Leading Italian sales company The Open Reel has snagged the international sales rights to Pablo Garcia Perez de Lara’s latest doc, “Born to be Born,” ahead of its world premiere at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin.
Doc revolves around a progressive public school, the Escola Congrés-Indians, in Garcia’s native Barcelona, where preparations for an end-of-year trip of the school’s first graduating class are underway. Children learn at their own pace in the primary school which instills, above all, the values of respect and empathy for other people.
“I was struck by the director’s ability to discreetly document the important educational role that the school and its educators play with these young students,” said The Open Reel founder Cosimo Santoro, adding: “They guide them through understanding and dialogue in every phase of their discussions and through any possible conflicts that may arise.”
Garcia has trained his camera on children in many of his previous features and shorts. In his debut feature-length documentary, “Álamo, The Caress of Time” (1998), he tapped his childhood memories to delve into the theme of childhood.
His 2007 fiction feature “Butterfly” (“Bolboreta, Mariposa, Papallona”) focuses on boys and girls who take over the film of a director who in his zeal to capture the fleeting nature of love and beauty, never gets to finish his project. Film competed in the official selections of the festivals Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian and London, among others.
Among his award-winning shorts, the 2014 short film “Listen” was shot in the Tres Pins School where hearing and deaf students learn the Catalan language orally and in sign language. “Forgetting Nonot” turns on a deaf child who grieves over her dead pet cat and Cannes Critics Week selection “Alice Portrayed” centers on Alice Liddell, the girl who inspired English author Lewis Carroll to write the children’s classic “Alice in Wonderland.”
Garcia is best known for “Tchindas” winner of some 14 awards, including Africa’s AMAA best documentary award.
Set in Cape Verde, off Africa in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, “Tchindas” chronicles the feverish preparations for the annual carnival, which has at its core, a trio of transgender and gay residents. “Tchindas” had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Outfest where it won the Jury Award.
As Garcia said of Cape Verde: “The island is a true exception for the way trans people are respected, it’s definitely an untold African story we all have to be proud of. We want to share it in a film that’s beautiful, sensitive, poetic, and a final celebration.”
Established by Santoro in 2012, The Open Reel has focused on independent or arthouse films, and more often than not, documentaries.
Company has also produced a number of short films, most recently the short “It’s Just in my Head,” by Marius Gabriel Stancu, which premiered at the Rome int’l film fest. The Open Reel also co-produced the debut feature film of Ricky Mastro, “7 minutes”.
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