A documentary project by Georgian director Keti Machavariani is one of eight work-in-progress films announced as part of this year's selection of ParisDOC, a French industry platform, in partnership with Georgia's CinéDOC-Tbilisi International Documentary Film Festival.
A platform for cinema professionals, ParisDOC is run by the Cinéma du réel International Documentary Film Festival in the French capital, with organisers inviting festivals to present film projects for networking and collaboration opportunities.
Machavariani's work Sunny, announced as part of the platform's Works-in-Progress selection, is the winner of the 2018 Civil Pitch section of the CinéDOC festival and recipient of the Open Society Georgia Foundation Special Prize at the event. It is the first Georgian entry to be picked for ParisDOC.
This year, ParisDOC invites 3 European festivals, @MFDFJihlava, @torinofilmfest et CinéDOC – Tbilisi, to present 3 projects supported by the funds Czech Film Fund, Piemonte Doc Film Fund and the Georgian National Film Center. #Cinemadureel pic.twitter.com/7sL47R3bzL
— Cinéma du réel (@Cinemadureel) February 22, 2020
In the documentary the director's camera follows a woman in her visits to families in a Georgian city as part of her work for social research. Welcomed by households in her effort to fill out research questionnaires, her visits enable viewers to discover varied lives of citizens.
Co-produced by Tsisana Khundadze and Machavariani via Sunny Films, as well as Tbilisi-based Terra Incognita Films, Sunny is in the ParisDOC selection alongside other feature-length works from Europe and South America.
The filmmaker was previously part of the jury panel at last year's Valladolid Film Festival - along with Nutsa Aleksi-Meskhishvili, another female director from Georgia - while her previous work Salt White was screened at the 2014 Busan International Film Festival in South Korea.
The ParisDOC platform was launched by the Cinéma du réel festival in 2014 with sections such as Works-in-Progress, Public Forum and roundtable meetings. It is promoted by organisers as a "unique opportunity for French and international professionals to meet, exchange and launch new projects".