not about us without us: documentary foot travel over documentary tourism

Founded in 2010 by Sarah Spring and Selin Murat, Parabola Films produces highly curated author-driven documentaries for festivals, theatrical, and broadcast. Parabola Films has positioned itself as a production company that works with directors with a distinct visual and narrative approach and its filmmakers push the boundaries of documentary storytelling in compelling and creative ways. Parabola’s films are consistently programmed at prestigious national and international film festivals and produced in partnership with celebrated institutions such as the National Film Board of Canada, the Sundance Institute, and broadcasters around the world. Parabola participates in all major documentary markets and has pitched at France’s Sunny Side of the Doc, Argentina’s Latin Side of the Doc, and China’s Asian Side of the Doc; Sheffield Doc/Fest; New York’s IFP Film Week; Istanbul’s Meetings Under the Bridge, the Bogota AudioVisual Market, the Hot Docs Forum, the IDFA Forum, and Cannes. Now based mainly in Istanbul, Selin Murat specializes in professional development initiatives for documentary filmmakers with a focus on coproductions with Canada, sits on numerous documentary film juries every year,  is a founding member of the Documentary Association of Europe, programs documentaries for the RIDM and is Director of Programming of the RIDM’s Forum. 

In 2020, Parabola Films marked its ten year anniversary by investing in the next generation of storytellers. Sarah Spring began a year-long mentorship with Marie-Michèle Cyr. In Spring 2020, Marie-Michèle began development on her first project as a producer at Parabola, Bác Quang. By Fall 2020, she had received development support from SODEC, Telefilm, CALQ and PRIM. In January 2021, Sarah was hired as the new Executive Director of the Documentary Organization of Canada, and Marie-Michèle began to take a more active role in Parabola Films as the company’s main producer.