CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator is a training programme for women directors and producers from South East Europe. The organization was given considerable visibility during the recent Docs-in-Progress at Cannes Docs, when four projects by former CIRCLE trainees were selected for the Cannes Film Market Online.
CIRCLE Women is organized by two Serbian companies, Wake Up Films and Pulsart, together with the Montenegrin company Underhill Fest. The programme is supported by the Montenegro Film Centre, the Co-Pro Market of DOK Leipzig, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and the MEDIA Desk of Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia.
The four films selected for the Cannes Film Market were:
Woolman by Frederica Martino, produced by Noura Cinema and Fargo Entertainment (Italy). Woolman is Nigel Thompson, a British expat living in Biella, Italy, a town which used to be a capital of the textile industry before the crisis hit this sector. Nigel reacted by creating a new sales model called “sheep to sheep” to help local farmers.
Lee Nechushtan explains the plot of Two Sisters: “As her sister in Berlin is planning to marry a Nigerian refugee 30 years her junior, Shula, a Holocaust survivor, questions her own 60-year-old arranged marriage. Together and individually, the two sisters embark on a journey of self-discovery and end up challenging the social norms of the family structure.” The film is produced by One Light Productions (Israel) and Elemage Pictures (Germany).
In In the Sweltering Sun, director Shorena Tevzadze paints an absurd picture of contemporary male-dominated Georgia, balanced between past values and future expectations. To do this she follows Giorgi, 13, locked in a camp which looks like a medieval fortress. Every day he has to participate in the various patriotic activities organized by the camp’s founder. This feature-length film is produced by Diafilm (Georgia).
Finally Beauty of the Beast by Anna Nemes addresses the beauty and bodies of female bodybuilders. Produced by ELF Pictures (Hungary) the film won the Impact Award at the Docs-in-Progress in Cannes.
Sources :
https://www.doccircle.me
https://www.marchedufilm.com
