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Docs Ireland 2023 Marketplace Project Announcement

Docs Ireland is pleased to announce the projects for the fourth edition of its festival marketplace, taking place on Friday June 23rd at 2 Royal Avenue in Belfast.

Twenty seven Irish, UK and international projects will pitch to international decision makers at the marketplace, including ARTE, Autlook Film Sales, BBC Storyville, BBC NI, Cannes Docs, CAA, Cinephil, CPH Dox, DAFilms, Documentary Association of Europe, Docpoint, Dogwoof, Field of Vision, Hot Docs, IDFA , Institute of Documentary Film, Lightbox, Met Film Sales, Passion Pictures, POV, Projectr, RTÉ, S4C, Screen Ireland, ShareDoc, TG4, and YLE. 

The Docs Ireland Marketplace is an opportunity for filmmakers to meet with leading international documentary industry decision makers, including international funders, broadcasters, distributors and exhibitors on a one to one basis. It is the only marketplace dedicated to documentary on the island of Ireland, providing an opportunity for filmmakers to pitch their project through carefully matched meetings organised by the Docs Ireland team.

The full list of selected projects are:

And There We Were

Feature Documentary

Director: Christina Bennett

Producer: Bonnie Boyle

An exploration of how a housing estate in the west of Ireland came to be known as Little Belfast.

Participating as part of the IGNITE Documentary Talent Development Programme

Answering the Call

Feature Documentary

Director: Martin Danneels

Producer: Laura Cranley

Writer: Geoff Power

Set on Ireland’s rugged north-west coastline, Answering the Call follows an audacious plan to save a tiny population of corncrakes by changing the mindsets of farmers. 

Participating as part of the IGNITE Documentary Talent Development Programme

Behind the Green Curtain

Feature Documentary

Director: Neasa Ní Chianáin

Producer: David Rane

Climate emergency waits for no one in this intimate, haunting behind-the-scenes observational film about a group of people looking for answers.

Circus Yanni

Feature Documentary

Director: George Hooker

Producer: Lisa Turnbull

Circus Yanni is a creative documentary about the artistry of circus and how a troupe of Palestinian artists use it as a peaceful form of demonstration and activism. 

Coming Home

Documentary Series

Director: Viko Nikci

Producer: Eamon Hughes

Angel Cordero’s story spans 25 years from his wrongful conviction to a shocking confession, prison release and potential rare exoneration.

Cuba & Alaska

Feature Documentary

Director: Yegor Troyanovsky

Producer: Olha Beskhmelnytsina, Christian Popp

In eastern Ukraine, death settled in shell-shattered Kharkiv for a long time. Everything would have remained so sad without the rays of hope – two paramedic young, brave women, Cuba and Alaska.

Selected in collaboration with Docs Ireland Festival Partner East Doc Platform

Grand National

Feature Documentary

Director: Ross Whitaker

Producer: Samantha Corr

Owners, trainers and jockeys compete to win the Aintree Grand National, the world’s greatest steeplechase horse race.

If Love Be Blind

Feature Documentary

Director: Bob Gallagher

Producer: Jeanie Igoe

The film explores the role of visual media in shaping our attitudes towards desire, the experience of attraction through blindness, and the invisible part other senses play in the process.

Participating as part of the IGNITE Documentary Talent Development Programme

Learning To Fall

Feature Documentary

Director: John Conway

Producer: Mairéad Ní Thréinir

After tragedy strikes, an Irish stuntman swaps Hollywood movie sets and stadium tours for life alone in a mobile home on an island off the west coast of Ireland.

Little Warrior

Feature Documentary

Director: Paul Sng

Producer: Rohan Crickmar

A genderfluid boxer attempts to escape poverty and pursue her ambition of representing Venezuela at the Olympics.

Mo & Me

Feature Documentary

Director: Henrietta Norton

Producer: Rachel Lysaght

Political powerhouse Mo Mowlam is revealed in all her complexity through her stepdaughter’s lens.

Mo Meantoir Sean McGuire

Feature Documentary

Director: Méabh O’Hare

Producer: Karol Lynch

An Irish language feature documentary looking at the real legacy of the Irish fiddle maestro Seán McGuire. Who was this tour de force? What was the truth behind the many stories that surrounded his life? Who was the real man? Myth or legend?

Participating as part of the IGNITE Documentary Talent Development Programme

Once Upon a Time on Death Row

Feature Documentary

Director: Brendan Byrne

Producer: Tina O’Reilly, Michael Quinn 

The story of Tommy Zeigler, his 47 years on death row and the DNA tests that could set him free.

Our Land

Feature Documentary

Director: Orban Wallace

Producer: Rebecca Wolff

A profound insight into the British countryside, journeying over the walls that divide us to explore our current conflicted relationship with nature and the land.

Scenes from a Family

Feature Documentary

Director: Alice Nelson

Producer: Lili Sandelin

What do we inherit, what do we pass down? A personal journey exploring three generations of a family.

Selected by Docs Ireland Festival Partner Doc Society

Secrets, Lies, Murder & Spies

Feature Documentary

Director: Nicky Larkin

Producers: Kelda Crawford-McCann, Peter Crawford-McCann

The shooting of a South African academic in Belfast blows wide open a sinister international web of intrigue and lies.

Secrets of a Showman

Feature Documentary

Director: David Burke

Producer: Sean O’Cualain

The secret life of impresario Bill Fuller whose music empire promoted many of the world’s biggest acts.

Shadow of Nanook

Feature Documentary

Directors: Jim Compton, Peadar King

Producers: Melvin Estrella, Pegi Vail

Martha Flaherty, the unacknowledged granddaughter of Nanook of the North director Robert Flaherty, seeks justice for her Inuit family.

The Flats

Feature Documentary

Director: Alessandra Celesia

Producers: Jean-Laurent Csinidis, Jeremiah Cullinane

In their Catholic estate of Belfast, Joe, Jolene and their neighbours reenact memories from the Troubles with hope and imagination.

The Last Balkan Cowboy

Feature Documentary

Director: Dragana Jurisic

Producer: Zlata Filipovic, Anna Rodgers

Croatian artist Dragana Jurisic retraces the mythical story of cult Western director Hari Džekson, returning to the home she fled.

The Lonely Albert Bachmann

Feature Documentary

Director: Daire Collins

Producer: Michael Mallie

The story of Colonel Bachmann, Switzerland’s most controversial spy.

The Screamers

Feature Documentary

Director: Kim Bartley

Producers: Ciaran Cassidy, Colum McKeown

A documentary about a radical female fronted commune that was set up in the wilds of Donegal and then in Colombia. 

The Shields

Documentary Series

Director: Frankie Fenton

Producer: Kathryn Kennedy

New found footage reveals the journey a group of activists took on 3 double decker buses from London to Baghdad.

This is a Quiet Love

Feature Documentary

Director: Garry Keane

Producers: Anne Heffernan, Sean Herlihy

In this intimate feature documentary, four Deaf couples reveal the joys and complexities of their relationships.

Trouble in Utopia

Feature Documentary

Director/Producer: Jamie Goldrick

 Executive Producer: Adam Gee

This film revisits and explores alternative vision of how societies are run (and could be run) in the Digital Age.

Try!

Feature Documentary

Director: Oisín Mistéil

Producer: Claire McCabe

Try! follows the colourful and diverse mixed ability rugby community in Ireland on their journey to the World Cup.

Participating as part of the IGNITE Documentary Talent Development Programme

With Their Backs to the Sky

Feature Documentary

Director: Erik Nuding

Producers: Kendall Fitzgerald

In rapidly depleting forests in Madagascar, local field biologists and bat catchers work tirelessly to determine bat disease spillover risk.