EAT BITTER

Against the backdrop of civil war in the poverty-stricken Central African Republic, a Chinese construction manager and a local laborer work on opposite ends of the sand supply chain to build a bank. As deadlines loom, unexpected twists threaten their jobs, relationships, and plans for a better life.

PASCALE APPORA-GNEKINDY

Pascale Appora-Gnekindy hails from the Central African Republic (CAR). She is the owner of Kea-Kwis Production, a video production company in Bangui, CAR. She co-directed her first feature documentary Eat Bitter in 2023. In 2017, she directed My Eyes To Hear, a documentary short about a boy overcoming his disability in a land where the disabled are marginalized. The film was an official selection of The International Film Festival of Kinsaha and Film Festival Africlap. In 2019, she directed Two Sisters, the journey of two sisters who struggle to find the right balance between their studies, their life at home and their femininity. Pascale came to film production from the IT world. She started studying films when she was selected to participate in 2016 in documentary filmmaking workshops organized by the French Alliance of Bangui and the Ateliers Varan.

NINGYI SUN

A Chinese national, Ningyi is a film director, writer, and producer. She has lived and worked on three continents and speaks English, French, and Portuguese. She co-directed her first feature documentary Eat Bitter in 2023. Currently based in New York, she is directing/producing her short documentary Act Before You Think about the Meisner acting technique and is co-writing a feature screenplay based on real events in the life of an immigrant sex worker in Queens, New York. She produced, wrote, and acted in her first narrative short film Intimate which won Best Romantic Short with the Independent Shorts Awards in 2022. Before diving into the filmmaking world, she earned a master’s degree from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and worked for the United Nations peace operation in the Central African Republic.

Doker 2023 — Main Competition