About our Facilitator
Heidi Fleisher is an American documentary film producer and consultant based in Paris. In 2017 Heidi helped launch French public broadcaster France 2’s new creative documentary strand 25 SHADES OF DOCS, where she handled international acquisitions for two years. She has kept close ties with her hometown of Los Angeles, and from 2017 – 2018 she worked as a development executive for LA-based Synthesis Films identifying and developing new non-fiction projects for the company to produce for Netflix. From 2015 – 2016 she worked as Head of International Sales and Acquisitions for ARTE SALES, the distribution arm of the European broadcaster ARTE, where she was responsible for curating the sales catalogue, managing the sales department and handling the Asian market. Prior to that, for almost a decade Heidi provided creative, editorial and strategic consulting to documentary producers and filmmakers in order to help them navigate the international market, develop and finance their films. In parallel, she helped develop and teach training initiatives for emerging producers in Brazil, China and France for the documentary co-production market Sunny Side of the Doc. Heidi currently produces, consults and participates frequently as a project mentor for various filmmaker labs and international markets. She was a mentor for the Hot Docs Blue Ice Group for the 2019-2020 cycle, and has been part of the American Film Showcase diplomacy program since 2017, where she participates in leading workshops for international filmmakers. Production credits include the feature documentaries WAKE UP ON MARS by Dea Gjinovci, released at Tribeca in 2020 and DON’T BREATHE by Nino Kirtadze, which premiered at TIFF in 2014, as well as the short doc collection ELEMENTAL currently in production.
