Mercury sells West Bank doc to Japan

Adam Benzine
29 Mar 2009
© C21 Media 2009

MIPDOC NEWS: UK-based factual distributor MercuryMedia has sold Welcome To Hebron, a film about a young Palestinian woman living in the Middle East, into Japan.

The 52-minute doc was filmed during more than three years on location in Hebron, on the West Bank, and centres on 17-year old Leila Sarsour, a Palestinian student surrounded by Israeli military installations and settlements. It has been picked up by Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.

“Getting a sale to NHK is quite an achievement,” MercuryMedia MD Tim Sparke told C21. “It’s a very moving film – you wouldn’t believe people could be so horrible to each other.”

MercuryMedia is offering 10 new documentaries plus two new series and its first drama to buyers at MipDoc and MipTV. New films for spring 2009 include five titles from US producers, including Motherland, the Audience winner from SXSW; White Shadows, a film from Mialyn Hanna; H For Hunger, starring Henry Rollins; In Complete World from filmmaker Shelly Silver; and Women of Tibet, which provides an insight into the revolution of 1959.

Mercury’s new series for MipTV include Pride & Privilege from BBC Scotland, a 3×60′ observational series that looks into Scotland’s most exclusive school (details of which were first revealed by C21 last November); and Icons Among Us: Jazz In The Modern Age, a 4×52′ HD series starring Herbie Hancock, Jamie Cullum and a host of leading jazz specialists.