Two international projects initiated by France were submitted by French In Motion to take part in the IFP Film Week Project Forum, which was held in New York from September 15 through 20, 2018.
The projects selected:
A Rooster on the Fire Escape: Feature-length movie
Producers: Murielle Thierrin (L'Homme de Chevet (Cartagena), 13 m²)
Director: Guetty Felin (Ayiti mon amour)
Synopsis: In an effort to protect his family, Hector Celestin forces them into exile, far away from Duvalier's dictatorship in Haiti. But will he succeed in keeping them safe in the United States, when secrets from their past threaten to destroy their future?
Moochie: TV documentary miniseries
Producer: Martine Dorin for Geko Films (Shéhérazade)
Director: Samuel Collardey (A Polar Year)
Synopsis: Moochie watches the live broadcast of the trial of Dayonte Resiles, a young black man accused of murdering Jill Halliburton Su, a wealthy heiress, held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The action follows the time of the murder investigation up to the jury's final verdict, seen from six different points of view—police officers, lawyers, family members, the accused—and paints a portrait of the troubled central character.
These projects were joined by two American feature film projects, The Expat by Daniel Laabs and The Gymnast by Charlotte Glynn.
In partnership for the past three years, French In Motion and the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) launched the new US & French Connection program this year, for which French projects for movies and TV series were invited to take part in the ultra-selective IFP Week Forum, held in Brooklyn from September 15 to 20, 2018. IFP Week, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, has stamped itself as a key annual event in the independent film sector on the USA's East Coast, and is the only international co-production market held in the United States. The 150 qualifying projects submitted to IFP Week benefit from a stamp of excellence attributed by the organization. The key players in the movie and TV production and financing industries in the United States (HBO, Amazon, Netflix, Warner, Sony, etc.) waste no time at this five-day event to meet with rising starts in the creation of content for TV, movies, and other media platforms from the United States and around the world (previous participants include Barry Jenkins, Denis Villeneuve, and Debra Granik). With a program incorporating movies, TV series, documentaries, and new media projects, this market offers a concentration of new talent in the most sought-after content genres.
US & French Connection is an annual bilateral program that was jointly created by French In Motion and the IFP. It is designed for creatives who want to produce international feature and documentary films, as well as series, for which they need partners on both sides of the Atlantic. The program will be overseen by Amy Dotson, IFP's director of programming, and Nathalie Perus, president of French In Motion. Each year, the program will select American and French projects, whose teams will first meet together at a session held in Paris (at Industry Week during the Champs Élysées Film Festival) then at another held in New York (during IFP Week). In June, it was the turn of American production crews to travel to Paris to meet with members of the French TV and movie industry. This week, they met their colleagues once again in Brooklyn, to brief them on the customs and practices of the American market prior to being plunged into the total immersion of IFP Week. During the week-long event, production crews take part in pitching sessions, thematic workshops, dozens of face-to-face meetings customized by the IFP with the participation of potential buyers and production partners, as well as a multitude of networking events and informal meetings organized by HBO, Amazon, and Warner Bros., among others.
