Rise and Shine World Sales

Overview

Rise and Shine World Sales is a Berlin-based international sales agent specializing in creative documentary films and auteur cinema. Founded in autumn 2007 as a division of Kloos & Co. Medien GmbH, the company markets and sells outstanding documentary films to broadcasters, distributors, and streaming platforms worldwide. Rise and Shine operates on a boutique model, taking a maximum of 12 to 16 new films per year and representing each title with individualized attention at major markets and festivals. The company is headquartered at Schlesische Strasse 29/30, 10997 Berlin (Kreuzberg).

The company also operates Rise and Shine Cinema, a theatrical distribution arm that releases selected documentary titles in German cinemas. This dual structure (international sales plus German theatrical distribution) allows Rise and Shine to handle both global rights sales and domestic release for films where the German theatrical market is commercially viable.

Leadership and Team

Rise and Shine was founded by Stefan Kloos and Anja Dziersk, who both come from journalism backgrounds and first met in the late 1990s before gradually moving into creative documentary together. The team consists of three core members:

• Stefan Kloos, Managing Director: Member of the European Film Academy, German Film Academy, AG DOK, and EDN (European Documentary Network). Alumnus of the Documentary Campus Masterschool and the Sundance Documentary Film Program. Recipient of a Grimme Award and nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award and Cinema Eye Honors. Kloos lectures worldwide on development, production, and international distribution of documentary films.
• Anja Dziersk, Co-Founder: Works alongside Kloos on acquisitions and sales strategy. Present at all major documentary markets including IDFA, CPH:DOX, Sheffield DocFest, and the European Film Market at Berlinale.
• Diana Karklin, Acquisitions Manager: Has been with the company for 15 years. Brought in titles including The Day the Earth Stood Still (Pamela Hogan's film about the 1975 Icelandic women's strike, which won the audience award at Thessaloniki).

The three-person team is present at most major documentary events, with all three typically attending IDFA. This concentrated presence at festivals and markets gives Rise and Shine direct relationships with both filmmakers and buyers, without the layers of intermediaries that larger sales agencies maintain.

Parent Company: Kloos & Co. Medien

Rise and Shine operates within Kloos & Co. Medien GmbH, one of the most active production companies for international documentary cinema and TV in Germany. Kloos & Co. was founded in 2002 and has produced award-winning documentaries including Last Men in Aleppo, Pre-Crime, A Modern Man, Bugs, Transit Havana, The Other Chelsea, Putin's Kiss, Planet Galata, The Day We Danced on the Moon, Chuck Norris vs. Communism, and Walking Under Water.

Kloos & Co. produces documentaries backed by national and international film funds and major TV channels, covering geopolitical and investigative topics, social issues, human rights, current social phenomena, pop culture, and the arts. The company has expanded with branches in Leipzig (Kloos & Co. OST) and Hamburg (Kloos & Co. NORD) since 2016. This production infrastructure gives Rise and Shine direct access to new documentary projects at the development and production stages, not just completed films seeking sales representation.

What Rise and Shine Represents

Rise and Shine's catalog spans creative documentary features, hybrid documentary-fiction works, and fiction films with documentary sensibilities. The company's selection criteria emphasize:

• Strong storylines with clear authorial handwriting: Films with a distinctive directorial voice and formal ambition
• Universal topics from personal or local perspectives: Global subjects seen through regional or national lenses
• Youth and pop culture: Documentaries engaging contemporary cultural movements
• Current affairs, human rights, and ecology: Films addressing pressing social and political issues
• Cross-genre work: Films that blur boundaries between documentary and fiction, animation, or essay film
• Debut films by talented directors: The company has a track record of discovering emerging filmmakers

The company sells documentaries worldwide both directly and through partnerships with international colleagues. Clients include ARTE, ZDF, YLE, DR, RTP, Al Jazeera, SF, ABC, Joining the Dots, TV3, and others.

Current Slate (2025-2026)

Rise and Shine's recent and upcoming titles include:

• 10s Across the Borders (2026) - Queer Southeast Asian ballroom documentary, filmed over seven years across Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Premiered at Busan International Film Festival, nominated for best documentary at the 2025 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Picked up at Berlin's European Film Market in February 2026.
• Menopause Mystery (2026) - World Sales
• Blame Germany (2026) - Theatrical and tour distribution in Germany. Christian Frei's investigation into the origins of COVID-19 combined with an examination of science under political pressure.
• A World Gone Mad. The War Diaries of Astrid Lindgren (2025) - World Sales
• The Helsinki Effect (2025) - Arthur Franck's film on the legacy of the 1975 Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. International sales.
• Cast Off (2025) - Global distribution
• Ai Weiwei's Turandot (2025) - Following the artist as he directs the opera at the Rome Opera House. Handled at CPH:DOX 2025.
• A Sister's Tale (2025) - Leila Amini's film about her sister's dreams of becoming a singer in Iran.
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (2025) - Pamela Hogan's film about the 1975 Icelandic women's strike. Won audience award at Thessaloniki. Released theatrically in Germany by Rise and Shine Cinema, with strong preview screenings tied to International Women's Day. Outperforming Mickey 17 in screen averages in Austria (distributed by Poly Film).
• Child of Dust (2025) - Poland-Vietnam-Sweden-Czech Republic-Qatar co-production by Weronika Mliczewska. World Sales.
• BLAME (Bats, Politics and a Planet Out of Balance) - Christian Frei's Swiss documentary.
• Filmstunde 23 (2024) - Jorg Adolph and Edgar Reitz. 89 min. Opens Visions du Reel.
• Of Caravan and the Dogs (2024) - Askold Kurov. 89 min.
• Iron Butterflies (2023)
• Plastic Fantastic (2023) - Isa Willinger. 101 min. The global plastic crisis, screened at CPH:DOX.
• Nuclear Nomads (2023) - Kilian Armando Friedrich. 70 min. Workers in the French nuclear industry.
• All Inclusive (2023) - 95 min. Athletes with intellectual disabilities.
• Watching You: Die Welt von PALANTIR und Alex Karp (2024) - Klaus Stern. 99 min.

The company's catalog includes 62+ films total across its back catalog and new acquisitions.

Broadcaster Relationships

Documentary sales in Europe rely heavily on broadcaster pre-sales and licensing. Rise and Shine's relationships with European public broadcasters are a core part of its value proposition:

• ARTE (German-French public broadcaster): One of Europe's most important documentary platforms. A film licensed to ARTE reaches both French and German audiences, adding revenue and cultural credibility.
• ZDF (German public broadcaster): Major documentary commissioner and licensee
• BBC (UK public broadcaster): Documentary licensing for UK territory
• ORF (Austrian public broadcaster): Austrian territory licensing
• SVT (Swedish public broadcaster): Nordic territory
• YLE (Finnish public broadcaster): Nordic territory
• DR (Danish public broadcaster): Nordic territory
• RTP (Portuguese public broadcaster): Southern European territory
• Al Jazeera: Middle East and international territory

For documentary filmmakers, broadcaster licensing in Europe is often the most reliable revenue stream in the distribution portfolio. Rise and Shine's established relationships with these broadcasters, built through years of market presence, give it the ability to pursue broadcaster licensing alongside theatrical and streaming sales.

Rise and Shine Cinema (Theatrical Distribution)

Rise and Shine Cinema is the company's German theatrical distribution arm. It releases selected documentary titles in German cinemas, often accompanied by community screening tours and special event programming. The theatrical arm released The Day the Earth Stood Still in German cinemas in March 2025, with preview screenings tied to International Women's Day generating strong attendance. The film also performed well in Austria through distribution partner Poly Film.

This integration of international sales and German theatrical distribution means that for qualifying titles, Rise and Shine can offer filmmakers both global sales representation and a domestic theatrical release in Europe's largest arthouse market. This is a meaningful advantage over pure sales agents who do not handle domestic distribution.

What Filmmakers Should Know

Rise and Shine is a realistic representation target for documentary filmmakers whose work has:

• Screened at or been selected by major European documentary festivals: IDFA, CPH:DOX, Sheffield DocFest, DOK Leipzig, Visions du Reel, or the Berlinale
• Strong creative documentary credentials: Formal ambition, distinctive authorial voice, subject matter with international resonance
• European co-production involvement: Projects that have navigated the European film fund ecosystem
• International subjects with universal relevance: Global topics seen through personal or local perspectives

For filmmakers based outside Europe, Rise and Shine's specialization in the European documentary market makes it most valuable for projects with European co-production involvement, international subjects, or the kind of formal ambition that resonates with European festival programmers and broadcasters.

The company's boutique model (12-16 new films per year) means each title receives individualized attention. Unlike larger sales agents that represent 50+ titles annually and prioritize by commercial potential, Rise and Shine's small slate ensures that every film gets active pitching at markets and direct broadcaster outreach. The trade-off is that the company is highly selective about what it takes on.

Filmmakers should contact Rise and Shine via email at info@riseandshine-berlin.de or through their sales agent or producer. The team is present at IDFA, CPH:DOX, Sheffield DocFest, Berlinale EFM, Cannes, and Visions du Reel, where in-person meetings are possible.

See Also

For how broadcaster licensing fits into a documentary distribution strategy alongside theatrical and streaming, see Documentary Financing: Building Your Stack. To model the revenue from European broadcaster licensing combined with international territory sales, use the Revenue Forecast Calculator. For another German documentary company in this directory, see Real Fiction, which handles German theatrical distribution of documentary and arthouse films.