Quebec-France doc ties tighten with pitches

Five interactive documentaries have been played to a jury from Quebec, Canada, and France in an effort to strengthen ties between the two territories.

Montreal-based production co-op Makila launched the initiative, Docunexion: Quebec-France 2015-16, at Sunny Side of the Doc in LA Rochelle, France, yesterday.

Malika launched the project in association with Sunny Side and the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) in a bid to push interactive doc projects between the territories, which share the French language.

The five projects were Les Films du Balibari and Once Upon’s Sea is My Country, Ladybird Films’s Waiting For Leo, Zero Driving Productions’s Find Me in Kakuma, Tabasco Video’s Heroes of Marseilles and Les Films du Square’s Characters.

The jury, which comprised French and Québécois members, was due to select a winning project, whose producers would then present at RIDM.

At the Quebec-based RIDM, five local projects will be pitched to another mixed jury, with the winner showcased at next year’s Sunny Side.

Docunexion began in 2013 as a partnership aimed at promoting Quebecois-Mexican coproductions.