BIO

Venice Atienza (1989) is a Filipino documentarist whose curiosity is observing how life transformations are carried out through everyday mundane actions.

To create a space for author driven documentaries, she co-founded Svemirko Film and Audiovisual Art Productions with Taiwanese Director and Producer, Fan WU. She’s an alumna of the DocNomads Erasmus Mundus Program.

Her first feature film, Last Days at Sea premiered at the 71st Berlinale, Visions du Réel 2021, and Hot Docs and is supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund. It won a grant from DMZ Docs Rough Cut Presentation. The film won awards at Visions du Réel – Rough Cut Lab 2020, and the Docs by the Sea Editing Lab where it gained support from BODA Media Group (South Korea). The film was also presented at the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum, and Docs by the Sea. Last Days at Sea is part of the IDFA Project Space 2020.

She is currently producing Taiwanese film director Fan WU’s documentary entitled “XiXi” which is currently part of CIRCLE – Women Doc Accelerator 2020 and is showcased in Cannes Doc 2021. She’s a member of DAE- Documentary Association of Europe.

I Work with

Documentary Photography

Story Development and Writing

Film Distribution and Impact Strategy

Film Production

Food Research, and Daily Sustainable Practices

Education

2015 – 2017
Master – Documentary Film Directing
DOC NOMADS Erasmus Mundus Joint Degree (EMJMD) in Documentary Filmmaking
Universidade Lusófona, Lisbon Portugal
University of Theatre and Film Arts
Budapest, Hungary
LUCA School of Arts
Brussels, Belgium

2007 – 2012
Bachelor of Arts – Film and Audiovisual Communication
University of the Philippines Film Institute, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines

Training

2020
IDFA Project Space
International Documentary Festival Amsterdam
Amsterdam, Netherlands

2020
Rough Cut Lab
Visions du Reel
Nyon, Switzerland

2019
Storytelling Lab and Pitching Forum
Lisbon Docs
Lisbon, Portugal

2019
Storytelling Lab
DocEdge Kolkata
Kolkata, India

2018
IDFAcademy
International Documentary Festival. Amsterdam, Netherlands

2018
Storytelling Lab and Pitching Forum
Docs Port Incheon
Incheon, South Korea

2018
Storytelling Lab
Docs By The Sea
Bali, Indonesia

2018
Storytelling Lab
IF/ Then Tribeca Film Institute &Docs By The Sea
Jakarta, Indonesia

2017 – 2018
Internship on Film Distribution
Terratreme Filmes
Lisbon, Portugal