Interview with Araucaria Cine's Isabel Orellana, producer from Chile, the guest country of the 2019 Emerging Producers programme.

Why do you produce documentaries? Do you understand documentary film as an instrument of social and political change?
Isabel Orellana: I love cinema in many different formats and documentary is one of my most treasured ones as I enjoyed creating narratives as an ongoing process. I don’t believe cinema is an instrument but a medium.

Documentary –- as any other format – can hardly change the world, but as Jerry Lewis once said, cinema could prevent a soldier from firing a gun somewhere, sometime.

What qualities should a documentary producer have these days?
I can only speak for what I wish I had more and that is: courage, patience, insightfulness, freedom. 

What do you think is the future of distribution of documentary films?
I think documentary narratives are on the rise and VOD platforms are creating new audiences for it, but future is unpredictable. 

What projects do you have under way (including in the area of fiction film and other projects)?
I'm on the editing of a documentary titled The Veteran by Jeronimo Rodríguez and in research for the first feature documentary of Francisco Rodriguez titled Handling of Sources.

Also I'm working on two fictions projects, the sophomore film of Alex Anwandter, and a new adaptation from Roberto Bolaño by Alicia Scherson titled 1989, The Rise and Decline of Udo Berger. 

Currently looking for more minority co-productions to produce from Chile.

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Emerging Producers is a promotional and educational project, which brings together talented European documentary film producers. The programme is organised and curated by the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.

Deadline for applications to the Emerging Producers 2020 edition is 15 March, 2019. Click here.