Fifteen project teams spanning nine nations will take part in The FACTory pitching showcase at this year’s AIDC.
Now in its eighth year, the Vicscreen-supported initiative for documentary and factual projects involves shortlisted teams presenting across three strands – Central Showcase, New Talent Showcase, and Rough Cut Showcase.
This year’s contingent features stories from Australia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Mongolia, United Arab Emirates, the US, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Germany.
The teams, which were selected by a panel of industry representatives, will have access to extensive pitch training conducted by experienced screen practitioners, including Nordisk TV & Film Fond documentary senior advisor Karolina Lidin, SBS international consultant Krishin Arora, and Documentary Association of Europe founder Brigid O’Shea.
At AIDC, they will present their ideas to a mix of national and international funders, broadcasters, streamers, sales agents, and distributors.
All projects in The FACTory will be eligible to win pitch prizes, including two complimentary festival passes to participate in Sheffield Doc/Fest 2023 (Sheffield, UK), two complimentary passes to participate in Hot Docs Industry 2023 (Toronto, Canada), two complimentary passes to participate in DOK Leipzig (Leipzig, Germany), and two complimentary passes to participate in Sunny Side of the Doc 2023 (La Rochelle, France).
AIDC CEO and creative director Natasha Gadd said the orgnanisation was proud to present the “stellar line-up” of “courageous and engaging stories”.
AIDC 2023 will take place March 5-8.
The shortlisted projects are as follows:
CENTRAL SHOWCASE PROJECTS
Aquarius
Fifty years after the Nimbin Aquarius Festival, newly uncovered archival footage and extensive interviews examine these ten days of social and cultural exploration that changed a generation.
Director: Wendy Champagne, Oren Seidler
Writer: Wendy Champagne
Producer: Sam Griffin
Tilt Media & Entertainment (Australia)
Bukal Bukal
Henrietta Marrie sets out to return her family’s inheritance, but first she must face not only the British Museum that holds it, but also the worldwide racism that keeps it there.
Director: Rhoda Roberts
Writer: Rhoda Roberts, Julie Nihill
Porducer: Julie Nihill
Executive Producer: Henrietta Marrie AM
EarthStar Films (Australia)
Framed
A terrorist plot to blow up an iconic Sydney landmark, a global news story, a love triangle, and jail for an innocent overseas student are part of this untold Australian story.
Producer/Writer/Director: Anupam Sharma
Framed Film (Australia/Sri Lanka)
Love Safari
Love Safari reveals a subversive natural world, where fact is stranger than fiction, where LGBTQIA+ species live without discrimination, where sexuality can be fluid – not fixed or static.
Director/Producer: Randall Wood
Producers: Madeleine Hetherton-Miau and Rebecca Barry
Media Stockade & Storyland (Australia)
Stella: You Get Proud By Practicing
When Stella Young died suddenly aged 32, she had the world at her fingertips. Learn more about this Australian icon who was a disability activist, comedian, feminist, and so much more.
Director/co-producer: Sarah Barton
Producer: Liz Burke
Defiant Lives Productions (Australia)
The Climate Canary
World-leading scientists working on the sea ice, discover subtle changes signalling huge challenges for Antarctica and our global coastlines. With hopeful honesty, they face climate change at work and home.
Producer/director: Vanessa Wells
Writer/researcher: Rebecca Priestley
Editor: Richare Lord
Elanti Media (New Zealand)
Winter Herd
A new generation of nomadic herders revive one of Mongolia’s most dangerous winter rituals in a last ditch attempt to preserve their ancient way of life.
Director: Kasimir Burgess
Producers: Ben Golotta and Chris Kamen
Repeater Productions (Australia/Mongolia)
NEW TALENT SHOWCASE PROJECTS
Architect
Investigating the physical dimensions of trauma, refugee and architect Elahe Zivardar unravels six years of brutal detention by constructing a photo-realistic 3D simulation of Australia’s infamous Nauru Regional Processing Centre.
Co-director/producer/editor: Jaydn Gosselin
Co-director/executive producer/protagonist: Elahe Zivardar
Producer: Jacob Fertig
Denizen Studios & Shakiba Productions (Australia/USA)
Conversion
A group of LGBTQIA+ Australians reveal how religious conversion therapies continue out of sight, causing trauma and suffering for vulnerable people.
Director: Amelia Tovey
Producers: Philippa Campey and Molly O’Connor
Film Camp (Australia)
I Thought Jesus was Korean
Forty years after her parents’ mass wedding at Madison Square Garden, a Kiwi-Japanese filmmaker seeks answers after learning her Korean Jesus was a fraud.
Director: Elina Osborne
Producer: Alex Lee
Yalla Media (New Zealand)
Nothing Called Home
Two survivors of the Christchurch mosque attack, Iraqi immigrants Adeeb along with his son, Ali, take us on their 24-year-long search to find a safe home for their family.
Director: Arkus
Producer: Gargi Chakrabarti
Maurice & Morrise (UAE)
Untying The Knot
In the Philippines, the last country outside the Vatican where divorce is illegal, women in troubled and abusive marriages risk their lives for freedom.
Director/producer: Chona Mangalindan
Producer: Anne Sobel
Executive Producer: Rosie Garthwaite
Mediadante & Monsoon Films (Philippines)
ROUGH CUT SHOWCASE PROJECTS
Ghost Boat
Amena’s son was illegally trafficked by boat from southern Bangladesh. She teams up with trafficking survivor Abdus to retrace her son’s steps, exposing the impact of human trafficking on those left behind.|
Director: Tanim Yousuf
Director/cinematographer: Kauser Haider
Producer: Patrick Hamm
Bulldog Agenda & Mastul Productions (Bangladesh/USA/Germany)
Twilight Time
The life and times of Desmond Ball, the barefooted academic from ‘down under’ hailed by Jimmy Carter as “the man who saved the world”.
Writer/director/producer: John Hughes
Producer: Philippa Campey
Early Works (Australia)
Without Arrows (working title)
Filmed with vérité intimacy over the course of twelve years (2011 – 2022), Without Arrows chronicles the choices, events, and relationships that shape a Lakota family’s legacy.
Co-director/co-producer: Jonathan Olshefski
Co-director/co-producer: Elizabeth Day
Without Arrows LLC (USA