Viagra doc gets a lift in latest UK Global Screen Fund awards, secures pre-sales

The UK Global Screen Fund has made a number of investments in TV projects, including a coproduction between the UK and France about Viagra that has secured pre-sales across Europe and the Middle East.

Denitsa Yordanova

Keeping It Up is described as “an unofficial UK/France coproduction” by the BFI-operated fund and unites Scottish prodco Two Rivers Media, France’s Illégitime-Défense Productions and Welsh associate producer Boom Cymru.

The TV doc will tell the story of the creation, promotion and exploitation of Viagra, and is directed by Stephen Bennett, winner of three Bafta Scotland awards. The project has secured pre-sales with: BBC Wales and BBC Storyville in the UK; Spiegel TV in Germany; RTS in Switzerland; TG4 in Ireland; HSCC in Israel; and Morocco’s Soread 2M.

The show is one of four TV projects securing finance from the UK Global Screen Fund. Another is doc Dalton’s Dream, an unofficial UK-US coproduction that brings together UK prodco Sungazer and distributor Dogwoof, which will coproduce with US producer Ninety Thousand Words in association with Dare Pictures and US exec producer Kevin Jennings.

The documentary will be directed by Kim Longinotto and Franky Murray Brown, and tells the story of Dalton Harris, a young queer musician and reality TV star from Jamaica. It has already secured broadcast deals with BBC Storyville in the UK plus as-yet-unspecified broadcasters in Denmark and the Netherlands.

The third TV project is Ukrainian Storybox – A Woman’s War, a factual coproduction from Yard 44 Films in the UK, Looks Filmproduktionen in Germany and Ukraine’s MMD Pro, with Looks International attached as sales agent.

The documentary will tell the story of the war in Ukraine through Ukrainian women who record their experiences in a video booth. The testimonies come from women who have stayed in Ukraine as well as refugees from other parts of Europe.

As well as the three TV docs, the UK Global Screen Fund has invested in Badjelly, an animated series based on The Goons comedian Spike Milligan’s popular 1973 story Badjelly the Witch. The UK prodco is Cantilever Media which is coproducing with New Zealand’s Mukpuddy and Ireland’s Kavaleer Productions.

The fund’s investments in these four TV projects, as well as 10 feature film projects, total £2.2m (US$2.66m). They are awarded through its international coproduction strand, supporting UK producers to work as partners on international coproductions and help create new global projects.

“This latest round of UK Global Screen Fund awards supports such a diverse range of companies from across the UK, coproducing with an exciting mix of international territories,” said Denitsa Yordanova, the former All3Media and Endemol Shine exec who now heads the UK Global Screen Fund.

“Spanning film and television across documentary, animation and fiction, each collaboration demonstrates global ambition and potential to reach new audiences and we look forward to following them on their journey to international success.”

With £7m to invest per year, the UK Global Screen Fund was launched last year to boost international development and distribution opportunities for the UK’s independent screen sector across film, TV, documentary, animation and interactive narrative games content.