11/29/2021

Gathering over 60 regional projects at different stages, Conecta opens up to immersive experiences.

From November 29th to December 7th, the International Encounter for Documentary Industry will be taking place, aiming to connect projects with funding to make them possible and companies supporting their exhibition. From its headquarters in Santiago, the event will take place online.

The events program is divided into various activities according to development stages, in which 60 selected projects will take part. Among them is Docs in Progress FIDOCS + Conecta, Conecta with Distribution, and Montage workshop, for projects at finalizing stages; the Boost your Developing Documentary workshop, Conecta with the Roots workshop, and Conecta with New Media workshop, for projects at different development stages.

Eight projects have been selected to be part of Docs in Progress FIDOCS + Conecta’s first edition, a collaboration between the industry event’s WIP activity and the Latin American First Cut Contest, part of the leading documentary festival in Chile, FIDOCS.

Two Argentinian projects are part of this selection: “Pibas superpoderosas”, directed and produced by Leonora Kievsky; and “Todo document de civilización”, by Tatiana Mazú González, and produced by Nacho Losada. From Colombia, “Amando a Martha”, by Daniela Lopez Osorio, and produced by Sara Nanclares Sanchez (with Argentinian co-production); from Costa Rica, “Altamar”, by Ernesto Jara Vargas, and produced by Giulia Clerici (with Colombian co-production). The list is completed by the Ecuatorian film “Cuentos para no dormer”, by Tomás Astudillo, and produced by Lila Penagos, the Bolivian project “Disco de piedra”, by Geraldine Ovando, and produced by Harold Cespedes, the Brazilian film “Mujer Gorila”, by Fernanda Roth Faya, and produced by Michael Wahrmann, and the Chilean project “Jorge” by Nicolas Pavie, produced by Pavie and Jorge Catoni.

Besides the alliance with FIDOCS, another novelty at Conecta 2021 is Conecta with New Media, a section promoted by the Chilean Documentary Corporation CCDoc, in an alliance with the National Film Board of Canada, for Latin American immersive and new narratives-focused projects. Six transmedia narrative, virtual and augmented multiplatform reality and interactive web development projects were selected in this category. “Eco resilientes”, by Jonathan Alcarez (Panama/Argentina), “El reino Chjoo” by Otilia Portillo Padua (Mexico), “El señor de las visuales”, by Selene Flores and Rodrigo Salomon Freixas (Mexico), “Lugar seguro” by Magdalena Hurtado and Milena Castro (Chile), “Mapa de costa a costa”, by Ros Lerner, Emi Koch, and Nico Landa (Peru), and “Secreto ancestral VR), by Francisca Silva, Maria Jose Diaz, and Ricardo Tapia (Chile), were selected.

The panel of professional participating at Conecta include festivals, distributors, sales agents, funds, platforms, and markets representatives. Among the international guests confirmed are the outstanding festivals DocsLisboa, DokLeipzig, Sundance, and DocsMX; sales agents Kino Rebelde, Preciosa Media, Compañía de Cine, Autlook, Lightdox y 3Boxmedia; the platform DAFilms Americas; markets, funds, and training and promotion platforms like DocMontevideo, BoliviaLab, Cinema Tropical, Documentary Campus, The Whickers or International Documentary Association. Also, representatives from TV channels like Canal 13C, Canal Curta, Caracol Television, POV; exhibition platforms like DOC:CO or Ecocinema, will be part of Conecta. From Chile, various cinema theatres (Centro Arte Alameda, Cine UC, Sala Imsomnia, Sala K, Red de Salas), and festivals (FEMCINE, Frontera Sur, FicWallmapu, FECILS), will be part of Conecta, among other companies.

Conectados is a section aimed at boosting feature and series non-fiction projects at development stages. Around twenty projects from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Republica Dominicana, Uruguay, and Venezuela, were selected.