CINEPHILIA BOUND CANNES 2020
MIDDLE EASTERN & AFRICAN FILMMAKERS – INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRY MEETINGS AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
DOCUMENTARY
Chronicle of a Winter, Tehran 1979 (Iran)
Do You Love Me (Lebanon)
House of Shadows (Algeria)
One Day I Too Go Fly (Ghana)
NARRATIVE
Afloat (Turkey)
Goodbye Julia (Sudan)
The Land Beyond (Egypt)
The Sea Needs To Heave (Jordan)
Scroll down for meeting requests. Program dates June 5-11, 2020 (online edition)..
AFLOAT by ASLIHAN UNALDI
Narrative . Turkey
SYNOPSIS
When Zeynep’s journalist father Yusuf is sentenced to prison for his political writings, she returns to Turkey with her American husband to reunite with her broken family for a sailing trip. As soon as the boat leaves the marina, tensions rise, old resentments surface and new secrets get revealed while the family awaits the result of Yusuf’s appeal.
FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHY
Aslihan Unaldi is a screenwriter and director. Her work has been supported by the Berlinale, Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Sloan Foundation, New York Women in Film and Television, the American Turkish Society, Netflix, Film Independent, Topic and others. Her award-winning short film Razan premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2006. Her documentary Overdrive premiered at the Istanbul Film Festival in 2011. Aslihan was a writer on Mete Gumurhan’s YOUNG WRESTLERS, which won a special mention at the Berlinale in 2016, and Crystal Moselle’s SKATE KITCHEN, which premiered at Sundance in 2018 and was released theatrically by Magnolia. Skate Kitchen was subsequently turned into an HBO spin-off titled Betty. Currently Aslihan is developing her feature debut AFLOAT, which was a finalist for Tribeca / AT&T’s one million dollar “Untold Stories” grant. She is also working on a documentary titled SEX BOOM about the Turkish erotic film industry in the 1970s. Aslihan holds an MFA in film from NYU’s Tisch, and a BA in photography from Yale University.
PROJECT STATUS & OBJECTIVE
In 2018/2019, producer Izabella Tzenkova (The Wolfpack, Skate Kitchen, Walking On Water) participated in the ACE Producers Lab. In April 2019, AFLOAT was a finalist in Tribeca Film Institute's “ATT: Untold Stories” initiative and received a $10,000 development grant. The project has French and Bulgarian co-producers attached. A teaser was shot on location (the Aegean coast of Turkey) and is available for viewing upon request. The team is currently looking for co-producers, sales agents and distributors.
CHRONICLE OF A WINTER, TEHRAN 1979 by SAHAR SALAHSHOORI & BAHAR SHOGHI
Documentary, Iran
SYNOPSIS
Women played a key role in an episode of the history of the Iranian revolution in 1979. 40 years later, no one seems to remember. Sahar, an Iranian filmmaker takes on a journey to bring back images and memories.
FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHY
Sahar Salahshoori is an Iranian documentary filmmaker based in Paris. She started in the cinema as an assistant director in 1999. In 2002, she made her first documentary film. Between 2004-2009, she attended several intensive courses and workshops on documentary filmmaking. She made eight short and mid-length documentaries until 2015. They were screened and awarded in Iranian and international film festivals. Her films' subjects were mostly about women's lives and their conflicts in Iranian urban-rural space. In 2017, She started a Masters's degree in visual culture studies in “EHESS” in Paris.
Bahar Shoghi is an Iranian video journalist and documentary filmmaker. She has worked for AFP and CNN in Tehran and Euronews in Lyon and Brussels. She has attended different filmmaking workshops such as documentary filmmaking courses organized by the Association of Iranian Documentary filmmakers in the Iranian House of Cinema and a 6-month course by Mehrdad Oskuie at the Karnameh Institute of Art and Culture. She had made short documentaries that have been screened in Iran and international festivals. She is now based in Erbil, Iraq, and is writing and developing her first feature.
PROJECT STATUS & OBJECTIVE
The Simone de Beauvoir centre which manages the copyright of the archive materials of Sophie Keir and Kate Millett takes part in this project as a co-producer. Iranian independent producer Mina Keshavarz is attached as a minority co-producer. This project has won the CNC award (8000 Euro) in April 2020 on the "Neighbors Platform" of "Meetings on the Bridge" of the Istanbul Film Festival and was selected for the professional meetings of the "Films Femmes Méditerranée" festival in 2019 in Marseille. The filmmakers took part in a writing residency at the "Centre de résidence de l'écriture à l'image" in Saint-Quirin, France in the spring of 2019.
The team is looking for a main French producer and co-producers (the US and European), funding possibilities, writing residencies/script labs, and other eventual partners for this project.
DO YOU LOVE ME by LANA DAHER
Documentary . Lebanon
SYNOPSIS
'Do You Love Me' is named after the widely popular Bendaly Family song that was released during the Lebanese Civil War, which started on April 13, 1975. It is an archive-based documentary in which we meet the generation of Lebanese that grew up during and after the war. Using only archive footage and no talking heads, the film weaves together three main narrative lines. The main story features stories and anecdotes of the men, women and children who remained in Lebanon through these years. Their personal accounts are emotional and revealing. The second layer tells the story through the eyes of the musicians who wrote songs that marked this generation. Finally, we discover the context of the time, daily life and means of survival during the civil war leading up to today. The director’s voice over, interviews and songs will bind the different narrative lines together and serve as a link between the past and present. Interweaving the songs of then and now with intimate stories we re-tell the history of a society. At the end of the Lebanese Civil War, the same warlords who ran the country then were re-elected to form a government. Since October 17, 2019, people are revolting and that government has finally been overthrown. Despite awakening, the Lebanese are unable to agree over their past or future. 'Do You Love Me' is about memory but it is not only about the past. The film is about the present and how we can live in it.
FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHY
Lana Daher is a Lebanese filmmaker living and working in Beirut. In 2006, Lana earned her BFA in Graphic Design and Fine Arts from the American University of Beirut and in 2012, her MA in Filmmaking (directing) from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her early experiences experimenting with audio visual media as well as DJ-ing led her to collaborate with artists and musicians from the Lebanese underground music scene on videos and print work. She has both shot and directed commissioned documentaries on independent Lebanese designers as well as music videos and short films. 'Do You Love Me' is her first feature documentary which she is directing as well as co-producing.
PROJECT STATUS & OBJECTIVE
The project is currently in development/early production. The project won the prestigious Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung for German-Arab co-productions in 2019 (60,000 EUR) and also received development grants from DFI the Doha Film Institute as well as the IDFA Bertha fund. The project was pitched at Dok.forum Marketplace in Munich and RIDM Forum in Montreal last year. The project has been selected at the RIDM Talent Lab in Montreal, the IDFAcademy in Amsterdam and the IDFA Summer School (July 2020). The team is looking for possible co-productions, world sales agents, distributors and broadcasters.
GOODBYE JULIA by MOHAMED KORDOFANI
Narrative . Sudan
SYNOPSIS
Just prior to the separation of South Sudan, Muna, a retired singer from the North struggling with her marriage, seeks redemption for causing the death of a southern man by offering his oblivious wife Julia a job as a maid. To keep anyone from exposing her secret, Muna finds herself forced to continue lying. Despite the dishonesty and the guilt, Muna develops a strange friendship with Julia. When Julia joins a church affiliated school for adults, she meets Joseph, a radical separatist soldier who helps her solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearance.
FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHY
Mohamed Kordofani is a Sudanese filmmaker based in Bahrain. He produced and directed a number of short films that received international recognition. His film “NYERKUK” won the black elephant award for best Sudanese Film in 2017 as well as the Jury Award at Oran Festival and the NAAS award for best Arabic Film at Carthage film festival (JCC) in 2016. His last short “KEJERS PRISON” about the Sudanese revolution, was screened at the sit-in square in front of thousands of protestors. He is interested in the social construct and complexity of Sudan.
PROJECT STATUS & OBJECTIVE
The project is in development (Draft 3 screenplay). It kicked off in 2019 by winning at Fest NDNF Pitching forum in Portugal. It was also selected at Cairo Film Festival EAVE workshop. The project received a development grant from AFAC. The producer attached is Amjad Abu Alala (dir/producer of You Will Die At Twenty). The team is looking for co-production opportunities and script development.
HOUSE OF SHADOWS by AMINE HATTOU
Documentary . Algeria
SYNOPSIS
House of shadows is a documentary using the codes of horror film to take the viewer on a psychological journey through the past and present of “Laghouat” – a city in Southern Algeria marked by a tragic colonial event called “The Year of the Vanishing”, where the French killed 2/3 of the population and buried them in mass graves. During four seasons, the story follows four protagonists – the director and three tormented characters – as they gravitate around a city haunted by the ghosts of the violent past. House of shadows will use the Horror genre as a way to embodies the deepest fears of the protagonists and bring them to life, it’s a film about the unspoken and the hidden, that only the liberation of speech can cope with it, that only cinema can cope with it.
FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHY
Amine Hattou is an Algerian filmmaker. He graduated from the Journalism Institute of Algiers in 2000. In 2009, he was selected to take part of « La Fémis » summer university (Paris, France) where he directed his first short documentary "Two for Tango". In 2011, he directed "Down to Earth" which was selected for several festivals around the world. In 2012, he joined the Project'heurts Association and founded in 2015 "Bejaia Film Lab” – a film platform dedicated to filmmakers and producers from the region in order to strengthen cinematographic production in the Maghreb and support the local film industry. His first feature documentary "Janitou" is scheduled for release in 2020.
PROJECT STATUS & OBJECTIVE
The film is being co-produced by Thomas Kaske (Kaske Film - Germany) and Emilie Dudognon (IDA.IDA - France). The film was nominated for the Filmprize of the Robert Bosch Foundation. The team is looking for sales agents, festival programmers and co-producers from Denmark, Netherlands and Norway.
ONE DAY I TOO GO FLY by ARTHUR MUSAH
Documentary . Ghana
SYNOPSIS
“One Day I Too Go Fly” is a coming-of-age story that follows 4 ambitious African students from different countries and socio-economic backgrounds as they strive to graduate from America’s premiere technological university – the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Fueled by a common goal to become agents of positive change back home, how much of America will they absorb and how much of Africa to hold on to. As they go through college in the Obama era and step into the workforce in a Trump era, each is forced to refine their ideas about the world and about themselves.
FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHY
Arthur Musah is a filmmaker from Ghana and Ukraine. He recently also became a United States citizen. His first film, the 50-minute documentary Naija Beta, won several festival awards in 2016. Arthur studied filmmaking in the MFA program at the University of Southern California, and holds a bachelor’s and a master’s in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
PROJECT STATUS & OBJECTIVE
Production completed from 2011 through 2019 in USA, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Rwanda. Through crowdfunding sources, the project successfully raised $31,060 in 2012 and $71,869 in 2017. This enabled the filming and the editing process to begin. The project won $5,000 Council for Arts at MIT grant in 2014. The project was selected at the DCTV Docu Work-In-Progress Lab with Yance Ford in 2018 and Only In New York work-in-progress program 2019. The team is seeking producers, distributors and broadcasters.
THE LAND BEYOND by NADINE SALIB
Narrative . Egypt
SYNOPSIS
The Land Beyond is a mythical tale of a mute young girl called Yam who lives in a faraway isolated land inhabited by an exiled community. When Yam’s mother and only friend dies inexplicably, Yam has to partake in the sacred ritual of erasing the trace of her mother per the law of the land. Faced with having to deal with her distant conservative father, who urges her to submit or else there will be consequences, Yam does not want to let go of a memory of a lullaby that her mother used to sing to her. Yam embarks on a journey that leads her to an accidental trespass of the law yet unlocks the concealed ambiguous past of the land, which puts her relationship with her father and everything she knows to test.
FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHY
Nadine Salib, graduated in 2006 with a BFA in Film studies from the IAMS. She started her career as an assistant director; she worked as a first assistant and script supervisor on many short and feature length films. In 2012, she directed her first short documentary ‘Dawn’, which won a number of prizes. ‘Um Ghayeb’, or ‘Mother of the unborn’ is her first feature-length documentary, which had its European premiere at IDFA 2014 where it won the Peter Wintonick Special Jury Award for First Appearance competition, and the Arab premiere at Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2014 where it won the FIPRESCI for best documentary. The film screened at many international festivals such as Thessaloniki Film Festival, Yamagata FF and Transylvania FF. Salib is currently writing and directing her first narrative feature film ‘The Land Beyond’ produced by Hassala films and Hala lofty.
PROJECT STATUS & OBJECTIVE
The project was selected in Rawi Screenwriters’ Lab in association with Sundance Lab in 2016. Hassala Films is the main production company in Egypt with Hala Lofty as producer. Goethe institute offered a two-month script development residency and development funding of US $5000. In July 2019, the project was selected in the Durban Filmmart. In late 2019, the film received a grant through the Agora Crossroads platform at Thessaloniki Film Festival covering all post-production services. The film received a development grant of 7000$ at the Cairo film connection. The project is currently in late development. The team is currently looking for co-producers/partners and distributors from France and Germany.
THE SEA NEEDS TO HEAVE by ZAIN DURAIE
Narrative . Jordan
SYNOPSIS
An upper middle class family, living in Amman- Jordan. Nadia and Jalal, 40s, and parents to three kids live through a broken marriage, each of them sleeps in separate rooms. Nadia is living through depression due to her husband’s recent confession that he has stopped loving her. She secretly visits a therapist, as she tries to deal with the vast emptiness inside of her. Basil, their eldest son, 17, whom they have been called for at school claiming that it is an emergency, has been in a big fight. In the next few days, It is certain that Basil has not been himself and is mentally unwell. Despite Nadia's depressive mental state, she begins to mask the truth as she becomes increasingly mentally disturbed. She is more confused and disconnected from the world around her only to become oblivious to the truth of her son’s grave mental illness. An unconscious battle with shame, denial and guilt begins to unravel not only by her broken self but also her grip on reality as well. Jalal on the other hand becomes a reflection of Nadia’s unmasked truth and conscience. He triggers her guilt as he opposes her with what he believes is right and tries so hard to understand what has become of their son and their role as parents. Both Nadia and Jalal go through a deep and personal psychological trance; ultimately questioning their response to uncertainty and fear.
FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHY
Zain Duraie graduated from the Toronto Film School in 2010. She started off her training with acclaimed filmmaker Annemarire Jacir on her second feature “When I Saw You”. Jacir’s production company “Philistine Films” produced Duraie’s short film “Horizon” which had its world premiere in 2013 at Palm Springs Shorts Fest where it won Best of the Fest Selects. Her second short film “Give Up the Ghost” was nominated for the “Robert Bosch FIlm Prize 2019”. The film has been officially selected at the prestigious La Biennale Di Venezia 2019 “Orizzonti Shorts Competition and won the Golden Prize at the Gouna Film Festival 2019. Duraie is currently developing her debut feature film screenplay “ The Sea Needs To Heave” which was selected at the prestigious Asia Pacific Screen Academy and in parallel with its selection at Meditalents Residence and Torino Film Lab.
PROJECT STATUS & OBJECTIVE
The script was selected at the Torino Film Lab Extended, the Asia Pacific Screen Academy and at the Meditalents Residence. The team is looking for sales agents and distributors.
JURY “CINEPHILIA BOUND CANNES PRIZE”
Rungano Nyoni is a self-taught Writer / Director. She was born in Lusaka, Zambia and grew up in Wales, UK. Rungano’s first short film THE LIST won a BAFTA Cymru, her subsequent short film MWANSA THE GREAT was selected for over 100 International Film Festival and was nominated for a BAFTA in 2012. In 2013, Rungano wrote Z1 which subsequently won Best Short at The British Independent Film Awards. Her short LISTEN has been nominated for a European Film Award 2015 and won the Best Short Narrative Prize at Tribeca Film Festival.
Rungano's debut feature was I AM NOT A WITCH. It follows the story of an 8 year old girl who is exiled to a Witch Camp. The film premiered in Cannes and was nominated for numerous international awards. In 2018 Rungano won the BAFTA for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer. She also won best director and best debut director at the 2017 British Independent Film Awards. In 2018, Rungano received the Wellcome Trust Fellowship.
Jihan El Tahri is an Egyptian and French national who is an award winning director, writer, visual artist and producer. She is currently the General Director of the Berlin based documentary support institution DOX BOX. In 2017, El Tahri was invited to join the Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Oscars) and continues as a Mentor at the Documentary Campus in Germany and Ouaga Lab in Burkina Faso, Sud Ecriture, Sentoo and a number of other film training labs. Her recent work as a Visual Artist include exhibitions in France (centre Pompidou) Berlin (HKW and IFA Gallery), Norway (National Museum), Mexico (San Ildefonso) and Poland (Moma) along side acclaimed Artists like John Akmfrah, the Otalith Group and Kader Attia. El Tahri started her career as a Foreign Correspondent covering Middle East Politics. In 1990, she began directing and producing documentaries for the BBC, PBS, Arte and other international broadcasters. Her award winning documentaries include “Nasser” which premiered in the official selection at Toronto International Festival, “Behind the Rainbow”, “Cuba, an African Odyssey” and the Emmy nominated House of Saud. Her writings include “Les Sept Vies de Yasser Arafat” (Grasset) and “Israel and the Arabs, The 50 Years war” (Penguin). . El-Tahri is also engaged in various associations and institutions working with African Cinema. She served as treasurer of the Guild of African Filmmakers in the Diaspora, an Advisor on Focus Feature’s Africa first Program and as Regional Secretary of the Federation of Pan African Cinema (FEPACI).
Steven Markovitz has been producing and distributing fiction and documentaries films for 25 years. He has produced in over 20 African countries and has co-produced with partners worldwide. His films have been selected for major festivals including Cannes, Sundance, Berlin, Venice, Toronto. He recently produced RAFIKI by Wanuri Kahiu which premiered in Un Certain Regard in Cannes, 2018. He also produced HIGH FANTASY by Jenna Bass Toronto 2017, Berlinale, 2018). He produced AKASHA by hajooj kuka which premiered at Venice Critics Week, and Toronto International Film Festival, 2018. He executive produced Stories of Our Lives by Jim Chuchu (Toronto 2014, Berlinale Panorama 2015) and produced the Sudanese documentary Beats of the Antonov by hajooj kuka which won the Peoples’ Choice Documentary Award at Toronto 2014. Other titles include Winnie by Pascale Lamche which won Best Director in World Contemporary Documentary Section at Sundance, 2017, Viva Riva! by Djo Munga (Berlinale, Toronto), Congo in Four Acts (Berlinale, Hotdocs, IDFA) and Project 10 (Berlinale, Sundance, Tribeca, IDFA, Hotdocs). Silas (TIFF and IDFA, 2017) and Behind the Rainbow by Jihan El-Tahri (IDFA, Fespaco). He also co-founded the documentary funding body, Documentary Africa (DocA). He is a founding board member of the Independent Producers Organisation of South Africa. He is on the Advisory Board of the Global Health Film Initiative. He is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences. He has served on selection panels and juries in many countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Lebanon, Germany, Holland and USA.
PRIZE SPONSOR: SEAT26 PRODUCTIONS
Founded in 2015, Seat26 Productions aims at supporting filmmakers to bring their ideas to life on screen. Seat26 finances films and creates co-production opportunities, while contributing to projects that help construct relevant narratives that move audiences and trigger conversations beyond borders. Seat26 promotes film literacy within communities by designing international workshops and industry-related events, with a focus on scriptwriting and film development.
“CINEPHILIA BOUND 2020” JURY PRIZE WINNER
For the 4th edition of Cinephilia Bound 2020, Cinephilia is pleased to announce the Jury Prize Winner, "The Land Beyond" by Nadine Salib.
INDUSTRY MEETINGS WILL BE SCHEDULED ONLINE FROM JUNE 5-10, 2020. TO REQUEST A MEETING WITH THE SELECTED FILMMAKERS, PLEASE FILL THIS FORM:
"In Conversation with Cinephilia Bound 2020 Fellows"
RSVP TO ATTEND THE EVENT ONLINE
NOTE: This event is taking place online on the Zoom App. RSVPs will receive a link to join the event 1 hour prior to its start.