On 29 June South African filmmaker Francois Verster’s film, The Dream of Shahrazad, was awarded the Best Documentary in Progress award at the Sunny Side of the Doc market held in La Rochelle, France.
The Dream of Shahrazad deals with the legacy of The 1001 (or “Arabian’) Nights in context of recent political events in the Maghreb and Middle East. It is produced by Undercurrent Film & Television and Fireworx Media, together with French co-producer Mandra Films and Egyptian co-producer Middlewest Films.
Verster and co-producer Lucas Rosant represented the film at Sunny Side. Says Verster: “This is a very important and very happily received boost for our film, and it is very affirming that there seems still to be space on international TV platforms for a film which takes creative risks.’
The film was chosen by a jury of international commissioning editors, distributors and sales agents out of 20 projects in various stages of post-production which had been selected for the Docs in Progress section, happening for the first time as part of the long-standing and prestigious yearly documentary event.
Both The Dream of Shahrazad and the other South African project I Am Man (by Mayenzeke Baza) were supported by South Africa’s National Film and Video Foundation, who had a stand at Sunny Side.
Further information on the film is available at:
https://www.dreamofshahrazad.com
http://www.facebook.com/TheDreamOfShahrazad
