CPH:DOX Competition Entry ‘The Sandbox’ Boarded by Together Films

Together Films has acquired world rights excluding Canada to Kenya-Jade Pinto’s feature doc debut “The Sandbox” ahead of its world premiere on March 17 in CPH:DOX’s flagship worldwide competitors part DOX:AWARD.

“The Sandbox” explores fashionable border management, the place surveillance, AI and militarization determine who lives and who dies, utilizing testimony from survivors, journalists and witnesses.

From the Arizona desert to the drone-policed Mediterranean, migrants flee unforgiving landscapes while rescuers face the job of protecting them protected.

Meanwhile, instruments examined at borders spill into databases and daily life, collapsing distance between watcher and watched. No villain stands at the heart of the movie, only processes and protocols.

Pinto comments: “There was a moment, standing at the border wall that bisects the town of Sasabe – between the USA and Mexico – that I realized I’m not really trying to tell a “tech” story. I perceive this will possible be the entry point for many: a futuristic, algorithmic hook that implicates drones, robo-dogs, and AI. But on that day the wind was snaking its manner by big metal rods that jut out of the floor like a rusted-out grin and all of it felt eerily acquainted. A tidal metronome. If I closed my eyes I might just as simply have been standing on the shoreline of a Greek Island. Just as the ocean steals many of the lives who dare cross it, so too does the harsh panorama of the Sonoran desert. We are usually not so distant from one another, each of us.”

Pinto is an Indo-Kenyan-Canadian documentary photographer, whose work has been printed in The Globe and Mail and Business Insider, and on Al Jazeera. She has participated in DOC Institute’s Breakthrough Program in addition to HotDocs’ Emerging Filmmaker Program and Incubator. In 2021, she was invited to be a National Geographic Explorer.

Jess Reilly, head of sales and acquisitions at Together Films, said: “We are thrilled to be representing ‘The Sandbox’ From the moment we saw the film, we recognized both its urgent cinematic power and its international sales and impact potential. It speaks to one of the defining issues of our time – the rapid expansion of surveillance, AI and militarized border infrastructures – in a way that is both deeply human and globally resonant.”

“The Sandbox” is produced by Shasha Nakhai and Pinto for Canadian outlet Compy Films with Rich Williamson, Bob Moore and Jennifer Baichwal exec producing. The movie has been commissioned by TVO and Knowledge Network with Alexandra Roberts as commissioning editor and Shane Smith as manufacturing government. EyeSteelFilm will also distribute the movie domestically in Canada.

“The Sandbox” has been produced with the participation of EyeSteelFilm, Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada, Ontario Creates, TVO, Ford Foundation JustFilms, Knowledge Network, Hot Docs Funds, Rogers Telefund, and Canadian federal and provincial tax credit.

The movie has been developed with the assist of Canadian Creative Accelerator, DOC Institute, Hot Docs Accelerator, Hot Docs Forum & Deal Maker, Hot Docs Netflix Incubator, Women Make Movies, and the Voices of Canada Roundtables at DOC NYC.