Sisu Pictures Launches With Two Secret-Filmed Docs — SkimNews
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- Sisu Pictures launched with two documentaries airing on the same night: the BBC’s “Iran: The People’s Story” and Channel 4’s “The Taliban’s War on Women,” both of which had to be virtually filmed in secret.
- Iran: The People’s Story investigates the crackdown on dissent since the January massacre and reports that Iran’s regime used war as a smokescreen to tighten its grip and deepen authoritarianism.
- The Taliban’s War on Women follows Afghans in exile on a mission to rescue victims desperate to escape the Taliban’s increasingly repressive rule.
- Robin Barnwell said Sisu will often take on the stories of the year retrospectively—five years after the Taliban takeover or 25 years after 9/11—and find a human, powerful lens for them.
- Gesbeen Mohammad said a shrinking market and stagnant budgets drove the founders to launch Sisu for more control and capital for serious boutique films; the company is working with Arte and an undisclosed American partner on both films as full funding from one public-service broadcaster is now rare.
- Sisu Pictures is developing two additional projects whose details are secret to protect people on the ground, while exploring retrospective documentaries to pitch to Netflix and HBO.
- Robin Barnwell said the time spent verifying facts is increasing enormously, while both founders pledged fair, complete reporting and transparency about perspectives, contributors and characters as social-media pressure blurs activism and impartiality.
Why it matters: Mohammad and Barnwell gain direct budget control as documentary funding becomes harder to secure. Arte co-produces both launch films, while a single public-service broadcaster is now rarely enough to finance a documentary that takes years to film; the founders say that scarcity directly drove them to create Sisu Pictures.
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