Ji.hlava New Visions is a financing, co-production and networking event dedicated to supporting documentary production in its diversity and creativity.
The Ji.hlava New Visions Forum: U.S. Docs 2024 featured eight U.S. projects in development as well as in production and post-production.
The selected projects traditionally include diverse genres and audiovisual formats – such as fiction films with documentary aspects, hybrid, cinema expanded, experimental and short films. The platform aims at effectively connecting the U.S. documentary filmmakers with the potential co-producers, distributors, sales representatives and film festivals from Europe.
The documentary projects presented at the Ji.hlava New Visions: U.S. Docs in the past years have later premiered at SXSW, Tribeca and other festivals.
Format
The projects are presented by the director-producer pair along with a preview of the upcoming film. The pitching takes place in October during the Ji.hlava IDFF and is available to all Ji.hlava industry accreditation holders.
The most promising project selected by a jury receives a cash award in cooperation with our partner American Documentary And Animation Film Festival (AmDocs).
Awarded Project 2024
Ji.hlava New Visions Award 2024 for the most promising U.S. project
in partnership with AmDocs
7,000 USD cash award
DECISION:Fenced STATEMENT: For this award, we were immediately struck by the unique essaysitic approach to this deeply specific yet universal exploration of the way we can be divided. Understanding the way barriers are constructed can begin a process in understanding how they canbe dismantled. The Jury is honored to present the New Visions Award for most promising US Project to FENCED.
ABSTRACT
Director: Jaydn GosseliN
Producer: Jacob Fertig / Chelsea Hernandez / Brianda Gosselin-Hickey
Genre: Documentary
Country: United States
Runtime: 90’
Estimated date of premiere: May 2026
Synopsis: Abstract is a film about surveillance, disguised as a film about identification. In the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, where the world’s deadliest and most surveilled border meets advanced autonomous technologies, migrants are meticulously tracked, yet their deaths often go unnoticed. Through striking vignettes and intimate testimonies with migrants and the people who study them, Abstract interrogates the promise and peril of science that reduces human lives to data. It is a portrait, at once tender and enraging, irreverent and devastating, of the scientific gaze and the people it risks losing.
ARTIFICIAL HORIZON
Director: Elizabeth M. Webb
Producer: Solomon Turner / Maggie Corona-Goldstein / DaManuel Richardson
Genre: Documentary / Hybrid Documentary / Experimental
Country: United States
Runtime: 73’
Estimated date of premiere: January 2026
Synopsis: Artificial Horizon positions historical land surveying as a tool of a Western settler colonial agenda that helped establish and maintain power dynamics and spatial logics of white supremacy. Evolving from this conceptual foundation, the film focuses on the natural and social histories of a tract of former plantation land in eastern Alabama connected to the filmmaker’s family. The film illuminates how plant life defies human-imposed property boundaries and provides liberatory models for how bodies might also subvert similar and related structures of power and control.
FENCED
Director: Gabriella Garcia Pardo
Producer: Jonna McKone
Genre: Documentary / Hybrid Documentary
Country: United States
Runtime: 70’
Estimated date of premiere: December 2026
Synopsis: We spend our lives among fences, allowing them to determine where we belong in urban, suburban, and rural places alike. Although we rarely give their ubiquity much thought, their histories tell a very human story–one marked by our desires for belonging and care, just as much as by greed and fear. FENCED is a character-rich, darkly humorous look at human boundaries. Filmed across the US, each community, landscape, or creature we meet introduces us to deep histories and modern realities. Told through verité footage and archival interludes, the film moves from the granular and personal to the expansive and systemic and back again.
IINÁ
Director: Yuan Wang
Producer: Juefang Zhang
Genre: Documentary
Country: United States
Runtime: 90’
Estimated date of premiere: May 2025
Synopsis: "iiná" is a documentary that immerses viewers in the lives of Navajo farmers grappling with the fallout from the FBI's shutdown of a burgeoning hemp industry on their land. The story navigates the complexities of economic struggle, cultural identity, and community resilience, highlighting the profound impact of federal policies on Indigenous communities. Set against the backdrop of the Navajo Nation, the film delves into the personal journeys of the main participants as they navigate the challenges posed by their pursuit of prosperity through hemp farming.
PILSENITA
Director: Erin Babbin
Producer: Erin Babbin
Genre: Documentary
Country: United States
Runtime: 90’
Estimated date of premiere: January 2027
Synopsis: "Diana Solís: A Portrait" is a poignant documentary that traces the extraordinary life and artistic journey of Chicana photographer and activist Diana Solís. From her early days documenting Chicago's vibrant Chicano movement to trailblazing queer activism in Mexico City, Diana's lens captures a kaleidoscope of cultural evolution. Battling cancer, gentrification, and a global pandemic, Diana embarks on a soul-stirring photographic rediscovery of her changing neighborhood, preserving the spirit of her community. Through resilience and creativity, Diana fulfills her childhood dreams, culminating in the publication of her acclaimed book, "LUZ: Seeing The Space Between Us."
SISTER SENATORS
Director: Emily Harrold
Producer: Robin Hessman / Emily Harrold
Genre: Documentary
Country: United States
Runtime: 90’
Estimated date of premiere: January 2026
Synopsis: Three Republicans arm-in-arm with a Democrat and an Independent is akin to seeing a unicorn in today’s hyper-partisan, bitter political landscape, but that’s exactly what one sees at the South Carolina State House. They are the only 5 women in the South Carolina State Senate and they call themselves the Sister Senators. South Carolina ranks at the bottom in gender parity nationally. However, rather than be intimidated by the male-dominated State House, the Sister Senators defy their political parties and work together.
Production Company: Global Neighborhood / Lynnwood Pictures
SUNCHASER
Director: Matt Waldeck / Jyrki Eschner
Producer: Matt Waldeck / Jyrki Eschner
Genre: Documentary
Country: United States
Runtime: ’
Estimated date of premiere:
Synopsis: A son's final months with his Alzheimer's-stricken father shift from sorrow to adventure when a cache of 16mm film reveals his father's secret past as the millionaire skipper of the legendary sailboat Sunchaser. Like "Rosebud" in Citizen Kane, Sunchaser becomes Harry Altick's obsession in his last days. A phone call from Finland reveals another Sunchaser, connecting generations of fathers and sons. Harry's unfinished 1972 documentary, with a soundtrack from David Loggins and Mel Tormé, captures a lost era of yacht racing and early "yacht rock."
THIS IS ME LOVING YOU
Director: Julia Hunter
Producer: Danny Alpert
Genre: Documentary
Country: United States
Runtime: 84’
Estimated date of premiere: May 2025
Synopsis: Sydney, a gregarious heroin user, moves into a Chicago recovery home and befriends Julia, an alcoholic filmmaker. When Sydney gets pregnant and returns to her abusive boyfriend, both women re-enter a world of abuse and addiction where they must choose between protecting those they love and saving themselves. Through the lens of one unbreakable friendship, This is Me Loving You documents Sydney's journey through the birth of her daughter, the escalation of abuse form her partner, her return to drug use, and ultimately how the young women hatched a plan to get Sydney and her daughter to safety.
October 30 | 12 PM – 1:30 PM | Industry Hub – Main stage
WORKING LANGUAGE
English without interpreting
SELECTION CRITERIA
Each producer can submit up to 3 projects. We welcome not only documentary films but also diverse audiovisual formats such as fiction with documentary aspects, hybrid, experimental, short films, docu and web series, cinema expanded projects, games with documentary aspects and VR / AR / Live documentaries.
In our selection process, we focus on the artistic vision of the project, its originality and author-driven character, visual style and fresh spirit, international potential in terms of financing and development of collaboration, openness for sharing the project with other partners, as well as diverse modes of distribution.
