Category: Networking Event

DOC and the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) are proud to bring DOC’s Business Leap participants to the International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) this November!

Led by DOC and the ISO with the support of Telefilm Canada and a contribution from Global Affairs Canada, this delegation features producers who are creating award-winning content while amplifying their community’s voices through inclusive and authentic storytelling on and off the screen.

DELEGATION EVENTS at IDFA:

Industry Talk: Lessons of Indigenous and anti-colonial practices – filmmaking as a tool of Narrative Sovereignty

🗓: Saturday, November 16th

🕙: 10:00am – 12:00pm

Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA) Studio 1

In this talk, Maasai, Palestine, Raizal, Sámi and Cowichan, Haida filmmakers will share their varied range of journeys of resistance through cinema, reflecting on the strength, healing power, and beauty of Indigenous and liberatory filmmaking. We will hear about ethics and methods they use in decolonizing the storytelling and their views of the ownership of the image and archive, but also examine the obstacles they face and what can be done to remove or mitigate them. 

Speakers: Rosie Johnnie-Mills, Sarah Mpapaluu, Ana Maria Jessie Serna, Mohanad Yaqubi

Moderator: Suvi West

Meet the Delegation: Project Presentation

🗓: Monday, November 18th

🕙: 3:30pm – 4:30pm

Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA) Koninklijke Foyer

The next wave of Canadian and Indigenous producers are creating groundbreaking content while reframing how we tell stories, what we regard as ‘Canadian’, and the importance of Indigenous Narrative Sovereignty and authentic and inclusive storytelling both on and off the screen. Featuring Tamara Mariam Dawit (Gobez Media); Rosie Johnnie-Mills (Xinipsen, Cowichan/Skidegate, Haida, Eagle Clan, Likinskw Productions); David Baeta (Moi & Dave); Heather Hatch (First Nations from HaidaGwaii, Della and Goliath Productions) and Sahar Yousefi (Nava Productions); accompanied by Sarah Spring, Executive Director of the Documentary Organization of Canada and Kerry Sugiyama, Senior Manager International Market Development at the Indigenous Screen Office.

Speakers: Tamara Dawit, David Baeta, Heather Hatch, Sahar Yousefi, Rosie Johnnie-Mills

Moderators: Sarah Spring, Kerr Sugiyama

Meet the Delegation: 1:1 Meetings

Monday, November 18th

🕙:4:30pm – 5:30pm

ITA: Gijsbrechtbordes room (next door to Project Presentation)

Come and meet 1:1 with the Canadian and Indigenous Delegation! This is an ideal meeting place to discuss potential collaborations with our Delegates.

Meet the Canadians at IDFA!
The Documentary Organization of Canada, the Indigenous Screen Office, SODEC, and Telefilm Canada are pleased to invite you to our party at IDFA! Join us for an evening of celebration and meet all the Canadian, Quebecois, and Indigenous creators at this year’s festival.

Where: Het Documentaire Paviljoen: De Salon room
 When: Tuesday, November 19, 2024
 What time: 8:30pm to 12:30am. Doors Open at 8pm RSVP required – invite only

THE CANADIAN AND INDIGENOUS FILMMAKER DELEGATION

David Baeta
Moi & Dave

Based in the diverse and dynamic city of Toronto, Moi & Dave are particularly interested in projects that offer a fresh perspective on social issues while educating and entertaining a diverse audience. We are committed to showcasing stories that reflect the depth and diversity of our society. Founded in 2018, curiosity, collaboration, and humour have always been the driving forces behind the company’s editorial line.  

Our creations take various forms, including documentaries, fiction, short or feature-length formats, independent of any platform. The majority of our content is produced in French. Operating in a minority setting,  we strive to be a beacon of creativity and inclusion in the Canadian media landscape. 

Since 2014, David Baeta has produced a number of documentaries including Ma Vie Made In Canada (2015, 4 X 52 mins), Bi* (2019), Ciao Plastique (2020, 3 X 48 min), Vote Pop! (2020), Mirror Mirror (2021),  Excluded by Design (2021, Hot Docs/ Citizen Minutes), The Last French Canadian (2024), Unrigged (2024, 6 X 30 Min).  

In addition to producing, Baeta is also the president of the Alliance of Francophone Producers of Canada, co-creator of La Coalition M.É.D.I.A and the proud father of three mixed-race franco-ontarians. 

And, because life isn’t black and white, David Baeta and his creative partners have also produced a number of hybrid series for various audiences:

• Balade (50 X 30 mins, 2014 to 2019):  Documentary series where the doc world collides with musical performance and travel guide to offer new perspectives on the creative process of musicians;
• Zik (20 X 12 mins, 2019):  Where documentary and sketch comedy mingle to turbocharge music education (2019, 20 X 15 mins);  
• Les zultras (16 X 15 mins, 2024) : hybrid series where documentary & drama are combined to showcase 16 incredibly inspiring young people who contribute and get involved in their own unique ways across Canada.

All of the above, and a few more, are formats ready and available for local adaptation.

Project Slate:

DEVELOPMENT

• More or Less (Moins)
  Doc series
  Logline: Uncover the paradox of wealth: does more really mean happier?
  More or Less explores our society’s relentless pursuit of material wealth, questioning whether accumulating possessions truly leads to a fulfilling life. By delving into historical, cultural, and psychological perspectives, the series reveals how consumerism can erode the true value of essential things. Featuring expert insights and personal stories, it highlights the hidden costs of an economy obsessed with growth and consumption. Offering alternatives like minimalism and the circular economy, the series challenges viewers to reconsider their relationship with money and value, encouraging a shift toward a life focused on genuine satisfaction and balance.

• Kids lost in translation (La face caché des enfants traducteurs)
  This feature documentary uncovers the little-known reality of young children from immigrant families in Canada who, by translating daily for their parents, take on dual roles as interpreters and cultural mediators. This documentary reveals the social and psychological impacts of this reversed role, where these children, forced to grow up too quickly, balance family support with adapting to life in a new country.

• The Guide to Sex Free babies
  Logline:  How do you make a baby if the traditional way isn’t working?
  Global fertility is plummeting. 1 in 6 Canadian couples are experiencing infertility and the number is on the rise. People who want to become pregnant are increasingly turning to alternative ways to make a baby. So, what are those ways and how do they work? The Sex-Free Guide to Baby Making will dive into the science, solutions and what the future of human reproduction will hold. The backseat of your chevy will gather dust; the future of procreation is sex-free. 

PRODUCTION: 

• Niagara, the Fall?!
  Société Radio-Canada
  In this 52-minute documentary, Host Frédéric Choinière explores a Canadian landmark that is both world-famous and little-known to the general public: Niagara Falls. He organizes a guided tour with real tourists, navigating the waters and walking along the shores of this geological phenomenon to better understand the economic, social, and environmental implications of its tourism industry.
• Democracy: the board game!
  8 X 60 Mins:
  Logline: Tips & Tricks to better understand and join the “democratic” game. 
  Many of us feel cynicism, frustration, or indifference toward our democratic system. In this practical little guide, we rediscover how our democracy works, its unique features and limitations, while illustrating concrete ways to find our place and participate in this grand social game.

Note: We are currently crafting both of the above as a format for adaptation regionally.

Tamara Dawit
Gobez Media

Tamara Dawit, an Ethiopian-Canadian filmmaker, has produced films such as Girls of Latitude (2008), Grandma Knows Best (2014), Finding Sally (2020, Gothenburg/Hot Docs), Alazar (2024, Cannes/TIFF), and Made in Ethiopia (2024, Tribeca/Sheffield) through her company, Gobez Media. She is currently producing a variety of dramatic and documentary projects.

In 2021, Tamara was a TIFF Producer Fellow and won the Doc Institute Vanguard and Gordon Parks Awards for Black Excellence in Filmmaking. She is also a Chalmers Arts Fellow (2023) and a MacDowell Fellow (2024).

Tamara serves as Head of Studies for EAVE’s programs with the National Screen Institute and the International Sami Film Institute. She also mentors filmmakers through Hot Docs, the Doc Institute, the Toronto Arts Foundation, and Documentary Africa.

Project Slate:

• In Release: Made in Ethiopia (Feature)
  Co-Pro w/ Dogwoof, UK and MIE LLC, USA
  When a massive Chinese factory complex attempts a high-stakes expansion in rural Ethiopia, three women in search of prosperity have their faith in industrialization tested to the limit.
• In Development: How to Build a Country (Feature)
  Logline redacted. Observational documentary on Eritrean Diaspora and Eritrean nation-building.
• In Financing: The Plot (Feature)
  Co-Pro w/ Stefilm, Italy
  In 1937, Italy’s occupying forces slaughtered 20,000 civilians in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa – the first and least known genocide of the Second World War. This documentary sheds light on the resilience of Ethiopian residents during this grim era of fascist colonial rule and questions why humanity has failed to grasp the dangers of fascist strongmen.

Heather Hatch​​

Heather Hatch Productions

Heather Hatch Productions is a film company based in Edmonton founded in 2018 by Heather Hatch. Her work has focused on Indigenous stories from a female lens. Her work focuses on Social Impact documentary, kids’ content, and Narrative. Currently she is in development on a children’s web series called Goin to Kookum’s and feature length Horror film called Loving Lou. The multi award film Wochiigii lo: End of the Peace is a feature length documentary funded by Telefilm Talent to Watch and premiered at the Toronto International in 2021. Heather is first nations from HaidaGwaii. Well told stories are timeless and impact social change; this is the focus of Heather’s company.

Project Slate

• Post Production: Her film “My Amazing Nanaay” is currently in Post production and features the memories and life of her Grandmother, a prolific Haida artist  who is going Blind; filmed on digital and 35 mm.
• Development: She is in development for a documentary called Liminal Spaces shot on film,  revealing the mysticism of the natural world to remind us that the threshold is within our grasp if we feel these liminal spaces. A liminal space is the time between ‘what was’ and ‘next.’ It is a place of transition, a time of waiting and not knowing the future. To remember the part of us that is connected to the magic of the land is the way we survive.

Rosie Johnnie-Mills
Likinskw Productions Inc.

Likinskw Productions Inc. was incorporated in 2022 in Vancouver, B.C, Unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-waututh Homeland by V.J. Rose Johnnie-Mills (Xinipsen, Cowichan/Skidegate, Haida, Eagle Clan) and Dustin Riel McGladrey (Nisga’a, Grizzly Clan). Being a 100% Indigenous Owned Film ProductionCompany, Likinskw (Grizzly Bear) Productions Inc. empowers Indigenous Storytelling by Indigenous People.The work done by Lininskw Productions Inc. in 2024 will centre eight different communities around the province of British Columbia. The eight stories will show eight distinct communities, their cultures and what it means to be Indigenous in BC. All story content, inspiration, and locations require community involvement. Both Indigenous Co-founders of Likinskw Productions Inc. are community-made.

Sahar Yousefi
Nava Projects

After starting her career at the National Film Board of Canada, Sahar went on to independently produce and finance films selected by festivals such as Sundance, SXSW, SFFILM, and Hot Docs, as well as projects funded by the Sundance Institute, the Doha Film Institute, Catapult, Chicken and Egg, IDFA Bertha Fund, Telefilm, the Red Sea Film Institute, CMF, the Bell Fund, and many others. She is an alumnus of the Berlinale/EFMDoc Toolbox Lab, Hot Docs Accelerator Lab, Doc Lab Montreal, Banff Spark Accelerator, RIDM Talent Lab, ACE Mentorship Program, EAVE, and Torino SeriesLab. Yousefi is also a 2024 Film Independent Fast Track Fellow and 2025 Rotterdam Lab fellow. Alongside producing, Yousefi is currently Head of Investments and Productions at RMA Ventures, where she scouts for and manages equity investments in international films, series, and media infrastructure projects for a $100 million dollar audiovisual media fund.

Supported by a contribution from Global Affairs Canada’s CanExport Associations program

DOC is thrilled to bring a Business Leap delegation to this year’s Getting Real conference in Los Angeles!

Getting Real is the International Documentary Association’s biennial conference, designed for and by documentary practitioners and focused on the business and art of nonfiction storytelling. This four-day event provides a space for the field to hold constructive conversations, build lasting relationships, and tackle the ethical, creative, sustainability, production, and distribution challenges facing our growing community. The core of the conference programming connects participants who hail from diverse independent filmmaking sectors, geographic regions, and professional status, platforming the most exciting new and established voices dialoguing with each other.

Thank you to Warner Bros. Discovery Access Canada for sponsoring DOC’s delegation at Getting Real ’24!

About DOC’s Business Leap Program

DOC’s Business Leap program is designed to help production companies “leap” to the next level. Six Canadian documentary producers are supported in growing their production companies and their slate of projects through regular one-on-one consultations in the key areas of legal, accounting, producing, and mental health. Each company is owned by a producer whose community has historically been under-represented and under-served by Canada’s production sector. Over the course of one year, the cohort benefits from sessions that serve to strengthen each company’s production accounting systems, provides them with tailored legal consultations, regular sessions with a producer-mentor, and subsidized therapy – a key recommendation from DOC’s 2023 study on mental health in the documentary sector, “DocuMentality.”

Thank you to the Canada Media Fund for sponsoring the Business Leap program!