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Date:
December 15, 2022

CO-PRODUCTION FORUM

Glowing

Glowing_WEMW2025

Glowing

by Martin Páv
Frame Films | Czech Republic

Documentary

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Logline

To glow means many things: to achieve success in life, to meet someone who truly loves you, to perform well on social media, to look perfect, or to have a lighter skin than others. The film takes place in New Delhi, Nairobi, and Seoul.

Synopsis

In this world, to glow means many things: to achieve success in life, to meet someone who truly loves you, to perform well on social media, to look perfect, or to have a lighter skin than others. Taking place in New Delhi, Nairobi, and Seoul, the film tells stories of six protagonists from different cultural, as well as socio-economic backgrounds, who share one thing in common – in order to glow, they apply various skin-lightening products.
The film depicts how glowing transcends cultural, as well as economic boundaries, weaving together the bodies, as well as stories of our protagonists. Exploring their interconnectedness, the film asks a question, what is hidden beneath this universal
desire to glow?

Director’s Profile

Martin Páv graduated from the Department of Fiction Directing at FAMU and is currently pursuing a PhD at Metropolitan University Prague, where he focuses on the research of postcolonial identity in informal settlements in cities of the Global South. He is also involved in domestic and international research projects studying the impacts of the climate crisis on society’s functioning. He has directed two award-winning documentary films. His debut, Vote for Kibera (2018), was screened at several international festivals and won the Audience Award at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.

His second feature film, Wolves at the Borders (2020), won the Anthropological and Environmental Approach Award at the Jean Rouch Festival in Paris, the Best Central and Eastern European Film Award at Astra Film Festival, and received a Special Jury Mention at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival. His third feature film called Dajori, premiered during the autumn 2024, tells a story of a Romani family in Northern Bohemia.

Company Profile

Frame Films production company focuses on creative audiovisual projects with artistic elements. Producers Jitka Kotrlová and Zuzana Kučerová have teamed up to work on the projects together and they work as a collective. The producers often work with the same authors on multiple projects. The company has produced a The Killing of a Journalist (premiered at Hot Docs), Wolves at the Borders (premiered at Visions du Réel), Central Bus Station (premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest), Vote for Kibera (premiered at Ji.hlava IDFF and FIPADOC), VR film Darkening (premiered at Venice IFF), documentaries The Investigator (premierd at Ji.hlava IDFF), a fiction feature Snowing! and Empire Builders (premiered at One World IHRDFF and Festival dei Popoli).