Image Nation Abu Dhabi yesterday announced that it had attracted funding from an American production company for its forthcoming documentary about the life of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban while campaigning for women’s access to education.
The project has a budget of several million dollars, and will be financed in a 50-50 partnership with Participant Media. Image Nation declined to give an exact figure for the deal.
“It’s a strong vote of confidence in the quality of the film we’re making,” said Michael Garin, the chief executive of Image Nation.“We didn’t seek Participant Media … they wanted to be a part of this, and they came to us. It’s very nice and very unusual.”
This will also be the first time Image Nation has had a complete creative control over a major international film, in addition to providing its financing. The company previously partially financed The Help, distributed by Dreamworks, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, distributed by Fox.
Davis Guggenheim, who directed the Academy Award-winning An Inconvenient Truth in 2008, a documentary about climate change featuring Al Gore, is directing the project.
The film is currently in production, and is likely to be released in early 2016.
It was originally conceived as a dramatisation, but later became a documentary.
“After Walter Parkes [the film’s producer] met with Malala and her parents, he realised a narrative script would do a disservice to the story – there’s only one Malala,” Mr Garin said.
“She sends a very powerful message … She’s 16 years old – look what she’s done. If you’re 16, you can aspire to greater things.”
The film is being produced by Parkes & MacDonald, a company launched by the founding presidents of the film studio Dreamworks, which also produced The Kite Runner.
It is likely to premiere at Sundance Film Festival, held annually in Park City, Utah, where Image Nation aims to attract a distributor.
“You pick a distributor based on its market clout, and … its marketing track record,” Mr Garin said.
Any future distributor will pitch ways to advertise the film to Image Nation.
The Emirati firm will have “final controls” over the message of the advertising campaign and the budget, Mr Garin said.
“This is a big budget film, with big budget movie expectations. This will be premiering in movie theatres all around the globe.”
abouyamourn@thenational.ae
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