Hot Docs and Netflix have revealed the five Canadian documentary projects that will share CAD 175,000 ($130,000) as part of the Hot Docs Incubator program, the latest instalment of the Canadian Storytellers Project. These five projects will each receive CAD 35,000 ($26,000).
The program, designed to ignite developing doc projects that show creative and market potential, will also engage filmmakers in a series of intensive workshops focused on story, market preparedness, and career or company building.
Work-in-progress scenes of the projects will screen to international decision-makers and Industry delegates at next year’s edition of the Hot Docs film festival.
Heidi Tao Yang, Hot Docs’ director of funds and labs, said: “What makes this new program special is that it expands the scope of support to an underserved group of filmmakers who are mid-career, and the level of these intensive sessions will reflect on the building blocks they have already established. These dynamic, authentic, and distinctly Canadian projects will change and evolve over the next eight months, and I look forward to seeing the work-in-progress teasers at Hot Docs Festival 2024.”
“Each one of these filmmakers reflect the exceptional talent pool of creatives we have in Canada, and we are incredibly inspired by the next generation of documentarians,” Stéphane Cardin, director, public policy for Netflix Canada, said.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to increased representation across the industry, The Hot Docs Incubator will provide vital support to these filmmakers to bring their powerful and unique stories to the screen.”
Eligible projects were considered by the Hot Docs Incubator Selection Committee, which included Linda Fong (independent production officer, TVO), Selin Murat (markets manager, IDFA), and Heidi Tao Yang (director, funds and labs, Hot Docs).
Hot Docs Incubator Projects
TITLE WITHHELD
Director: Victoria Lean
Producer: Victoria Lean
Production Company: Parrhesia Media
Logline withheld.
THE GOLDEN DOOR
Director: Robinder Uppal
Producer: Marc Serpa Francoeur
Production Company: Lost Time Media
Ever since it confined citizenship to “free white persons” in 1790, American immigration policy has been imbued with racism. “The Golden Door” explores the cruel realities of immigration for racialized people in the U.S., connecting a largely unknown history with some of today’s most disturbing flashpoints.
SAINTS & WARRIORS
Director: Patrick Shannon
Producer: Michael Grand
Production Company: Ball is Life Entertainment
“Saints & Warriors” is the harrowing and inspiring story of how basketball became not only an obsession, but a means for survival on the remote Indigenous nation of Haida Gwaii.
THE SANDBOX
Director: Kenya-Jade Pinto
Producer: Shasha Nakhai
Production Company: Comply Films
Your future is being written in the sand.
THIS LAND OF OURS
Director: Ngardy Conteh George
Producer: Alison Duke
Production Company: OYA Media Group
“This Land of Ours” is a feature-length documentary depicting the realities of the people of Barbuda, a small island in the Caribbean and the rebuilding process after Hurricane Irma’s destruction.
