Business Doc Europe

Concealed within the foundations of Julietta Singh’s childhood home in Manitoba are the stories of women who have lived there in previous times and who have, over many years, confronted colonialism, racism, sexism and ableism. “It [the house] was a repository of some very difficult experiences and memories for our family,” co-director Singh, whose The Nest world-premieres at Hot Docs, tells BDE.

Throughout its 96-minute running time, Noam Gonick’s feature doc touches on everything from the persecution and marginalisation of gays and lesbians in the Canada of the 1950s and 1960s to Black Lives Matter and the emergence of the “two spirit” movement among gay Indigenous communities. Featuring a treasure trove of archival material, the film also “takes advantage in a gracious way” of Canada’s rich history of activist filmmaking, the director tells BDE. “We wanted to get their material back out there on screen.”

UK producer Roy Boulter talks to BDE about directing his debut feature Algorithm Party, an adaptation of the book of the same name, in which fiery Liverpool author and spoken word performer “Roy” (real name PJ Smith, and no relation to Boulter) narrates a series of raw, scabrously funny and sometimes very violent tales dealing with drugs, alcohol and domestic abuse - partly drawn from his own experiences growing up in Toxteth.

Lulu Scott’s new feature doc Where Two Oceans Meet (a world premiere in Nyon) looks very closely at the life of a family in Mitchells Plain, a township not far from the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. Kulsum Orrie and her two children are waiting patiently for the release of her husband, Phadiel, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence. 30 years after the end of the Apartheid, Kulsum is still enduring her own separation. Director Scott talks to BDE.

Roland Edzard’s new documentary, world-premiering in Nyon, takes us into the heart of the Central Sahara Gold Rush. The director asks his characters to re-enact their own story. “The movie in itself is a documentary because it is real people in a real situation and it’s real life,” he tells BDE. “But it’s a documentary that I did like fiction…I didn’t want to explain but to be inside [the story]. I can say it is done like a fiction [film] because I say ‘action’ and I say ‘cut.’”

“I wouldn’t say it was exactly a carte blanche, but it was close to it,” Montreal-based director Sophie Bédard Marcotte says of the freedom given to her by backers National Film Board of Canada when she embarked on I Lost Sight Of The Landscape (a world premiere in Burning Lights at VdR this week). In the film, Marcotte turns her camera on her playwright neighbour as he develops his latest work within an artist co-operative.

The new appointments, which include Dogwoof’s Oli Harbottle, Netflix’s Jessica Ross and editor Zeb Achonu, “will support the Trust’s growing role as a provider of successful industry-leading training programmes and other initiatives to identify and nurture diverse new talent in documentary and factual television making, as well as chairing judging committees for Grierson Awards, which this year includes two new categories,” the organisation writes.

The Whickers, in partnership with Sheffield DocFest, has announced the shortlist for the 2025 Podcast Pitch Award. Now in its third year, the Podcast Pitch has received its highest number of submissions to date from 36 different countries around the globe. “We’re incredibly excited to give these talented creators a platform and support the next generation of audio documentary makers,” comments Jane Ray, The Whickers Artistic Director.

The 32th edition of Nordisk Panorama, the main funding event for the Nordic documentary community and which takes place Sunday-Tuesday 21-23 September, invites independent documentary projects at all stages from Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Åland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The submission deadline is 19 May 2025.

For its 40th anniversary edition, DOK.fest Munich (May 7 to 18) will present three competition and 16 thematic film sections. The festival will open with Friendly Fire by Klaus Fried (Germany). Other world premieres in DOK.international Competition include In Hell with Ivo by Kristina Nikolova (Bulgaria) and Ice Grave by Robin Hunzinger (Finland, France, Sweden). “Our aim is to maximise participation…DOK.fest München stays dual!” the festival adds of its online programme that runs 12-25 May.

Running May 8 to 12, MDAG Industry 2025 “offers a true backstage pass to the documentary world, crafted in response to the current needs of the audiovisual market, following trends, anticipating changes, and embracing innovation,” organisers write. Highlights include pitches of new and completed Polish projects, a keynote by Mette Hoffmann Meyer, an “anti-masterclass” delivered by Mark Cousins and round-table consultation opportunities with a raft of leading doc professionals.

Over the coming months, the dok.incubator rough-cut programme will workshop eight documentary projects from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, soon to be released internationally. They will be worked in parallel with eight previously announced International projects. “From topics spinning around ecology, animal rights, beauty standards and independent press to personal family stories and artists’ portraits, the selected [regional] films have the ambition to premiere at prestigious festivals in the coming year,” organisers write.