Nat Geo Signs First-Look Deal with Sara Dosa & Shane Boris

National Geographic Documentary Films has entered an exclusive first-look deal with Signpost Pictures, helmed by Sara Dosa and Shane Boris, the duo behind Fire of Love.

As part of the deal, Dosa, Boris and Elijah Stevens, producing partner at Signpost, are developing two new films that highlight character stories of humans making meaning out of natural forces. The first project is On Time and Water (w.t.), based on an Icelandic book of the same name.

On Time and Water begins with Árni and Hulda, who fell in love mapping and filming Iceland’s glaciers, amassing the beginning of what would become a multigenerational archive. Fifty years later, as Árni’s memory recedes, so too does Iceland’s ice. Árni and Hulda’s grandson—Andri Snaer Magnason, author of the book—reckons with the loss of his grandparents and the ice. Through his own archiving, he poses the question: What is Iceland without ice?

The second project Dosa, Boris and Stevens are working on is an untitled Mexican earthquake project, exploring how earthquakes open up fissures not just into the Earth but also portals into geologic time. Through the lived experiences of those affected by Mexico City’s cyclical September 19 earthquakes (in 1985, 2017 and 2022), it pulls into focus the ways that the past can haunt the present.

The deal was negotiated by Nick Schumaker and Nicole Romano from Anonymous Content, as well as Andres Des Rochers and Meghan Reilly on behalf of the filmmakers.

“We are so pleased to continue our creative collaboration with these preternaturally talented filmmakers on the heels of our partnership on the enchanting and critically acclaimed Fire of Love,” said Carolyn Bernstein, executive VP of documentary films for National Geographic. “Their new projects in development also explore the wonder and mysteries of the natural world while diving deeply into character. We can’t wait to bring the next iterations of their unique and poetic vision to the world.”

“National Geographic Documentary Films has been an incredible partner for us as we launched Fire of Love into the world last year, introducing audiences worldwide to a story of love, wonderment and our planet’s most awesome forces,” Dosa and Boris said. “We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with them again on our new projects. We really look forward to building on that relationship as we continue to tell stories that have meaning to us personally and offer new perspectives on human relationships with nonhuman nature.”