey through Peruvian and Chilean lands. A project that seeks to reveal those secrets behind the Capac Cocha’s ceremony and begins to take shape thanks to the joint work of Más Imagen, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Exocet Studios y Cábala Producciones.
The virtual participation in the Sunny Side of the Doc market in La Rochelle, France, is financed by ProChile and managed by Chiledoc, the Chilean documentary brand.
internacional@chiledoc.cl
@copyright Corporación Chilena del Documental CCDoc
