Take on Film & Impact 2022 – Selected Projects

A selection of documentary film projects about human rights and/or social or environmental issues that need to be urgently addressed, were chosen to take part in Movies that Matter’s Take on Film & Impact 2022. Read more about the selected projects via the drop-down menu below.

The teams behind the projects attended both group and individual coaching sessions led by experienced impact producers and strategists in order to (further) develop their impact goals and strategies for their films. Some preparatory sessions took place online in March already. The focus was on improving the projects’ impact pitches which were presented in front of a panel of NGOs, distributors and other changemakers related to the outreach goals of the projects.

The film teams can be contacted through the contact details below each project.

Awards

To conclude the Take on Film & Impact programme three awards were handed out to participating teams:

  • The Long Rescue by Jennifer Huang was awarded The Storyboard Impact Community Fund (5000 CHF), made possible by the StoryBoard Collective.
  • Slave Island by directors Jimmy Hendrickx and Jeremy Kewuan and producer Kristian Van der Heyden was awarded The ESoDoc Mentoring Prize, made possible by ESoDoc – European Social Documentary. The team will receive one-to-one mentoring sessions with an ESoDoc expert and access to online screenings.
  • Russia vs Lawyers by Masha Novikova was awarded the Taskovski Training #Docsconnect Talent Empowerment Award, made possible by Taskovski Film #DocsConnect Training. The award includes a one year mentorship by Irena Taskovski and bonus by Khadidja Benouataf of the Impact Social Club. A special mention went out to Pour the Water as I Leave. The team will receive additional tutoring.

Movies that Matter: Take on Film & Impact 2022 was organised in collaboration with:

Selected Projects

  • BIG OIL vs THE LAW

    Film title: BIG OIL vs THE LAW
    Director: Mette Reitzel
    Producer: Nadja Smith
    Production Status: In production
    Countries: Germany, Netherlands, Philippines, United States, Peru

    Logline: This film follows five people across the world, who are determined to use the law to hold Big Oil responsible for climate change.

    Contact: Nadja Smith

  • Buried Homes (Casas Muertas)

    Film title: Buried Homes (orig. Casas Muertas)
    Director: Rosana Matecki
    Producer: Rosana Matecki (Co-Producers: Claudia Lepage, Mariana Andrade, Natalia Imaz, Sebastián Arrechedera and Joe Torres)
    Production Status: In production
    Countries: Venezuela, Ecuador, Germany, United States

    Logline: Venezuela submerged and dark. The present of Venezuelans trapped in exile in their own country, immersed by the whim of some barbarians who rule it. Isabel, Jesús and Darwin survive resisting, desperate and engulfed between flight and hunger.

    Contact: Rosana Matecki

  • Fatou Jagne: Female Freedom Fighter

    Film title: Fatou Jagne: Female Freedom Fighter
    Director: Bas Ackermann and Babucar Manka
    Producer: Emiel Martens, Alhagie Manka and Mariama Colley
    Production Status: Pre-production
    Countries: The Netherlands, the Gambia

    Logline: After escaping from forced labor under terrible circumstances in Kuwait, Fatou Jagne, a young Gambian woman, decides to devote her life to fighting human trafficking and exploitation of young African women in the Middle East. This is her story…

    Contact: Bas Ackermann

  • I Want to Know (Ik wil het weten)

    Film title: I Want to Know (orig. Ik wil het weten)
    Director: Ananta Khemradj
    Producer: Emjay Rechsteiner
    Production Status: Post-production
    Countries: The Netherlands, Suriname

    Logline: After its former president is convicted for murder, the people of Suriname remain bitterly divided. Opponents and supporters of the ex-president are unable to put the country’s turbulent history behind them. If facts are not enough, what do you need to bring people together? How to heal a nation?

    Contact: Emjay Rechsteiner

  • Lesvos Voices; refugee children document their stories

    Film title: Lesvos Voices; refugee children document their stories
    Director: The Refugee Children
    Producer: John Chua, Louis De, Jim Lenz, Sarah El Ashkar
    Production Status: Pre-production
    Countries: Greece, France

    Logline: In a camp on the Greek island of Lesvos, young refugees from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria document their own struggle with global warming, recycling, waste management, and Covid-19.

    Contact: Jim Lenz

  • The Long Rescue

    Film title: The Long Rescue
    Director: Jennifer Huang
    Producer: Jennifer Huang
    Production Status: Post-production
    Countries: United States, The Philippines

    Logline: The Long Rescue follows Filipina teen sex trafficking survivors for five years as they recover in a secret shelter and re-enter the world – hoping to overcome the poverty, predators, and pimps of their childhood. Full of dreams but still bearing the wounds of the past, the girls must transform their understanding of themselves to be truly free.

    Contact: Jennifer Huang

  • No Place for You in Our Town

    Film title: No Place for You in Our Town
    Director: Nikolay Stefanov
    Producer: Ralitsa Golemanova
    Production status: Post-production
    Countries: Bulgaria

    Logline: What hides underneath the violent façade of a local gang from a decaying ex-mining town?

    Contact: Ralitsa Golemanova

  • Pour the Water As I Leave

    Film title: Pour the Water As I Leave
    Director: Daniela Repas
    Producer: Jessica Daugherty
    Production Status: In development
    Countries: United States, Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Logline: Courageous survivors of the Balkan War of the 1990’s, now in diaspora, guide two characters who are attempting to escape the same war zone in this animated feature docufiction.

    Contact: Jessica Daugherty

  • Russia vs Lawyers

    Film title: Russia vs Lawyers
    Director: Masha Novikova
    Producer: Masha Novikova
    Production Status: Early production
    Countries: The Netherlands, Germany

    Logline: How does it feel to be a brilliant lawyer who mostly loses in court? What does it take to carry on when your clients are physically tortured and your own life is threatened?.. What is it like to be a human rights lawyer in today’s Russia?

    Contact: Julia Shaginurova

  • Sānsūr

    Film title: Sānsūr
    Director: Mostafa Heravi
    Producer: Rieneke van Santen
    Production Status: Late-production
    Countries: The Netherlands

    Logline: Six Iranian women: an artist, schoolteacher, journalist, athlete, musician and actress cannot conform to a life in censorship. Once they have escaped the “Sānsūr” and enter a life in exile, are they truly free?

    Contact: Rieneke van Santen

  • Slave Island

    Film title: Slave Island
    Director: Jimmy Hendrickx, Jeremy Kewuan
    Producer: Kristian Van der Heyden
    Production Status: In development
    Countries: Belgium, France, Estonia, Taiwan

    Logline: Young women and children are threatened with rites of Pasung: to be chained to a wooden block until the demons are driven out of them. Two filmmakers, Jimmy and Jeremy, explore the hidden paradise of Sumba island, only to discover atrocities of present-day slavery.

    Contact: Kristian Van der Heyden

  • We Don't Talk (Wij praten niet)

    Film title: We Don’t Talk (orig. Wij praten niet)
    Director: Marjolein Busstra
    Producer: Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen
    Production Status: Post-production
    Countries: the Netherlands

    Logline: We Don’t Talk is an intriguing documentary of in-depth conversations between therapists and youngsters who are entangled in the complex network of sexual violence and exploitation. It takes us into the inner struggle of four characters in their process to break free from this world while they are all still — to a greater or lesser extent – connected to it and can’t seem to part with. The film offers an intimate insight into the reminiscent of their experiences and process of extrication, where the distorted self-judgment of guilt and shame holds them captive. A close look at the dynamics of therapy, pointing out the importance of signalling youngsters who experience this and to start conversation in a world in which they often feel it’s not safe to talk

    Contact: Tess Vermeer / Miriam van Oort (Impact Producer)