R oble Issa’s Mouth of a Shark, Barrel of a Gun, Laurence Olivier’s Mineral Sport (Sport Minéral), and Alejandro Valbuena’s The Wind’s Thirst are among the Canadian films set to receive funding from Hot Docs’ CrossCurrents Doc Funds.

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has announced a funding total of more than $340,000, which will be spread out among 19 Canadian and international films. The funds aim to support projects of creators from underrepresented communities, according to a press release.

Out of the 19 films, 15 Canadian projects from British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec will receive a total of $300,000 in production and development funding from the CrossCurrents Canada Doc Fund; a total of $30,000 will go toward two projects from the CrossCurrents Doc Fund International Theatrical Stream; and a total of $15,000 in production funding will go toward two films from the CrossCurrents International Doc Fund Short/Experimental/Interactive Strand.

The Canadian projects that will secure development funding include Mouth of a Shark, Barrel of a Gun, directed and produced by Toronto-based Issa; Mineral Sport (Sport Minéral), directed and produced by Olivier along with André & Nicole Productions and line producers Mylène Corbeil and Estelle Champoux of Montreal’s La Créative Films; and JuJu, directed and produced by Tobi Abdul under their Toronto-based banner Little Andro Media alongside producers Michelle Mama and Stephanie Sonny Hooker.

Development funds will also go to Home of the Flying Moons, directed and produced by Montreal’s Victoria Catherine Chan; Los Guadales, directed and produced by Toronto-based filmmaker Bryan Angarita with consulting producer Marc Francoeur; Whose City, directed by Toronto’s Javier Lovera and produced by Ina Fichman under her Montreal-based banner Intuitive Pictures; and Sumaya’s Journey, directed and produced by Annie Sakkab under her Toronto-based prodco, B707 Productions Inc.

Meanwhile, the projects that will receive production funding are: The Wind’s Thirst (pictured), directed and produced by Valbuena under his Ontario-based banner Curare Films; Cold Dip, directed and produced by Halifax’s Amy Mielke and Brittney Gavin under their banner A + B Roll Films; Con Nhang I Incense Children from director Eva-Loan Ponton-Pham and producer Marie-Michèle Cyr of Montreal’s Parabola Films; The Gardener & The Dictator, directed and produced by Toronto filmmaker Hui Wang under her prodco, Redbean Productions.

Also getting production funding: Nechako from director Lyana Patrick and Vancouver-based producers Jessica Hallenbeck of Lantern Films, Tyler Hagan of Experimental Forest Films, and Nilesh Patel of Roaming Pictures; The Spirit Who Swims, directed by Bev Sellars and produced by Garry Tutte and Sellars’ Williams Lake, B.C.-based Indigenous-led charity, Moccasin Footprint Society; Warrior Spirit (working title), directed and produced by B.C.-based filmmakers Swaysən Will George and Gloria Pancrazi along with producers Andrew Luba and Nicholas Castel; and We Will Be Brave, directed by Toronto’s Chrisann Hessing and produced by Tanya Hoshi.

The two films that will earn funding from the International Theatrical Stream include the South Korean feature My Missing Aunt, directed by Juyeon Yang and produced by Duhyun Ko and Sarah Kang of Keumyoil Film Production; and Redlight to Limelight, directed by Bipuljit Basu. The film is a India/Latvia/Estonia copro produced by Nilotpal Majumdar of India’s Bindubot Communication, Max Tuula and Maria Gavrilova of Estonia’s Marx Film, and Uldis Cekulis of Latvia’s VFS Films.

Films getting support from the Short/Experimental/Interactive Strand include the Indonesian feature The Old Wound, directed by Rika Tarigan and produced by Billy Tarigan under Indonesia-based TiganTigan Studio; and Pakistan’s In Zainab’s Heaven, directed and produced by Ali Mehdi along with Pakistani-based FilmKhana.

Image courtesy of Hot Docs