14 Oct IEFTA Partners with DOK Leipzig’s 64th Annual Festival, Market & Workshops
IEFTA is eagerly preparing to attend the 64th Annual DOK Leipzig International Film Festival, running the 25th – 31st of October, 2021. Specialising in Documentary and animated film projects, DOK Leipzig is both a celebrated destination for established filmmakers to show their work as well as an important marketplace for the global industry. And it’s also distinguished for the quality and extent of its educational and enrichment activities for filmmakers at all stages of their careers, as well as talks, panels and events for cinephiles and enthusiasts alike.
International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film
25 October to 31 October 2021
What’s in Store
For the second year in a row, IEFTA is collaborating with DOK Leipzig with regard to emerging talent from under-represented regions of the globe. Consequently, IEFTA has selected and invited a number of talented filmmakers for whom it has obtained accreditation for the screening, festival events and all industry programmes. Once again, we, and our invited filmmakers will be attending virtually. Find out more about them below.
IEFTA’s Head of Development will be in Leipzig from the 25th – 28th October, to set up a meeting contact lianne@iefta.org.
Alemberg Ang
School teacher turned film producer, Alemberg Ang’s filmmaking is shaped by his passion for socio-cultural issues and Philippine art and literature. In his projects, he makes room for the voices and visions of cultural minorities in world cinema. Working mostly with young directors, his films have traveled to festivals in Busan, Torino, Warsaw, Tokyo and elsewhere. He has been invited to the Rotterdam Lab, Berlinale Talents, Docs by the Sea, La Fabrique Cinéma du Monde and EAVE’s Ties That Bind. His projects have participated at Cannes Cinefondation Atelier, Cinemart, Locarno Open Doors and Tribeca Film Institute Network. His most recent project, Divine Factory, was the winner of the Docs-in-Progress award at Cannes Docs and recipient of the Singapore International Film Festival’s SEA-Doc Grant.
Ningyi Sun
First-time filmmaker, Ningyi Sun is a Chinese national, who has lived and worked on three continents and speaks English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Before filmmaking, she earned a master’s degree from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and worked as civil affairs officer for the United Nations peace operation in the Central African Republic. Passionate about humanity and creative work, Ningyi assembled a local crew in Bangui and developed Eat Bitter in 2020. An actor and stand-up comedian, Ningyi strives to tell stories through that connect humans across our divided world.
Oneika Russell
Oneika Russell is a visual artist and cultural producer. She has maintained an active international art practice since 2005 writing for, exhibiting at and collaborating with museums, art colleges and other cultural initiatives and institutions worldwide. Under her own banner at Tide Rising Art Projects and Orkidbox, she uses documentary and animated content to tell stories that empower audiences and promote Caribbean creativity. In this capacity she has worked with Hodder Education, Jamaica Cultural Development Commission and Bo Clips. Oneika has served as art director on short films such as How to Kill a Fish (2017), This City of Mine (2017), Kumina Queen (forthcoming) and 21st Century DaVinci’s.
Hadi Ibrahim
A graduate of the Cinema & TV program at the Lebanese University, Hadi Ibrahim has directed four short films, served as director of photography on seven shorts and worked as an assistant director on a feature film and a short. Currently working on a VOD series and with a narrative feature in development, Hadi is a proud member of the CeeFilm Beirut collective, where he shares his knowledge and expertise as a writer, director, producer, and cinematographer with other emerging filmmakers.
Sardar Zahidul Islam
Sardar Zahidul Islam received his MA in Literature in English and Cultural Studies from Jahangirnagar University. In his role at Executive President of the Zahir Raihan Film Society, he first met and began collaborating with director Abid Sohag. As a producer, “Songs of Sunflower” is his debut feature-length documentary. The project won two awards at Dhaka DocLab 2019 and was selected for DocEdge Kolkata 2020. Currently, Islam produces documentary films at Bloopers Studios and teaches visual anthropology in the department of Photography at Counter Foto – A Center for Visual Arts.
In addition to the talented filmmakers we’re bringing to Leipzig, IEFTA will be sponsoring the attendance of Rosie Motene, producer of the project “The Woman Who Poked The Leopard” (Uganda) which was awarded the DoK Leipzig Co-Pro Market Accelerator Prize at this years’ Durban FilmMart.
Rosie Motene
Rosie Motene is a South African actress, author, film producer and activist. She is a Pan African queer and feminist and speaker on GBV and LGBTQI in Africa. She is the author of the 161-paged book, Reclaiming the Soil: A Black Girl’s Struggle to Find Her African Self. She is a Pan-African media proprietor and was one of the as the jurors at the fifth edition of Mashariki African Film Festival (MAFF) in 2019.