Documentary

Idrissa

Chronicle of an Ordinary Death

• Directors: Xavier Artigas & Xapo Ortega
• 2018 In distribution
• 90/52min

Idrissa, Chronicle of an Ordinary Death is a documentary by the production company Polar Star Films in coproduction with Metromuster.

Synopsis

Idrissa Diallo was 21 years old when he died in a cell in a notorious Migrants Detention Centre in Barcelona. Beyond the lyricism of its narration, the documentary is structured as a thriller, unfolding in the style of a road movie filmed as direct cinema. The driving force of the film is to discover who Idrissa was. The goal is to reveal the circumstances surrounding his death and why they were never clarified.

The team begins by looking for Idrissa’s family, a complicated search as the Spanish authorities that deal with immigration control are not willing to cooperate. In an exercise of justice, memory and reparation, Idrissa’s remains are returned to the small town of Guinea where he was born, with his family.

Idrissa, Chronicle of an Ordinary Death is a Metromuster and Polar Star Films co-production, with the support of ICEC, ICAA, MEDIA Europe, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and TV3, in collaboration with Tanquem els CIE, IRÍDIA and La Directa.

Key Crew

Directors: Xavier Artigas & Xapo Ortega
Producers: Xavier Artigas, Carles Brugueras, Marieke van den Bersselaar, Belén Sánchez
Script: Laia Manresa
Director of Photography: Lucía Venero
Sound Design: Juan Segura
Original Soundtrack: Filastine
Editor: Pablo Gil

Screenings

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Festivals and Awards

Seville Festival 2018 – Official Section
FIC-CAT – Best Documentary Award
Montserrat Roig Award for journalism
Documenta Madrid 2019 – Screenly Award
L’Alternativa Film Festival 2018 – Special Sessions
FCAT 2020 – Official Selection

Presskit

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Documentary

Time Thieves

• Director: Cosima Dannoritzer
• 2018 In distribution
• 90/52min

Time Thieves is a documentary by the production company Polar Star Films in coproduction with Yuzu Productions.

Forget water, oil and rare earths – there is a new resource everyone wants: our time. This documentary investigates how time has become money, and how we can claim back control over this precious but finite resource.

This film is a Polar Star Films and Yuzu Productions (France) production, in co-production with ARTE (France), TVE (Spain) and TVC (Catalonia, Spain), in collaboration with Servus TV (Austria), SRF (Switzerland), RTS (Switzerland),YLE (Finland) and YesTV (Israel), with the support from MEDIA Slate Funding (EU), CNC (France) and ICEC (Catalonia, Spain).

Distribution: Autlook Filmsales

Key Crew

Director: Cosima Dannoritzer
Producers: Carles Brugueras, Christian Popp, Marieke van den Bersselaar
Editors: Guillermo Cobo, Georgia Wyss
Director of Photography: Nina Bernfeld
Sound Recording: Nicolas Samarine
Music: Marta Andrés, Joan Gil

Screenings

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Festivals and Awards

Pro-Docs 2019 Best Documentary Award
UNAFF 2019 Best Editing Award
Festival Sant Cugat Fantàstic 2018 (Spain) – Winner Best Script
Festiver 2018 (Colombia) – Special Mention International Competition
Docs Barcelona 2018 (Spain) – Official Selection Latitud
4th International Conference on Time Perspective (France)
Ayuntamiento de Azpeitia, Departamento de Igualdad (Spain)
One World Slovakia – Official Selection – Phenomena of our times
Human Rights Film Festival 2018 (Barcelona)
FINCALI 2019 (Colombia)
Millenium Docs Against Gravity FF 2019 (Poland)
Cinemambiente 2019 (Italy)

Presskit

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Documentary

FREIGHTENED: The real price of shipping

• Director: Denis Delestrac
• 2016 In distribution
• 90/52min

FREIGHTENED is a documentary by the production company Polar Star Films in coproduction with La Compagnie des Taxi-Brousse.

Synopsis

FREIGHTENED reveals in an audacious investigation the mechanics and perils of cargo shipping; an all-but-visible industry that relentlessly supplies 7 billion humans and holds the key to our economy, our environment and the very model of our civilisation.

This film is Polar Star Films and La Compagnie des Taxi-Brousse (France) production, in co-production with SWR/NDR (Germany), France 5, Al Jazeera Doc Channel (Qatar), in collaboration with TVC, SRF (Switzerland), SVT (Sweden), RTS (Switzerland), NRK (Norway), Knowledge (Canada), TéléQuébec (Canada), supported by MEDIA Development, MEDIA TV Programming CNC (France) and ICEC (Spain).

Distribution: About Premium Content

Key Crew

Director: Denis Delestrac
Executive Production (Spain): Carles Brugueras, Marieke van den Bersselaar
Executive Production (France): Laurent Mini, Karim Samaï
Editors: Dragomir Bajalica, Jean de Garrigues, Ibon Olaskoaga
Director of Photography: Jordi Esgleas Marroi
Music: Ian Briton, Rod Boyd

Screenings

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Festivals & Awards

San Francisco Green Film Festival 2016 – Official selection
Docs Barcelona 2016 – Official selection
Sheffield Doc/Fest 2016 (UK) – Official selection
Deauville Awards 2016 (France) – Winner Golden Green Award
DIG Awards 2016 (Italy) – Finalist
Docs Barcelona-Medellín 2016 (Colombia) – Official selection
DREFF 2016 (Dominican Republic) – Official selection
Vancouver International Film Festival 2016 (Canada) – Official selection
Another Way Film Festival 2016 (Spain) – Winner Best Film
DocsMX 2016 (Mexico) – Breaking Docs selection
KLEFF 2016 (Malaysia) – Official selection
Innsbruck Nature Film Festival 2016 (Austria) – Official selection
Planet in Focus 2016 (Canada) – Official selection
FICMA 2016 (Spain) – Official selection
CAMINA-MONFIC 2016 (Uruguay) – Official selection
Grand Prix Écrans Publics 2016 (France) – Award
Green Fest 2016 (Serbia) – Official selection
Docs Barcelona-Valparaíso 2016 (Chile) – Official selection
Films for Transparency 2016 (Panama) – Official selection

Dosier de prensa

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Documentary

Falciani’s Tax Bomb

• Director: Ben Lewis
• 2015 In distribution
• 90/52min

Falciani’s List is a documentary by the audiovisual production company Polar Star Films in co-production with Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion.

Synopsis

This feature documentary film explores the controversy over banking privacy and tax evasion brought to light by the data theft from HSBC by banker Hervé Falciani. Direct access to Hervé Falciani, Interviews with key players across Europe and America and playful animation chart the complete story of a banking scandal on a scale never seen before.

This film is a Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion (Berlin) and a Polar Star Films production, in co-production with SWR/ARD (in cooperation with Arte, Germany), TVE, TVC, RTS and SRF, in collaboration with DR, SVT, YLE, supported by NRW, Creative Europe – Media and ICEC (Spain).

Key Crew

Director: Ben Lewis
Executive Producers: Carles Brugueras, Christian Beetz
Producer: Bettina Walter
Editor: Barbara Toennieshen
Director of Photography: Gerardo Milsztein
Music: Paul Eisenach

Screenings

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Festivals & Awards

Worldwide premiere at Dokfest Munich 2015. 07-17 May 2015
Opening film DocsBarcelona 2015. 25-31 May 2015
Sheffield Doc/Fest 2015. 8th June 2015
DocsBarcelona+Medellín 2015 (Colombia). 23-30 July 2015
Vukovar Film Festival (Croatia) – In competition. 24-29 August 2015
Barbican. 10-20 September 2015
Milano Film Festival. 10-20 September 2015

Presskit

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Documentary

Falciani’s Swissleaks

• Interactive
• 2015

The web project “Falciani’s SwissLeaks – The Great Bank Data Robbery” uses the fascinating story of whistleblower Hervé Falciani to offer an inside view into the complex issue of tax fraud to a broad public in an emotional and playful manner. Through a combination of text, video and interactive elements, the user experiences how Falciani’s spectacular disclosures affect him personally; additionally he is continually confronted with his own attitude towards tax compliance, betrayal and whistleblowing.

A Gebrueder Beetz production in co-production with Polar Star Films and SWR, and in cooperation with ARTE.

Documentary

Google and the World Brain

• Director: Ben Lewis
• 2013 In distribution
• 89/52min

Google and the World Brain is a documentary by the production company Polar Star Films in coproduction with ZDF/ARTE, BBC, TVE y TVC.

Synopsis

The story of the most ambitious project ever conceived on the Internet. In 2002 Google began to scan millions of books in an effort to create a giant global library, containing every book in existence. They had an even greater purpose – to create a higher form of intelligence, something that HG Wells had predicted in his 1937 essay “World Brain”. But over half the books Google scanned were in copyright, and authors across the world launched a campaign to stop Google, which climaxed in a New York courtroom in 2011. A film about the dreams, dilemmas and dangers of the Internet.

A POLAR STAR FILMS production, in co-production with ZDF/ARTE, BBC, TVE (Televisión Española), TVC (Televisió de Catalunya) with support from MEDIA Development and Distribution, EURODOC 2010 and ICEC (Spain) and with the collaboration of LICHTPUNT, SVT, NRK, DR2, VPRO, Knowledge Network and ERT.

Distribution: Off the Fence

Key Crew

Director: Ben Lewis
Executive Producer: Carles Brugueras
Producer: Bettina Walter
Editor: Simon Barker
Director of Photography: Frank-Peter Lehmann
Music: Lucas Ariel Vallejos

Screenings

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Festivals & Awards

Sundance 2013 – World Documentary Competition
First Place – National Headliner Award for Documentary
Best Documentary – Rincon International Film Festival (Puerto Rico)
Rincón International Film Festival 2013 – Winner Best Documentary
37th Cleveland Film Festival – Standing Up Competition
RiverRun International Film Festival 2013 – Documentary Features Competition
56th San Francisco International Film Festival
DOXA Documentary Film Festival 2013
Documenta Madrid 2013 – International competition for feature documentary films
Docs Barcelona 2013 – Official Selection
Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013 – Special Jury Strand (in competition)
Design Film Festival 2013 – Singapore
Real Film Festival 2013 – Australia
Frontline Club Summer program – United Kingdom
Festival do Rio – Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, Brasil
51st New York Film Festival – USA
Contemporary Science Film Festival 2013 – Russia
CPH:DOX – Denmark

Presskit

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Documentary

The World Brain Media

• Interactive
• 2013

The World Brain, an online Facebook game – created to support the launch of the documentary “Google and the World Brain”, raises questions about the dilemmas and dangers of sharing information on the internet at a time when the public is questioning online privacy and corporate behaviour more and more. When published, the game was played by more than 5000 users.

Documentary

The Final Fair

• Director: Ricardo Íscar
• 2015 In distribution
• 34 min

For all of us, life is a film with a predictable ending. With 7 billion future clients in mind, Spanish and Portuguese companies from the funeral sector meet every year in Ourense to show off their latest products and services. There are diamond-studded and mink-lined coffins, hardwood urns, Swarovski crosses as gifts and luxury cars for a high-class public. No, in death we are not all equal, although obviously it comes to the rich as it does the poor in the end. In “The Final Fair” (La última feria), morbid fascination, dread and black humour are washed down with cava and Iberian ham.

Key Crew

Director: Ricardo Íscar
Executive Producer: Carles Brugueras
Producer: Marieke van den Bersselaar
Editor: Ricardo Íscar, Alê Paiva, Domi Parra
Photography: Ricardo Íscar

Screenings

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Festivals & Awards

Seminci 2015
Alcances 2016
Festival Cinespaña – Festival du Cinéma Espagnol de Toulouse 2016
Alcine 2016 – Best Film Editing and Special Mention Award
Atlantidoc 2016 – Best Mid-Length Film Award

Documentary

Lithium Revolution

• Directors: Andreas Pichler & Julio Weiss
• 2012 In distribution
• 52 min

The Lithium Revolution is a film coproduction by Polar Star Films and Gerbrueder Beetz.

Synopsis

In a time of global resource shortage and increasing energy prices, lithium is on its way to becoming ‘the’ natural resource of the 21st century. Lithium is the basis for a new kind of battery technology and thus a prerequisite for the spreading of electronic mobility. Is lithium an answer to the imminent energy crisis and key to the future?

In coproduction with Gebrueder Beetz, Germany
In cooperation with: WDR/ARTE
With the support of: MEDIA Development, NRW Filmstiftung and EED

Key Crew

Directors: Andreas Pichler & Julio Weiss
Producer: Georg Tschurtschenthaler
Executive Producer: Christian Beetz
Co-Producers Polarstarfilms: Carles Brugueras, Bettina Walter
Commissioning Editor: Sabine Rollberg, WDR/arte
Director of Photography: Jakob Stark
Editor: Christian R. Timmann

Screenings

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Festivals & Awards

Life After Oil Award 2014 (Italy)
Herbert Quandt Award 2013 (Germany)
DCEFF 2014 (USA) – Official selection
Ecofalante 2014 (Brazil)- Official selection
FIFEL 2014 (Switzerland) – Official selection
Festival du Film Vert 2015 (Switzerland) – Official selection

Documentary

Parrot at the Milkbar

• Director: Inés Thomsen
• 2014 In distribution
• 52/80 min

The infamous El Raval quarter, with its narrow lanes full of dark figures, lies in the middle of Barcelona, in the Old Town, near the water. Where earlier, sailors shared the cheap little flats with working families, migrants from all over the world now characterise the area.

In the small alleys their little barbershops lie side by side. Each nationality has its own. The businesses cater for parallel societies and have little contact with one another. Whoever enters apparently leaves Spain behind to plunge into a safe place of familiar rituals and memories of home. The barbers live from their regular customers and their almost pastoral ability to constantly talk about everything and nothing, or remain silent, whilst they softly touch and courageously beautify the heads and cheeks of the weary and burdened.

The film tells of four hairdressers and their customers in El Raval, four small, strange time and space capsules, of people who left their home to find a better one, while the Spaniards are about to leave their own country themselves.

Key Crew

Director: Inés Thomsen
Executive producters: Carles Brugueras, Thomas Tielsch
Editor: Franziska von Berlepsch
Director of Photography: Inés Thomsen
Sound: Amanda Villavieja

Festivals & Awards

DOCS Barcelona. 27th May – 1st June 2014
Documenta Madrid, Panorama del Documental Español. 30th April – 11th May 2014
Festival ALCANCES (Cádiz, Spain). 6th – 13th September 2014
Hofer Filmtage 2014 (Hof, Germany). 21th – 26th October
Festival Internacional de cine y Derechos Humanos (Valencia, Spain). 24th – 31th October 2014
Best film Filmfest Schleswig-Holstein (Germany). 19th – 22th March 2015
Best Documentary Achtung Berlin – New Berlin Film Award (Germany). 15th – 22th April 2015

Documentary

The Club

• Director: Rose Kowalski
• 2009 In distribution
• 76/52min

A sensual portrait of an urban community that explores human desires, ambitions and fragility through the daily activities of a swimming club. In a spectacular setting overlooking the beach, port and city of Barcelona, suntanned grannies, world-class athletes and the body-beautiful converge in their search for happiness and wellbeing.

As days unfold and seasons pass, we follow the ups and downs of life’s journey – the freshness of childhood, the trials of adolescence, the love and ambition of young adulthood, the crises of middle age, the loneliness and liberation of old-age. We learn how an entity founded on working class ideals evolved over a century into a diverse and tolerant community that is a home-away-from-home for its.

Key Crew

Director: Rose Kowalski
Executive Producer: Carles Brugueras
Producer: Madeleine Sheahan
Director of Photography: Anna Molins
Editor: Judith Miralles

Screenings

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Festivals & Awards

ULLDOC, documentary sessions organised by INDOC
Plataforma de Documentalistes Independents, 2011 – Official Selection International
Film Festival “Santiago Alvarez in Memoriam”, Cuba 2010 – Official Selection
Documentary Edge Festival, New Zealand 2010 DOK Leipzig Market, 2009 – Official Selection
DOCSDF International Documentary Film Festival of Mexico City, 2009: (International Premiere) In competition: Best Iberoamerican Documentary
MEDIMED Documentary Market, 2009

Press

kolhosp.com/2011/06/22/ens-fem-del-club/

Documentary

The Devil’s Miner

• Directors: Richard Ladkani y Kief Davidson
• 2005 In distribution
• 82/52min

The Devil’s Miner is a film production by Polar Star Films in coproduction with Urban Landscapes and La Mita Loca Film Production.

Synopsis

The Devil’s Miner is the story of 14 year-old Basilio Vargas and his 12 year-old brother Bernardino, as they work in the Bolivian silver mines of Cerro Rico, which date back to the sixteenth century. Through the children’s eyes, we encounter the world of devout Catholic miners who sever their ties with God upon entering the mountain. It is an ancient belief that the devil, as represented by hundreds of statues constructed in the tunnels, determines the fate of all who work within the mines.
Raised without a father and living in virtual poverty with their mother on the slopes of the mine, the boys assume many adult responsibilities. They must work to afford the clothing and supplies vital to their education. Basilio believes only the mountain devil’s generosity will allow them to earn enough money to continue the new school year. Without an education, the brothers have no chance to escape their destiny in the silver mines.

A production by Urban Landscapes & La Mita Loca Film Production, co-produced with Polar Star Films, in association with Provobis Film Hamburg.

With the participation of ARTE / BR / 3SAT / OF, Latino Public Broadcasting, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Independent Lens and Television Española.

Key Crew

Directed & produced: Richard Ladkani y Kief Davidson
Co-producer Germany: Werner Vennewold
Co-producer Spain: Carles Brugueras & Bettina Walter
Cinematography: Richard Ladkani
Edit: Kief Richardson
Music: Leonardo Heiblum & Andres Solis

Screenings

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Festivals & Awards

Winner Chicago Film Festival – Silver Hugo Award
Winner German Camera Award Special Mention
Winner Tribeca Film Festival Best Doc. Filmmakers Special Mention
Winner FIPRESCI PRIZE Int. Film Critic Award Hot Docs-Toronto
Winner Humanitarian Award Mexico City Festival
Winner Woodstock Film Festival Best Doc.
Winner Jerusalem Film Festival Spirit of Freedom Award
PBS Independent Lens Audience Award Nominated European Film Academy Nominated
DGA Awards-Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Directing
Official Selection AFI Los Angeles Film Festival
IDA Award Nomination Pare Lorentz Award 2005
World Premiere Rotterdam International Film Festival