Producers and decision-makers attending MIPCOM will be inspired to learn from three sets of documentary insiders how their very different projects stood above the competition and won the backing of their funding and distribution partners.
We will track each production team’s step-by-step process from “big idea” to delivery!
I’m producing and moderating the triple Case Study workshop, scheduled for Wednesday, October 19 at the SEAVIEW PRODUCERS’ HUB.
Read the full MIPCOM programme here.
Casa Susanna Trailer
THREE INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTION CASE STUDIES
19-oct 15:30-16:00
‘NAKED — GENERATION GENDER’
A TOPICAL SERIES LAUNCHED BY GLOBAL COPRO PARTNERS
- A Spiegel TV (Germany) / Primitive Entertainment (Canada) Co-Production in association with Crave / Bell Media (Canada), ZDF (Germany), arte (Germany/France) and ZDF Studios (Germany).
- 6×50’ or 1×90’
- NAKED raises big questions of how our biological sexes and assigned genders affect us and seeks answers in lived realities and current scientific research from around the world.
- Three key decision-makers showcase how they created an ambitious Canadian / German coproduction backed by a committed distribution partnership to deliver in multiple formats a production on the topical subject of Gender science.
Panel
- Michael McMahon, Primitive Entertainment
- Kay Siering, Spiegel-TV
- Ralf Ruchauer, ZDF Enterprises
19-oct 16:10-16:40
‘SPACE MISSION SENEGAL’
SCIENCE MAJORS PBS AND TERRA MATER BACK INDIE DIRECTOR
- Directed by Ruth Berry for Terra Mater Studios and PBS NOVA
- 52’
- Senegalese astronomer Maram Kaire has been asked to lead an important mission for NASA. But Maram has a much bigger mission: to bring space science and astronomy to his emerging country. But first, he must convince Senegal’s traditional Muslim leaders.
- Independent producer / director Ruth Berry shares her Takeaways on how she created with PBS’s NOVA series and Terra Mater Studios a unique film that navigated the many cultural challenges to successful field production in Africa while revealing that space is for everyone – not just for the wealthiest countries.
Panel
- Sabine Holzer, Terra Mater
- Ruth Berry, Producer / Director
19-oct 16:50-17:20
‘CASA SUSANNA’
DOCUMENTARY TAKES LONG JOURNEY TO FILM FESTIVALS & PLATFORMS
- Directed by Sébastien Lifshitz.
- Producer: Muriel Meynard for Agat Films, Arte France, American Experience Films
- (Lengths tbc)
- In the 1950s and ‘60s, an underground network of transgender women and cross-dressing men found refuge at a modest house in the Catskills region of New York. In Casa Susanna, they found a safe place to express their true selves—dressed as women without fear of being incarcerated or institutionalized.
- The session showcases the making of a “deeply affecting” documentary about a secret chapter in LGBTQ history, and how the producers’ distribution strategy combines winning recognition at major film festivals with backing from American and European public broadcasters and a sales effort targeting channels and platforms worldwide.
Panel
- Muriel Meynard, AGAT Films
- Fabrice Puchault, Head of Society & Culture, ARTE France
- Tom Koch, PBS Distribution International
THE SESSIONS
Creatives, producers and distributors will describe their project’s secret sauce:
- Why did they commit to this story?
- And to these characters?
- What market forces, like budget and audience trends, helped attract funders?
- Did they change their distribution plans due to the rise of Netflix and the streamers?
We decided to present unscripted programmes that are topical, diverse and illustrative of different formats.
- Gender identity is the very current subject of NAKED and also of CASA SUSANNA.
- NAKED is a 6-part cross-Atlantic coproduction.
- SUSANNA is a theatrical-length documentary with a one-hour version for television.
- SPACE MISSION SENEGAL reveals the untold story of an Islamic African scientist, and it is a trans-Atlantic copro led by an independent director.