“Pertinent and impertinent is what I want!” Catherine Le Clef declares of the kind of docs her company, Cat & Docs, is looking for. Le Clef set up the new Paris-based outfit in the early autumn after leaving Fortissimo (where she was head of TV and Ancillary Sales.) In the space of a few months, she has already assembled a formidable slate headlined by three films in competition at IDFA (
Dreamland ,
Jaffa, The Orange’s Clockwork and
Last Train Home).
Here in Amsterdam, the veteran sales agent has also been on the prowl for acquisitions. Her IDFA pick-ups include Mor Loushy’s
Israel Ltd. (a world premiere in Reflecting Images – Panorama) and Doug Block’s
The Kids Grow Up (a world premiere in Reflecting Images – Masters).
Following stints at Films Transit and Docs & Co., Le Clef is one of the best connected figures in the world of doc sales. When she sent an email to contacts announcing the formation of Cat & Docs, she received 150 documentaries from all over the world within little more than a month. Documentary makers and producers were clearly delighted that Le Clef was back on the scene with an independent company. “I was invited everywhere!” Le Clef recalls. She has been on the road almost ever since. The Cat & Docs boss acknowledges that there are many more doc festivals than when IDFA was launched in the late 1980s. However, she argues the event retains its importance. “If you handle documentaries, this is the place where you have to be.”
Traction
Le Clef suggests that it is no longer easy to sell a single doc to 40 countries and notes that buyers have smaller pockets than in previous years. Nonetheless, she argues that docs have increasing traction in the theatrical marketplace. “The potential of films to be released in cinema in some countries is higher than ever. It’s much easier than it used to be. People are open to paying €8 or €9 for a documentary and that wasn’t the case before.”
Rival sales outfits may face extra competition, but most have welcomed the arrival of Cat & Docs. “We are friends and we respect each other very much... and there are so many films!” Cat & Docs is run by Le Clef along with her partner, Maelle Guenegues. The aim is to build up the slate to around 30 films. During her time at Docs & Co., Le Clef oversaw international distribution of such docs as The Staircase by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade; Salvador Allende by Patricio Guzman; The Mother's House by Francois Vester and Hothouse by Shimon Dotan. Often, she would pick up docs that didn’t seem like obvious winners in the marketplace, but then sell them with such conviction that buyers would be swayed. “When you think a film is really important, you fight!” And, yes, she is as passionate about docs as ever. “That's the magic of documentary – it opens you to the world.”
Geoffrey Macnab