Dear friends and colleagues,
it is our joy to present our participants for the seventh edition of CIRCLE Women Accelerator. Ten filmmakers and their projects have been chosen from 117 submissions by the selection committee of writer and producer Suzy Gillet, programmer and project manager Babette Dieu, producer Kesmat El Sayed, film scholar Jelena Mišeljić, and director and producer Rok Biček.
It's a pleasure to organize this seventh edition with the longstanding partnership of Europe Creative Media and the patronage of Eurimages. Our first workshop module will take place in Edipsos on Evia Island, Greece, July 02-07. We are collaborating again with our partners at Thessaloniki International Film Festival & Agora, as part of their third Evia Film Project. This green initiative started in 2022 aiming to provide support to the Northern Evia region following the devastating wildfires of 2021. The first module will focus on in-depth analysis alongside mentors, including defining project needs in terms of development and designing the next steps to be taken aiming at broadening projects’ creative potential.
The projects are Amazonas, by Clara Lopez Rubio (Spain), who spent time with the Waorani tribe as a witness to the rift of an entire community of indigenous women in the face of industrial development; The White Waters by Flora Linghwa Huang (Taiwan), where hardness and fatiguing labour have shaped the lives of three immigrant women; Letters From Home, director Xin Fang returns to her hometown in China after many years spent in the USA; Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Koval Bhatia (India), who confronts her ideas of family, healing and loss through the relationship with her childhood teacher; The Warriors & The Swan produced by Åsne Høgetveit, who will take part in CIRCLE, and directed by Trude Berge Ottersen, which reverses the narrative of Norway as a peaceful country; Francesca Bertin’s Al Bayt (Germany), recalling the previous life of three generations of women living in a former cotton estate in Egypt’s Nile Delta; A Letter to my Children (Pismo Mojoj Djeci), in which Ines Tanović (Bosnia and Herzegovina) restores the history of the connection of a German and a Bosnian family through archive material; Maty or the Real Life by Fagamou Ndiaye (Senegal, France), telling the story of a Senegalese woman on the verge of marrying; Portrait of A by Rand Beiruty (Jordan, Germany) about a young Roma immigrant mother; and Hope Against Hope by director-producer Mina Keshavarz.
Biljana Tutorov, founder of CIRCLE, comments: “It's incredible that CIRCLE is welcoming its seventh generation of documentary filmmakers. Time is flying and I have a feeling that this adventure takes its own shape and course, finding its natural place in the industry landscape. Solidarity is what we need most today. Together we can see, hear and do so much more. We can create and deepen the safe space for us and our projects. Often we confound ourselves with our projects, it's a common place for all documentary filmmakers. New cohort's takes on the world are personal and bold. Ten amazing filmmakers from all continents will gather to work together over months to come. I can't wait to see what this alchemy of experiences and cultures will produce in all of us.”
Bigid O’Shea, mentor at CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator, adds: “As we welcome our next group to start their circle journey, I also reflect on the significant success of our CIRCLE alumni, their personal growth alongside professionals and their films and projects circulating the globe. I can't wait to see what this group has in store.”
Selected participants for the new CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator:
Francesca Bertin / writer and director (Italy, Germany)
Project: AL BAYT
Co-director: Laura StauthProduced by: Karsten Krause (Fünferfilm, Germany)
Clara Lopez Rubio / writer and director (Spain, Germany)
Project: AMAZONAS
Produced by: Isabella Parra (Caleidoscopio Cine, Ecuador)
Mina Keshavarz / writer, director and producer
Project: HOPE AGAINST HOPE
Coproduced by: Christophe Bruncher, Anita Filk
Ines Tanović / director and producer (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Project: A LETTER TO MY CHILDREN
Produced by: Ines Tanović (DOKUMENT, BIH)
Xin Fang / director (China, US)
Project: LETTERS FROM HOME
Produced by: Xin Fang (Independent)
Coproduced by: Nicole Tsien (United States)
Fagamou Ndiaye / director (Senegal, France)
Project: MATY OR THE REAL LIFE
Produced by: Marie Ka (Picture Box, Senegal)
Rand Beiruty / director and producer (Jordan, Germany)
Project: PORTRAIT OF A
Produced by: Rand Beiruty (Shaghab Films, Jordan)
Koval Bhatia / director and producer (India)
Project: SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW
Produced by: Koval Bhatia (A Little Anarky Films, India)
Coproduced by: Riham Ezzaldeen (What Took You So Long, US)
Åsne Høgetveit / producer (Norway)
Project: THE WARRIORS & THE SWAN by the director Trude Berge Ottettrsen
Produced by: Koko Film AS, Norway
Co-produced by: Fredrik Lange and Carl Javer (Vilda Bomben AB, Sweden)
Flora Linghwa Huang / director and producer (Taiwan)
Project: THE WHITE WATERS
Produced by: Flora Linghwa Huang and Kumi Kunming Fu (Scorching Sun Production, Taiwan)
We are excited to welcome new mentor Heidi Fleisher, American producer and consultant based in France who will join us for the first time, as well as the Romanian award-winning editor, sound designer and director Dana Bunescu, who participated in our CIRCLE Fiction Orbit last year as an editing and story mentor. They will be joined by returning mentors Brigid O'Shea, consultant and co-founder and director of the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE), Joanna Solecka, marketing and publicity expert from Alphapanda.
Guest experts are Kumjana Novakova, chief curator and film director, Mara Gourd-Mercado, Head of CPH:DOX Industry and Lin Alluna who will present a case study of her award-winning documentary film TWICE COLONIZED, to be screened during Evia Film Project.
The CIRCLE cohort will continue its journey in September 2024 (Novi Sad, Serbia) and in January 2025, in partnership with WEMW (Trieste, Italy).