On the heels of its multi-year slate financing partnership with IPR.VC, Red Bull Studios is ramping up its output of premium sports documentary projects, including “Reggae Girlz,” an upcoming documentary co-directed by two-time Oscar winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Saving Face”) and Trish Dalton.
“Reggae Girlz” takes place during the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and follows the Jamaican women’s football team who challenged the powerhouses of France and Brazil in historic matches. The documentary is a portrayal of Jamaica’s heart and soul, featuring Bob Marley’s reggae music.
Obaid-Chinoy and Dalton last teamed on the documentary “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge” which opened Tribeca last year and streamed on Disney+.
Red Bull Studios is also behind Jon Glassberg’s “Girl Climber” which premiered at MountainFilm and partnered with IMAX for a one-night-only screening on Aug. 24 ahead of its release in October. “Girl Climber” tells the story of professional climber Emily Harrington who summited Everest, 8000-meter peaks and set her sights on a 24-hour ascent of Yosemite’s El Capitan.
Red Bull Studios recently released “Dakar: Race Against the Desert,” a 90-minute documentary charting the 2023 Dakar Rally through the perspective of competitors, including Carlos Sainz Sr., Sébastien Loeb, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Toby Price who faced a brutal weather, among other hurdles. The film was released by Universal.
The company just presented John Dower’s documentary “The Balloonists” Toronto and will next take it to Zurich Film Festival. The doc charts the journey of Swiss explorer Bertrand Piccard and British flight instructor Brian Jones who set off to circumnavigated the globe in a hot-air balloon and faced extreme weather conditions, technical failures and exhaustion.
“Our upcoming slate highlights the spirit of adventure and freedom. Especially when you define adventure as an exciting and unusual experience that takes one to places no-one has gone before,” said Philipp Manderla, Red Bull Studios’s global head. “This is certainly true for the arch-adventure of flying around the earth in a balloon for the first time just as this is true for Emily Harrington and the journey she goes on in Girl Climber,” Manderla continues.
The executive said the banner is looking for “unique stories in which people strive to achieve something that has not been done before and the focus lies on the human story that unfolds while pushing these boundaries.”
Red Bull Studios’ slate also comprises “The Real Mo Farah,” the Emmy nominee and SXSW Audience Award winner “The Dawn Wall” and the Austin Film Festival Audience Award winner “Born to Fly” about Track & Field superstar Mondo Duplantis.
