{"id":628854,"date":"2026-06-09T08:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T08:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/628854\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T08:14:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T08:14:16","slug":"ecam-forum-doc-the-nights-snags-backed-by-cat-flap-medias-jane-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/628854\/","title":{"rendered":"ECAM Forum Doc ‘The Nights’ Snags Backed by Cat Flap Media’s Jane Ray"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOne of Argentina\u2019s new filmmaking talents to watch, Sundance Institute Latin Fellowship recipient Ana Bovino<\/a> has just received private funding for her documentary project \u201cThe Nights\u201d (\u201cLas noches\u201d) from heavyweight doc player Jane Ray<\/a>, founder of Cat Flap Media and consultant\u00a0artistic director of UK funding body The Whickers.<\/p>\n

\n\tShopped at various co-production markets including Chile\u2019s Conecta 2025 where it won the Cannes Docs<\/a> Award and a ticket for this year\u2019s Cannes Docs Spotlight, Bovino\u2019s film debut is now competing for the \u20ac15,000 ($17,200) Last Push Award at the ECAM Forum<\/a> co-production market in Madrid, running over June 9-11.<\/p>\n

\n\tBorn out of Bovino\u2019s wish to reimagine the Middle Eastern folktales \u201cOne Thousand and One Nights\u201d and Sheherazade\u2019s quest to free women from violence through storytelling, \u201cThe Nights\u201d is a portrait of La Pichi, a larger-than-life woman living on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, who turns her life into stories, night after night. \u201cBorn in a territory and body on the margins, she uses humor, imagination, and irreverence to reclaim her voice and identity,\u201d reads the logline.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked how she found La Pichi, Bovino said she came to her in 2020, as part of an open casting for \u201cThe Nights\u201d which was initially meant to be a filmed theatre play with a diverse range of amateur actors as narrators \u201c\u00e0 la Sheherazade.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFrom the very outset, La Pichi blew us away with her gift as a storyteller and ability to narrate her own story, often with poetry and touches of magic. She was our Sheherazade! I quickly left my stage-to-film idea \u2013 although the play did happen,\u00a0and ended up with La Pichi as main protagonist of \u2018The Nights.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Bovino, La Pichi\u2019s striking personality, storytelling talent, dignity,\u00a0but also her eye-catching sexy curves and 120kg made her a natural-born central character. \u201cShe does define herself has being fat; it\u2019s her political identity,\u201d said Bovino who built the narrative arc as \u201ca cinematic book, tracing La Pichi\u2019s journey, from imposed shame to pride, pleasure and the possibility of being loved, not in spite of her body but because of her body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tQuizzed about her decision to board the film, Ray told Variety she was literally \u201cblown away\u201d by the rough cut of \u201cThe Nights\u201d which was showcased at the Conecta doc market 2025 in Chile.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSurely, there is not a woman in the world, and probably a fair few men, who do not pause at the mirror, suck in their cheeks or their tummy and secretly wish they were more svelte,\u201d she quipped. \u201cI knew that a documentary with a challenging yet deeply compassionate focus on a super-curvaceous woman would resonate internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJeannie Finley\u2019s hugely popular and critically acclaimed \u2018Your Fat Friend\u2019 (2023) had taught us that,\u201d Ray conferred, \u201cbut \u2018The Nights\u2019 is so much more. The main character La Pichi is a star; a completely captivating Scheherazade, luring us in across \u2018A Thousand and One Nights\u2019 through her world, the back streets of Buenos Aires as she weaves her stories in order to survive. By turns laugh out loud funny, then searingly poignant, La Pichi brings light, warmth, and the promise of hot sex to the darkest night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe decision to invest was therefore easy,\u201d Ray said, \u201cespecially as I could sense that the director and producer Natalia de La Vega had a very strong mutually supportive relationship which makes them an effective and well organised core team who are refreshingly receptive to feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDe la Vega of Argentine\u2019s Navega Cine, who produces with Bovino, said obtaining the support from Ray \u2013 now a consultant producer on the project, was crucial for picture lock. \u201cWe are extremely proud of this film. We believe in Argentinian cinema, although it\u2019s been very tough financially and emotionally to make it,\u201d De la Vega told Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe entire audiovisual industry in Argentina and its ecosystem are being dismantled by the current government, which is why we need foreign investors to chip in,\u201d she added. \u201cAny extra support will be more than welcome,\u201d said the producer, eager to meet potential distributors, sales agents and festival programmers at ECAM Forum.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Argentina\u2019s new filmmaking talents to watch, Sundance Institute Latin Fellowship recipient Ana Bovino has just received…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[213062,213063,213064,96,213065,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-628854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ana-bovino","tag-cannes-docs","tag-ecam-forum","tag-entertainment","tag-jane-ray","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}