Filmmaker Elene Mikaberidze earns DOK Leipzig co-production prize for 'Cadillac Dreams' documentary project
Mikaberidze earned the Eurasiadoc Award at the CineDOC-Tbilisi International Documentary Film Festival for the project two years ago, earning a spot at the DOK Leipzig industry section. Photo via DOK Leipzig.
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Filmmaker Elene Mikaberidze will benefit from production support for her work-in-progress documentary Cadillac Dreams, after the project was awarded the Current Time TV prize at the DOK Leipzig festival's co-production market this week.
Designated for projects from Central or Eastern Europe, the prize came along with €1,500 and was presented to the in-production film, selected among 35 works in the Co-Pro Market platform. The section hosted filmmakers and producers bringing their projects with goals to meet potential collaborators, distributors and more.
Mikaberidze's work shows teenage Nika, with friends on both sides of the border that has separated residents of the Abkhazian province and rest of Georgia since an armed conflict in the north-western province in the early 1990s.
Having to ask for a permit to cross the boundary - patrolled by guards of the Russian occupation force in Abkhazia - Nika makes acquaintances on the Georgian-controlled territory and speaks to them about his life, experiences and aspirations, ultimately admitting he sees "no future" for himself on the other side.
The project represents a theme of focus for Mikaberidze, who explores the subject of borders in her work. In 2019 her documentary was presented with the Eurasiadoc Award at the CineDOC-Tbilisi International Documentary Film Festival, leading to an opportunity to pitch it at the following DOK Leipzig edition.
Young film director Elena Mikaberidze's documentary Cadillac Dreams will be pitched at the co-production market of the high-profile DOK Leipzig Documentary and Animation Film Festival after winning at the Eurasia Doc Meetings industry event on the weekend.
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