Great report on Catherine le Clef’s CATandDocs, our sales agent for Last Train Home:
“After three years with one of the world’s leading international sales companies, Fortissimo Films, nine years with Paris-based Doc & Co, and fifteen years with Films Transit International in Montreal, Catherine Le Clef has finally decided to do it her way by founding her own documentary distribution company, the cleverly-titled CAT&Docs.
Le Clef’s expertise has no doubt been cultivated by her affiliation with some of the most reputable and sophisticated sales and distribution companies across two continents, whose rosters have garnered awards and generated international acclaim. But it seems the time was right to embark on a new stage of her career by narrowing the scope and filtering out the fiction. Le Clef says CAT&Docs differs from the companies in her past by focusing solely on the worldwide theatrical and video distribution of international feature-length documentaries. Along with executive of acquisitions and sales Maëlle Guenegues, Le Clef and her colleagues agree that the editorial choices of CAT&Docs must meet the demands of national and international markets: “Rigor, respect, curiosity, diversity and innovation.”
And it seems they are well on their way. During this past edition of IDFA, the CAT&Docs-distributed Last Train Home by Chinese-Canadian director Lixin Fan through EyeSteelFilm, picked up the Best Feature-Length Documentary Award. The film examines the fractured lives of Chinese migrant families during the Chinese New Year, as they leave the booming coastal cities in which they sought work and return home to their rural villages.”