While we can’t gather in person due to the global pandemic, some of your favourite film festivals and markets are turning to virtual event formats, and Canada is with you in full force!

Kicking off soon is the 31st edition of Sunny Side of the Doc, happening online June 22 to 25, 2020 with a strong Canadian presence! This exciting marketplace for documentary and factual content facilitates coproduction and international business opportunities with delegates and decision-makers from 60 countries.

This year, it’s all happening online instead: Sunny Side of the Doc’s “Connected Edition” will stream from La Rochelle, France! The online festival will feature content and programming, as well networking, webinars, workshops, live-streamed Q&A sessions, the PiXii Festival, and much more. This year’s theme is “History Inside/Out.”

And… let’s not forget Sunny Side’s legendary pitch sessions, where seven of the event’s 42 selected pitches this year are done by Canadians!

In this series of international online events (each for a different theme) selected factual projects (in different stages or production or development) are effectively” pitched” to commissioners and well-connected buyers! The reward? A chance at funding and valuable feedback.

Canadian projects:

Arts & Culture:

• The MAD World of Harvey Kurtzman
  • Producer: All in Pictures
  • Author: Bart Simpson
  • Project synopsis: The story of an artist (satirist, creator of MAD Magazine, inventor of the graphic novel) constantly pushing creatively, and often failing against commerce, to realize his vision.

History:

• The Con: Churchill & Roosevelt’s Secret American War
  • Producer: White Pine Pictures
  • Author: Andrew Munger
  • Project synopsis: The greatest untold story of WW2 and the largest espionage operation mounted by a friendly nation against an ally.

• Framing Agnes
  • Producers: Fae Pictures, Canada and Level Ground, USA
  • Authors: Chase Joynt, Morgan M. Page
  • Project synopsis: After uncovering case files from transgender history, archivist Chase Joynt works with all-star trans actors to confront the media-propagated legacy of the “deceptive transsexual”, while hoping to get closer to the truth. (P.S. This project was financed by Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch program)

• The End of the World – the Maya
  • Producer: Zoot Pictures
  • Authors: Leif Kaldor, Leslea Mair
  • Project synopsis: Told by the ancient Maya themselves, the collapse of the Mayan Empire is a dramatic and chilling story of power, god-kings, climate change, war, murder and human sacrifice.

Science:

• Redesigning Life
  • Producer: Rotating Planet Production
  • Author: Ari Cohen
  • Project synopsis: This innovative five-part series reveals cutting-edge research and solutions that redefine the way we live on Earth, from mushroom leather to biogas-powered cities.

Social Issues:

• Dark Flower
  • Producer: Fathom Film Group
  • Author: Ann Shin
  • Project synopsis: Kika, Tony, and Anthony bet everything on an opportunity to strike it rich in California’s legalized cannabis industry and discover the lie at the heart of this American Dream where ‘equal opportunity’ does not necessarily mean equitable.

Wildlife:

• Urban Whale
  • Producer: HitPlay Productions
  • Author: Nadine Pequeneza
  • Project synopsis: North Atlantic right whales are dying faster than they can reproduce. If we don’t stop killing them, in 20 years they will be extinct. With unprecedented access to film their 2,250 km migration, The Urban Whale brings hope.