Take on Film & Impact

Selected Projects

• 40 Years of Silence

  Film Title: 40 Years of Silence
  Director: Maythem Ridha
  Producer: Maythem Ridha
  Production Companies: 7th Heaven Studios, 2Rivers East and Laika Film and TV
  Countries of Production: United Kingdom, Iraq, Sweden
  Production Status: In production
  Expected Release Date: 23-2-2024

  Logline: After 40 years, Zainab Al-Hariri returns to Iraq to uncover the circumstances surrounding her father’s attempt to assassinate Saddam Hussein. As Zainab unravels the history of a despotic regime, what will she discover about her father?

  Impact Statement: “This film documents a tragic chapter in human history. It represents thousands who faced the same fate under Saddam, and the millions who have experienced human rights violations under similar regimes around the world. We want this film to act as a conversation starter about grief and trauma and inspire others to find their own paths towards reconciliation and peace.

  We have partnered with organisations in Iraq, representing those who lost family under Saddam. We aim to extend this work with global NGOs to provide a platform to empower international communities to share their own stories on a global scale.”

  Partners Attached:
  CloseUp Initiative
  Scottish Documentary Institute
  British Council
  MountainFilm.
  SVT – Swedish Television

  Participants:

  Maythem Ridha is an Iraqi filmmaker working between the Middle East and UK with over 25 years experience of award-winning film projects. Maythem wrote IRAQI TALES, a body of films, at the National Film School(UK); DRIFTING ON THE WIND was selected by over 20 international film festivals, winning the Director’s Award at Hearts & Minds. AL-BAGHDADI won Best Foreign Language Film at The International Filmmaker Festival. ALI AND HIS MIRACLE SHEEP won the prestigious Best Film Award at Sheffield DocFest UK Competition and has since been selected by over 40 major international festivals, winning over 20 awards and distinctions.

  Zainab Al-Hariri is a UK-based filmmaker of Iraqi origin. Over the last 10 years she has worked as an editor and post-production supervisor on feature-length and short films and as script supervisor on Matthew Michael Carnahan’s film MOSUL. Zainab edited Maythem Ridha’s ALI AND HIS MIRACLE SHEEP which won the prestigious Best Film Award at Sheffield DocFest UK Competition and has since been selected by over 40 major international festivals, winning over 20 awards and distinctions. Zainab is proud of her origins and strives to translate her passion into greater international understanding of her homeland and culture through her film work.

  Contact: Maythem Ridha

  

• 5 Pills Away

  Film Title: 5 Pills Away
  Directors: Karolina Domagalska, Monika Kotecka
  Producer: Katarzyna Ślesicka, Anna Stylińska, Kristoffer Rus
  Production Companies: Paprika Sudios, My Way Studio
  Country of Production: Poland
  Production Status: Late Production
  Expected Release Date: 15-12-2023

  Logline: When Polish government introduces an abortion ban, four women from Abortion Dream Team step in and help women in need. The situation escalates and the four friends find themselves carrying a huge responsibility and risk on their shoulders. What price will they pay for that?

  Impact Statement: “Abortion in Poland is legal only if a pregnancy is a result of a crime or when life of a woman is in danger proved to be lethal. Women are dying because doctors are afraid to perform abortion even in legal cases. . Protagonists of the film: Justyna, Natalia, Karolina and Kinga are one of the very few that offer actual help. As filmmakers, we feel we owe both them and people in Poland a campaign that would make the film easy to access and the subject of abortion easier to talk about. Poland is not the only country with such a draconian anti-abortion law. Our protagonists are a part of an international network that brings together activists from over 100 countries and another goal of our impact campaign would be to share our film with them.”

  Partners Attached:
  Viaplay

  Participants:

  Anna Stylińska is a filmmaker and independent producer. Anna graduated from Cinema Studies (University Paris X) and Creative Producer’s Course (Wajda School). She has worked as a production manager, co-director, first AD, screenwriter and film festival manager. Her feature-length debut LESSONS OF LOVE by M.Goliszewska and K. Mateja, premiered at IDFA 2019, travelled to over 46 festivals around the world (including Hot Docs, Vision du Reel, Docs NYC, Dokfest) and winning many prizes (e.g. Flahertiana, DocsAgainst Gravity, Moscow FF, GZDOC in China). Her recent production at My Way Studio, where she develops several promising projects, is a documentary musical VIKA! to be premiered in 2023. Graduate of EAVE, ExOriente, IDFA Academy, DocLab Poland and DokIncubator.

  Karolina Domagalska is a filmmaker and writer. Karolina used to work as a journalist in one of the biggest Polish newspapers up until almost 4 years ago when she met the protagonists of her film. In 2018, she broke a story about the Abortion Dream Team which changed the course of her career. Her publication in most known womens’ magazine resulted in a change of the editor in chief for a new, conservative one and Karolina resigned from work. Today, she wants to tell important stories that won’t be censored. She is an author of a non fiction book about assisted reproduction.

  Contact: Katarzyna Ślesicka, Anna Stylińska

  

• The Breastfeeding Warrior - Phila Portia Ndwandwe

  Film Title: The Breastfeeding Warrior – Phila Portia Ndwandwe
  Director: Enver Samuel
  Producer: Karen Scholtz
  Production Company: EMS PRODUCTIONS CC
  Country of Production: South Africa
  Production Status: Post-Production
  Expected Release Date: 21-3-2023

  Logline: Speaking truth to power in the face of injustice and healing the divisions of our past.

  Impact Statement: “34 year old chartered accountant Thabang Mabuza’s mother was tortured and killed by apartheid security police in 1988 when he was just 5 months old. Today he calls her his breastfeeding warrior. Can he reconcile the trauma of her death as he goes in search for answers as to why his mother was killed? As past, present and future merge he will look at the question, was his mother’s sacrifice worth it or in vain? The impact of trans generational trauma and the processes of healing will be the main focus of the impact campaign for this documentary.”

  Partners Attached:
  South African Broadcasting Corporation
  Foundation for Human Rights
  National Film & Video Foundation
  University of Stellenbosch

  Participants:

  Enver Samuel is an award winning documentary filmmaker who over the past 8 years has concentrated on the stories of political activists during apartheid and making social impact justice documentaries like Indians Can’t Fly, a documentary on activist Ahmed Timol and the follow up documentary, Someone To Blame. Recently Murder in Paris has been completed to critical acclaim which aims to play a part in the re-opening of the case of her assassination. The documentary won the Durban International Film Festival Best Documentary Award and at the same festival Enver was awarded the inaugural Human Rights Award.

  Karen Scholtz has worked for EMS Productions in various capacities for over 20 years. She produced Enver’s award winning documentaries Indians Can’t Fly, Someone To Blame – The Ahmed Timol Inquest and Murder in Paris.

  Contact: Enver Samuel

  

• A Breathe in Time

  Film Title: A Breathe in Time
  Director: Despina Economopoulou
  Producer: Dafni Kalafati
  Production Companies: Filmisi Sa, Candelaria Films, Des Films
  Countries of Production: Greece, Colombia
  Production Status: In Production
  Expected Release Date: 12-11-2024

  Logline: Do we have any time left to restore harmony and live in peace with our surroundings? A personal journey of ancient wisdom from the sacred Greek island of Delos all the way to the Amazon in the form of a documentary that dances with elements of myth and science fiction.

  Impact Statement: “We plan to collaborate with a team of experts, the company “Think Film – Impact Production ”, based in Brussels. Through them, we will reach new audiences and gain visibility by implementing a strategic environmental campaign that aims to influence policy agendas and connect us with influential decision-makers at national, regional and international levels. We have already partnered up with local grassroots organizations in the Amazon region, the APANAPSE N.G.O, as well as the Chacruna Institute in the United States. All above organizations are ambassadors of environmental protection and fight for the preservation of the rights of the Amazon tribes. By bringing all the stakeholders together under the umbrella of the film we will gain the maximum social impact potential.”

  Partners Attached:
  National Center of Audiovisual Media & Communication
  Apanapse Official Association of Filmmakers of the Putumayo Region Sucumbios
  Chacruna Institute of Psychedelic Plant Medicines

  Participants:

  Despina Economopoulou, filmmaker was born in 1983 in Athens. After graduating from her political and international sciences first degree in Athens and pursuing an art degree in independent cinema in London in 2009, she worked intensively in cinema and the moving image creating films and visual tales that cast light and shadow onto human experiences. In 2018, with her repatriation, she was awarded the ARTWORKS Award by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for her trajectory as a filmmaker for ‘A Breath in Time’.

  Dafni Kalafati is a creative producer based in Athens, Greece. Dafni has collaborated with Filmiki Productions on several projects, bringing her expertise in documentary development. Dafni studied Intercultural Education and Photography and then pursued a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy at the School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There she worked for several years in the public mental institution «Borda» as an art therapist using the new media (video and photography) as therapeutic tools. Her love for social action and the arts made her engaged in documentary film making and since then she has traveled to some of the most remote parts of the planet together with her video camera filming documentaries and teaching photography and art. Among others, she has filmed documentaries with the indigenous tribes of the Amazon basin and with the street children of the big Argentinian metropolis of Buenos Aires, traveled with a group of scientists through Africa’s East Coast in search of traditional ways to preserve solar and wind energy, she has followed the truck drivers in their arduous journey from Tajikistan to China through the Pamir Highway and captured the Greek sponge divers diving in depths of over 50 m in the Aegean Sea in their search for sponges. When she returned to Greece in 2008, she founded an independent production company, which has produced several feature documentary films that have been screened internationally. Her film Oneironauts (2009) won the Best Experimental Documentary Award at the HotDocs Toronto Film Festival. Dafni is a Fullbright Alumni and currently splits her time between teaching documentary and photography and producing films.

  Contact: Dafni Kalafati

  

• Being Hijra

  Film title: Being Hijra
  Director: Ila Mehrotra
  Producer: Edward Dallal
  Production Companies: Spring Films, Penbryn Films
  Countries of Production: United Kingdom, India, Norway
  Production Status: Post-Production
  Expected Release Date: 10-5-2023

  Logline: Rudrani Chettri and her friends are setting up a modelling agency for India’s trans community. But in a world of prejudice, violence and marginalisation, can they win a place on the catwalk?

  Impact Statement: “Being Hijra is a call to action, imploring the audience to rethink their biases about the trans – hijra community in India and drive support to New Delhi’s first trans modelling agency. We aim to raise gender awareness in India and differentiate between the religious Hijra and transgenders. We aim to improve and safeguard the lives of trans people in New Delhi through supporting Mitr Trust, Rudrani. The impact will create a network of transgender models to provide employment opportunities and create a trans community in the fashion industry.”

  Biography participants:

  Ila Mehrotra was born in Delhi. She graduated from the University of Sussex and has worked in British film and television for the last decade. She has worked for broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV.

  Janay Boulos (She/Her) is a Lebanese/British journalist, producer and impact producer. She trained with Beirut DC Impact Lab 2022 as well as participated in the Documentary Campus Master school where she trained with DocSociety and FIFDH. Janay works at BBC News Arabic Investigations as a digital impact producer.

  Contact: Janay Boulos

  

• Friday at the Window

  Film Title: Friday at the Window
  Directors: Atiye Zare Arandi, Bram Crols
  Producers: Mark Daems, Nina Payrhuber
  Production Company: Associate Directors
  Countries of Production: Iran, Belgium, Norway, Qatar
  Production Status: Post-Production
  Expected Release Date: 31-1-2024

  Logline: Iranian Melina lives with her grandparents because since their divorce neither of her parents is willing to take her in. Turning nine, Melina considers taking her custody case to court.

  Impact Statement: “Child neglect and abuse manifest much subtler in middle class families. Melina’s case is a good example of the emotional and physical affect decisions of parents can have on their children. Our impact campaign wants to empower children who find themselves in complicated family situations such as divorce, often neglected by their parents, to speak up for themselves and not feel afraid or embarrassed to share how they feel with their friends and family. We want them to be aware of their rights as children to be loved and cared for by their parents.”

  Partners Attached:
  Al Jazeera Media Network
  DGD (Directie-generaal Ontwikkelingssamenwerking en Humanitaire Hulp – Federale overheid België)
  DEFC (Documentary & Experimental Film Center – Iran)
  Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds

  Participants:

  Atiye Zare Arandi is an excellent storyteller, raised and educated with the heritage of the great traditional Persian art of storytelling. She studied film directing with a focus on fictional narrative and continued to excel in her studies of dramatic literature. Currently she lives and works both in Esfahan and Tehran. Following her studies Atiye has gained experience and recognition as writer/director for national Iranian fiction as well as documentary work. She has been represented with her work several times during the International Cinema Verité Festival (Tehran).

  Nina Payrhuber, born in South Africa and raised in Belgium, is an historian and filmmaker with a diverse background. After graduating with a master’s in History from UAntwerpen in 2014 she expanded her interests towards the visual medium of moving images and studied film production at the RITCS (Brussels), including two exchanges at Aalto-ELO (Helsinki) and AFDA (Cape Town). She has accumulated production and research experience in many different fields, ranging from fiction & documentary to commercial & corporate projects. Her current focus lies in documentary producing, international coproducing, impact producing and development research for historical and contemporary stories.

  Contact: Nina Payrhuber

  

• Memory

  Film Title: Memory
  Director: Vladlena Sandu
  Producer: Yanna Buryak
  Production Companies: Mimesis, Haut Les Mains, Revolver, BZ
  Countries of Production: France, The Netherlands, Kosovo
  Production Status: Post-Production
  Expected Release Date: 16-5-2024

  Logline: Vladlena Sandu, a survivor of the war in Chechnya between 1994 and 1998, studies her memories in order to transcend and transform them via cinema.

  Impact Statement: “Vladlena Sandu’s family history is closely linked to two disputed regions of modern Russia: Crimea and Chechnya. After surviving the Chechen war as a child she developed severe PTSD. As an artist, she has dedicated her life’s work to uncovering the healing properties of art for the benefit of herself and others. In her most recent film, Memory, she investigates her trauma through art therapy, diving deeply into the inner workings of a totalitarian regime. It is a cult that indoctrinates children at a very young age. Preparing them for war and death. Most people who support Putin’s regime and the war in Ukraine today are former members of the Communists. Our impact campaign is focused on breaking the vicious cycle of violence that has haunted Russian families for generations, by giving back the Chechen people their voice, whilst also highlighting the importance of child victims of warfare and their questions towards the adult world.”

  Partners Attached:
  IDFA Bertha Fund
  CNC

  Participants:

  Vladlena Sandu was born in her father’s homeland of Crimea in 1982. After her parents divorced, she moved to her mother’s native city of Grozny in the Chechen Republic. She lived through six years of war as a child and teenager. In 1998 she emigrated to mainland Russia and received the status of an Internally Displaced Person. In 2011 she graduated from Rodchenko Art School. In 2016 she graduated from the VGIK. In 2019 she graduated from Boris Yukhananov’s Studio of Independent Direction. In March 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine she became a refugee for the second time. Today she lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Her films have most notably participated in official selections at film festivals such as Berlinale, Rotterdam, Leipzig Dok, DocLisboa, have won awards at festivals such as ZagrebDox, VGIK ISFF and obtained the Silver Eye Award by the Institute of Documentary Film.

  Yanna Buryak is the founder of MIMESIS, a full-cycle film production company, and VOSTOK, the first independent Russian short film agency. She was brought up trilingual and speaks fluent French, English, and Russian. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she has permanently relocated to France. She graduated from the Moscow Economics School and then the London MET Film School. Since 2015 she specialises in the international co-production of auteur-driven cinema, having collaborated with France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Brazil, Greece, Kosovo and the UK and supported by funds such as CNC, IDFA Bertha Fund, CICLIC, Ile de France and Grand Est regions.

  Contact: Yanna Buryak

  

• My father, Nour and I

  Film Title: My father, Nour and I
  Director: Wiam Al-Zabari
  Producers: Iris Lammertsma, Hasse van Nunen, Renko Douze en Boudewijn Koole
  Production Companies: Witfilm, Een van de jongens
  Countries of Production: The Netherlands
  Production Status: Post-Production
  Expected Release Date: 27-3-2023

  Logline: How do you prevent your childhood trauma from becoming your child’s?

  Impact Statement: “Many families (whether they experienced the Second World War or more recently fled from Syria, Afghanistan or Ukraine) have to find a way in which they can on the one hand give space for their (often traumatic) past, but at the same time start a new live. Without properly processing this past, it seems impossible to take steps towards the future. Also for the next generations. In the film My father, Nour & I, director Wiam Al-Zabari investigates this by questioning his own family. In this film’s impact campaign Wiam speaks to other people in similar situations. This way he hopes to start the conversation about life with war trauma in many families.”

  Partners Attached:
  EO
  Mediafonds
  VSB Fonds
  V-Fonds
  A number of local organisations throughout the Netherlands that focus on people who have fled war-torn countries

  Participants:

  At age 13, Wiam Al-Zabari (1982) fled from his homeland Iraq. Becoming a film maker was never a possibility for him. Only in The Netherlands did Wiam discover he was an artist. Dance provided him with a gateway in The Netherlands; it helped him find his place in the Dutch community. But it was not enough. To support his dancing, Wiam started making video-clips. That is how he discovered his second love: making films. Consequently, Wiam graduated (class of 2008) at the HKU (The Utrecht School of the Arts) having specialized in Screen Directing for Fiction. In his daily life, Wiam is a director of dramatic films and a father of Nour, Afa and Raan.

  Hasse van Nunen is originally a documentary producer, with her own company Een van de Jongens. In that capacity, she felt a great need to achieve more in society with the documentaries she produced. And so she – together with Bernadette Kuiper – founded the Impact Academy (now Impact Makers); a sector-wide collaboration between film funds, broadcasters, producers and documentary makers to make more impact with documentary. This resulted in a number of new financing options for the development of impact campaigns and more awareness among producers and filmmakers of what is possible in the field of impact. Besides, they set up a course for impact producers. In the meantime, she continued as an impact producer within her own company (besides her producership). She has been working on (a.o.): A New Dawn and The Last Male on Earth and the documentary series Classes.

  Contact: Hasse van Nunen

  

• My Muslim Husband

  Film Title: My Muslim Husband
  Directors: Daniel Barnuti, Alexandra Lizeta Barnuti
  Producer: Daniel Barnuti
  Production Company: Two Doc
  Country of Production: Romania
  Production Status: Post-Production
  Expected Release Date: 1-4-2023

  Logline: DANIEL, a man converted to Islam marries LIZ, a young Romanian from his hometown. In their search for happiness and peace, the new couple needs to triumph over everyone’s limiting beliefs, including their own.

  Impact Statement: “How can we live together as a mixed couple in these modern times?

  The world has never been as complex as it is today.

  Every marriage is a mixed marriage after all, with many complex layers inherited from generations. All these different values and behaviors can be found in the relationship and sometimes become conflicts with the world around us, the family, the couple, and our inner self.

  It’s a journey that every new family has to go through. We started this journey 6 years ago, and we filmed. Sometimes the camera functions more like a therapist, than a device used for recording moments. We always intended to make a very personal film, “transparent”, showing our solution, and this is “My Muslim Husband”.

  This experience helped us to understand better who we are and how important it is to accept ourselves first. Vulnerability and the power of speech are very powerful tools to know each other and to have compassion for people around us, without judging so much.

  Today we can make films even with a smartphone, and we want to help others to find their inner voice to make it heard loudly.”

  Partners Attached:
  HBO Europe

  Participants:

  Daniel Barnuti was born in 1981, in Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania – Romania. He is a Law School graduate, has a Master’s in Documentary Film Directing at the Faculty of Theatre and Television in Cluj-Napoca. He is currently working on the feature-length documentary “My Muslim Husband”, selected for the Master school Documentary Campus program, in 2018, supported by HBO Europe. In 2020 he won the best pitch award at Astra Film Festival and in 2022 he was selected for the Docu Rough Cut Boutique workshop. Movies that Matter price at Cine Link Industry days in Sarajevo 2022.

  Alexandra Lizeta Barnuti was born in 1988 in Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania – Romania. She is a graduate of the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations and has worked for various major Romanian companies in the fields of marketing and PR. Photography is one of her main passions and nowadays she is exploring documentary filmmaking. She is currently co-directing and starring in a personal documentary film project developed within the Masterschool Documentary Campus program. In 2020 he won the best pitch award at Astra Film Festival and in 2022 he was selected for the Docu Rough Cut Boutique workshop. Movies that Matter price at Cine Link Industry days in Sarajevo 2022.

  Contact: Daniel Barnuti

  

• Peace for Nina

  Film Title: Peace for Nina
  Director: Zhanna Maksymenko-Dovhych
  Producer: Zhanna Maksymenko-Dovhych, Lyuba Knorozok, Dea Gjinovci
  Production Company: Astrae Productions
  Countries of Production: Ukraine, Switzerland
  Production Status: Post-Production
  Expected Release Date: 20-5-2023

  Logline: In a country at war, a Ukrainian mother channels her grief into action as she seeks justice for her son’s murder by a Russian mercenary. Will Nina succeed in breaking the cycle of violence plaguing her family and finally find peace?

  Impact Statement: “When Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, Nina’s son, Ihor, was captured, tortured, and executed by Russian mercenaries after he bravely stood against them. Nina has channeled her grief into action, traveling the country and meeting other bereaved mothers as she seeks justice in the Ukrainian and international courts. But justice has been difficult to come by. The men who murdered Nina’s son are dead and will never face trial. While injustice rages, how can Nina, and many mothers like her, find peace?”

  Partners Attached:
  Ukrainian State Film Agency
  Ukrainian Cultural Foundation
  The Storyboard Collective
  IMS
  Prague Civil Society Centre
  Perspective Fund
  Swiss Films
  Think Film

  Participants:

  Zhanna Maksymenko-Dovhych is a freelance film director and producer from Kyiv, Ukraine. Jeanne’s previous TV documentary Chronicle of Protests (2013) was broadcast on Ukrainian Public television and also in cinemas. Her short documentary Holiday (2018) was selected in many film festivals, such as GoEast IFF, BEAST IFF, Lisbon Film Preview and received festival awards at DocuBaku, Dream city and Open Night film festival in Ukraine. She was awarded the European Documentary Association Prize at Beldocs in Progress 2021 for her project, Peace For Nina.

  Lyuba Knorozok is an independent producer of documentary and fiction films. Among her most recent projects is documentary Infinity According to Florian by Oleksiy Radynski (premiere at Rotterdam IFF in January 2022), international co-production experimental film The Citizens of the Cosmos (dir. by Anton Vidokle, premiered at Berlinale 2020), narrative A Christmas Carol (2020, dir. by Jacqui Morris), The Inheritance (2019, dir. by Chad Barager, Kevin Speckmeier, Paris Art and Movie Award). She was a production manager at Donbass by Sergei Loznitsa, 2018 (Directing Prize at Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival 2018; KNF Award Nominee at IFF Rotterdam 2019; Best Director/Best Screenplay/Best Film Winner at Ukrainian Film Academy) and a line producer at Frost by Sharunas Bartas (Director’s Fortnight 2017).

  Contact: Dea Gjinovci

  

• Pülö; Bloodstream of the Kirike

  Film Title: Pülö; Bloodstream of the Kirike
  Director: Christina Ifubaraboye
  Producer: Christina Ifubaraboye, Elisa Mereghetti
  Production Companies: IMBUU, ETHNOS
  Countries of Production: Nigeria, Italy
  Production Status: Late Production
  Expected Release Date: 30-9-2023

  Logline: Pülö means blood and oil. Oil is the blood of Kirike, it keeps the people going. Blood is the stream of life, what happens when this stream is poisoned? The lives of the Kirike people, who rely on the island’s water, are under threat.

  Impact Statement: “We are aiming for social change at the local and regional level. One of our main goals is to raise awareness, as most Kirike people are not aware of the level and scope of pollution in their waters and environment, and the direct consequences on their health and living conditions. Another goal is to stimulate institutions to provide better healthcare education, infrastructure and facilities for Kirike people and neighbouring communities. We also intend to prompt government agencies, oil companies, environmental NGOs and international organisations to take action in remediating the pollution in the area.”

  Partners Attached:
  Athari Development
  Emergence Capital Partners Limited

  Participants:

  Christina Ifubaraboye is the founder and creative director of IMBUU, with a professional background in media and public affairs. Ifubaraboye holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from the University of Hertfordshire, and is well versed in numerous fields within the arts, finance and communication. She is also working on her first film that focuses on her hometown. Her interests are film, popular culture, media and the power it possesses in the digital age, while her focus is on challenging commonly misconstrued narratives in society.

  Elisa Mereghetti started working as producer in 1984 at the RAI Corporation in New York, where she participated in numerous documentaries filmed across the US, Australia and Central America. Her first documentary is Mother of the Waters (1988), on the cult of the sea goddess Yemanjà in Afro-Brazilian culture. In 1990 she directed Becoming a Woman in Okrika, about the initiation of adolescent girls in the Niger Delta with American anthropologist Judith Gleason. Co-founder of production company ETHNOS, she has directed dozens of documentaries. Her films have received important awards and have been broadcast by numerous Italian and foreign broadcasters.

  Contact: Christina Ifubaraboye

  

• Three Times a Rebel

  Film Title: Three Times a Rebel
  Director: Anna M. Bofarull
  Producers: Anna M. Bofarull, Rok Bicek
  Production Companies: KaBoGa art & films, Cvinger Film
  Countries of Production: Spain, Slovenia
  Production Status: In Production
  Expected Release Date: 10-2-2024

  Logline: On Referendum day in Barcelona -one considered illegal by the Spanish government- Marta was brutally dragged down the stairs by police officers. Her image went viral and she received thousands of messages slandering and threatening her. How being on the news one day can change one person’s life forever?

  Impact Statement: “THREE TIMES A REBEL wants to make a deep reflection about the value and the sense of images in present times, moving images have become very important in our daily life. Not being able to control those images and narratives in social networks can deeply affect our life and our mental health. And media, when they transform, edit and analyze those materials, can really modify world’s perception of ourselves. How can we in Google times have control over our lives, after a huge media exposure? And when the exposure is related to politics, how vulnerable are we?”

  Partners Attached:
  Creative Europe MEDIA
  RTV Slovenia
  Slovenian Film Centre
  Televisió de Catalunya

  Participants:

  Writer, director and producer based in Barcelona, Anna M. Bofarull studied cinema and human sciences in Barcelona and Paris. In 2007 she established her production company, KaBoGa. Her feature documentaries FOOTNOTES (2009) and HAMMADA (2010) and her feature fictions SONATA FOR CELLO (2015) and BARCELONA 1714 (2019) have been awarded and screened at festivals worldwide including Montréal, Sao Paulo, Thessaloniki, Valladolid, Reykjavik and Gijón. Anna has recently premiered the feature film SINJAR in Málaga Film Festival, a coproduction with Genius at Large (USA) selected at L’Atélier-Cinéfondation in Cannes and awarded at EWIP Cologne and FICCAT.

  Rok Bicek is a director and producer based in Slovenia. CLASS ENEMY (2013), his debut in feature film, was awarded at Venice. In 2017, he directs and produces the feature documentary THE FAMILY, awarded at Locarno and in competition at IDFA, Dok Leipzig, Trieste, Crossing Europe Linz and DOK.fest München, among others. At Cvinger Film, Rok produces globally relevant author-driven films by new talents from the region, both fiction and documentary story-led film dealing with social issues, with strong potential for critical and international audience success. Recent films include MY VESNA (Berlinale), BIRD ATLAS (Karlovy Vary) and PENALTY SHOT (Locarno).

  Contact: Anna M. Bofarull