EXCLUSIVE: Avi Federgreen’s Canadian distribution company Indiecan Entertainment has launched an international sales division that will make its debut at the Berlinale’s EFM.
Bannered Indiecan International, the division’s first line-up features three films by directors hailing from Canada’s First Nations communities and a UK documentary about a man living with cerebral palsy (scroll down for details).
The creation of Indiecan International comes hot on the heels of Indiecan Entertainment’s creation last May of Red Water Entertainment, a new distribution arm focused on genre films.
“Indiecan International is a natural extension of what I started with Indiecan Entertainment,” said Federgreen, who will be at the EFM with his team.
“My goal with Indiecan International, as with Red Water Entertainment, is to help independent filmmakers and marginalized voices get as much exposure and eyeballs on their stories as possible,” he explained.
The first titles on the Indiecan International slate include Jules Arita Koostachin’s drama Broken Angel about a once vibrant Cree woman who is worn down by an abusive partner.
Koostachin is a member of the Attawapiskat First Nation and was raised by Cree-speaking grandparents in Moosonee, and her mother in Ottawa.
The slate also features Koostachin’s short sci-fi fantasy MisTik following the journey of two remaining members of the human race, Cree twins named NiiPii (Water) and SiiPii (River), as they search for hope and renewal carrying the last of the planet’s healthy trees on their backs.
The line-up also includes Jason Brennan’s thriller L’Inhumain about a brilliant neurosurgeon whose perfect life is falling apart due to divorce, substance abuse and a mid-life crisis.
When his father dies suddenly he is forced to travel back home to the Anishiinabe territory, a place he has tried to avoid since his youth, to carry out the ritual of depositing his ashes on their ancestral lands.
The trip takes a terrifying turn when he believes himself to be stalked by an evil creature known as the Wendigo.
Brennan is a member of the First Nations community of Kitigan Zibi and was born to Algonquin father and a Quebecers mother.
The inaugural slate also features UK documentary Carl Woods’s My Everest about a disabled man who sets off on a mission to trek to the Mount Everest Base Camp on horseback to prove his worth.
As the reality of the quest begins to dawn on him and puts his body through incredible pain, he is forced to dive deeper into himself and question his original motivations.
The film is produced by Annika Ranin and Jasmin Morrison at London-based Unmannered Limited as well as Woods for Birmingham-based Zedmill and Sandra Spethhmann.
