•OUR PROJECTS•
Fiction & Documentary Films
Hover over our film images to see more information
After wildfires take his ranch, a cowboy named Dusty winds up in a FEMA camp, finding community with others who lost homes, including his daughter and ex-wife.
Premiered at Sundance 2025.
REBUILDING
Directed by Max Walker-Silverman. Produced by Dan Janvey, Jesse Hope, and Paul Mezey.
17-year-old Jem Starling struggles with her place within her Christian fundamentalist community. But everything changes when her magnetic youth pastor Owen returns to their church.
Premiered at Sundance 2023 in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category. Official selection at SXSW 2023. Distributed by Bleecker Street and Focus Features.
THE starling girl
Written and directed by Laurel Parmet. Produced by Kevin Rowe (2AM) and Kara Durrett (Sundance 2023 Fiction Producers Award).
Forty years ago, Rafael Larraenza risked everything to cross from Mexico to the US. After building a successful career, a twist of fate drew him back to the border. For 25 years, Rafael has tirelessly searched deserts and mountains to rescue lost immigrants and recover remains, becoming a hero in Latin American communities.
Premiered at Austin Film Festival 2024 and winner of the Jury Award. Official selection at Palm Springs 2025 and winner of the Special Mention award.
DESERT ANGEL
Directed by Vincent DeLuca. Produced by Séverine Tibi.
Coming soon.
the Voyage Out
Directed by Barlow Jacobs. Produced by Keetin Mayakara (post-produced Oscar-winning doc Free Solo). Executive produced with Ley Line Entertainment (producers of Oscar-winner Everything Everywhere All at Once) and Maiden Voyage Pictures (The Witch and The Lighthouse).
Premiered at the International Social Change Film Festival 2021. Distributed by Pragda.
one street away (A una cuadra)
Directed and produced by Reed Purvis. Produced by Martina Bassenger.
Barry Cooper was a highly decorated Texas narcotics officer - until he turned on the police force, busting crooked cops and teaching drug users how to hide their stash.
Premiered at Sundance 2025.
NEVER GET BUSTED
Co-created by David Anthony Ngo and Erin Williams-Weir. Produced by Erin Williams-Weir, Daniel Joyce and Louise Schultze. Executive produced by John Battsek and Chris Smith.
Nearly 2 million Americans are held ransom, facing death without insulin. PAY OR DIE portrays families receiving these notes, unveiling life's harsh truth with chronic illness in the world's wealthiest nation.
Premiered at SXSW 2023 in the Documentary Competition category. Distributed by MTV Documentary Films.
Pay or die
Directed and produced by Scott Ruderman and Rachael Dyer. Produced by Oscar-nominated Yael Melamede (SALTY Features) and Zak Kilberg. Executive produced with comedian Sarah Silverman.
The story of several families as they attempt to escape oppression in North Korea, revealing a world most of us have never seen.
Premiered at Sundance 2023 and winner of the Audience Award for US Documentary Features. Nominated for the 2024 BAFTA Film Awards. Emmy award nominee for the 2024 Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking Award.
BEYOND UTOPIA
Directed by Madeleine Gavin. Produced by Ideal Partners, Sue Mi Terry, Jana Edelbaum, and Rachel Cohen.
A married Hollywood agent receives a mysterious letter for an anonymous sexual encounter and becomes ensnared in a sinister world of lying, murder and infidelity.
Premiered at Berlinale 2021. Official selection at Tribeca Film Festival 2021. Distributed by IFC Films.
the beta test
Written and directed by Jim Cummings (Thunder Road, 2018 SXSW Grand Jury Award) and PJ McCabe. Produced by Vanishing Angle.
An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school sparks a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.
Premiered at Sundance 2024 in the U.S. Documentary Competition category and winner of the Directing Award. Distributed by National Geographic. 2025 Academy Award Nominee.
SUGARCANE
Directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie. Produced by Emily Kassie and Kellen Quinn.
In near-future Tokyo, the threat of a catastrophic quake looms. Two friends prank their principal before graduation, leading to school surveillance installation.
Premiered at Venice 2024 in the Horizons category. Official selection at TIFF 2024 and at NYFF 2024. Distributed by Metrograph and Bitter End.
HAPPYEND
Written and directed by Neo Sora. Produced by Aiko Masubuchi, Albert Tholen & Eric Nyari.
Premiered at Short Shorts 2021. Official selection at Palm Springs ShortFest 2021.
the ref
Directed by Peter Edlund. Produced by Visual Pollution and Sevana Films.
•who•
We're Sons of Rigor
It will be our aim to ensure that every film we back is properly supported at every stage of production in order to give each project the best chance of being both financially as well as artistically SUCCESSFUL.
Our name comes from a Spanish expression, common in Argentina -- "hijos del rigor" -- which translates literally to "sons of rigor" and refers to the tendency we have as humans to learn everything the hard way.
In the context of filmmaking, this concept can be applied to the ability to deliver highly-polished results under tight scheduling and budget constraints. All supported by a rewarding team effort.
Sons of Rigor’s founder & principal
Douglas Choi
Douglas Choi is a British-American cinephile with years of experience structuring and negotiating financing transactions, and as an angel investor, attorney and/or advisor for multiple successful private companies representing billions of dollars in market capitalization. As an investor, Doug’s approach has always been to back smart, talented, easy-to-get-along-with people (the No Assholes Rule is an underlying principle here), and then let them work their magic without meddling. He has often been the very first backer of a project. Doug has served, or is serving, as an executive producer on over 10 feature-length fiction and documentary film projects to-date (including The Starling Girl - Sundance and SXSW 2023 and Pay or Die - SXSW 2023), traveled to over 80 countries from Antarctica (okay, not really a country) to Zambia, studied classical French cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu, and has lived in North America, South America and Europe.
CREATIVE Executive
Martina Bassenger
Martina works as the Creative Executive for Sons of Rigor Films. Martina sources and evaluates projects based on their creative and financial potential, as well as their suitability for Sons of Rigor. Her knowledge of the industry helps her support those projects further with key insights and strategies to ensure the films are able to maximize their potential. She studied film and theatre criticism and holds a BA from Reading University in English Literature and Film and Theatre. Martina heads the day-to-day operations at Sons of Rigor and is based in London, UK.
Creative Analyst / Producer
Séverine Tibi
Séverine works as the Creative Analyst for Sons of Rigor Films. She scouts, identifies, and assesses projects through both a creative and commercial lens, ensuring alignment with the company’s goals and values. Séverine is also a Producer who co-founded the Cannes-based production company Sevana Films. She has produced films in several countries, which have screened at festivals including Locarno, Palm Springs, Toronto and SXSW London, and she is a Sundance Producers Summit, Rotterdam Lab and Zurich Film Festival Academy alumna. She previously worked at the British Film Institute as a Business Partnerships Coordinator in London. Séverine is based in Los Angeles, US.
“Film is not analysis, it is the agitation of mind; cinema comes from the country fair and the circus, not from academicism.”
Werner Herzog
•what•
Together, Magic Happens
“ We need stories to make sense of the world and some people like me are driven to tell them. I have faith this will always be possible.”
What is film finance for us?
We invest in film projects on an equity basis, which means that we would either partially or fully fund your project, in exchange for a percentage of the profits of the film, if any. Our equity deals will always be filmmaker-friendly.
What do we mean by co-production?
As co-producers we can offer support with creative development, sourcing additional funding, assistance with the marketing and distribution strategies, as well as helping with festival submissions.
“I'm really interested in making movies that people see: I've made a lot of independent films and it's really depressing when no one sees them.”
Elizabeth Banks
•WHy•
Fueled by Passion
“Whereas money is a means to an end for a filmmaker, to the corporate mind money is the end.”
Part of the inspiration to start Sons of Rigor came from this open letter Martin Scorsese wrote to his then-14-year-old daughter on the future of cinema.
We want to support fiction films that explore important and topical themes through original perspectives, and documentaries that have the potential to spark meaningful conversations
We don't see an irresolvable tension between making great art and making money.
You just can't be so focused on one side of that equation that you pay no attention to the other half. Some artists have such a disdain for commercial considerations that they forget that if more people have seen your film, it will have a greater cultural impact. Even if they create a beautiful artistic work, it may languish with a very limited release. On the other hand, too many studio films have that distinctly soulless quality where you cannot shake the feeling that one too many production decisions were made via a decision-by-budget-committee process. Sons of Rigor believes that a filmmaker’s creative vision should co-exist with, and need not be hijacked by, the profit motive.
"There is something else which has the power to awaken us to the truth. It is the works of writers of genius. They give us, in the guise of fiction, something equivalent to the actual density of the real, that density which life offers us every day but which we are unable to grasp because we are amusing ourselves with lies."
Simone Weil
•submission•
What are we looking for?
“IN THE END, THE STORY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING”
We consider projects at all stages of production. These can be either fiction films or documentaries.
We especially want to make films that are concerned with the following: empathy for the other, earnest wonder, the meaning of authentic community, redemption of lost souls, benevolent subversion, the recovery of truth in a post-truth society, and the righting of wrongs in unexpected ways. For documentaries, we want to see great access, engaging storytelling, and important topics.
Our submissions are currently closed. We will be announcing when they reopen on our website and on our Instagram page - @sonsofrigor.
