London-based sales outfit Dogwoof has picked up the documentary “This Is Congo,” which will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, for worldwide sales.
The BBC has already bought British television rights to the film, which looks at the deadly ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through the eyes of four people, described as a whistleblower, a patriotic military commander, a mineral dealer, and a displaced tailor. The conflict has stretched across two decades and claimed millions of lives but has escaped the attention of many in the West.
“This Is Congo” was unveiled Thursday as one of the seven titles in the Venice Film Festival’s nonfiction section, along with other documentaries such as “The Exorcist” director William Friedkin’s look at real-life exorcism in “The Devil and Father Amorth.”
“This Is Congo” is directed by Daniel McCabe and produced by McCabe, Geoff McLean, and Alyse Ardell Spiegel. Funders include the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program.
McCabe has experience in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, having participated in chef Anthony Bourdain’s visit to the war-torn area in a 2013 episode of the show “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.” McCabe said he was excited to bring “the untold and overlooked stories of the DR Congo to the world’s stage at Venice.”
Dogwoof specializes in documentaries.
