Business Doc Europe

In Action Item, Berlin-based Slovak director Paula Ďurinová addresses the subject of personal burnout and depression, shifting away from personal reflection to collective analysis. The film, selected for both Karlovy Vary Proxima and FID Marseille International Competition, affirms that 21st Century anxiety is a result of the systemic conditions in which we are forced to live and operate. This recognition can, conversely, serve as a springboard for justifiable anger, resistance and change. Ďurinová gets angry with Business Doc Europe.

In his new film, Norwegian Audun Amundsen immerses himself in the murky world of money-making online gurus. Click The Link Below, a premiere at New Zealand’s Doc Edge and sold by Sideways Film, profiles some of these internet marketeers who promise immense and instant wealth and success to those who buy their often eye-wateringly expensive online courses. Amundsen explains more to BDE.

In Garry Keane’s latest film, world-premiering July 4 at Doc Edge New Zealand, we meet three Deaf couples, all Irish, who navigate their challenging lives with strength and resilience, using the medium of Irish sign language. “Telling stories through sign language is challenging, but making this unique film was profoundly moving and creatively stimulating,” says Keane, who led a largely Deaf crew in the film’s realisation.

Daan Veldhuizen discusses his urgent new documentary, receiving its international premiere in the festival’s Edge of Impact category, about how, after after transferring control of their former colony West Papua to Indonesia in 1962, the Dutch set in motion years of genocidal violence against the West Papuan people. “I’ve always felt that Dutch culture is not completely honest about its own role in the world and about its historical relevance,” Veldhuizen comments.

In the Guatemalan barrio of Ciudad Peronia, sisters Lesli and Lupe organise a spectacular comparsa, or street festival, to remember the 41 girls who burned to death in 2017 in a so-called ‘safe home,’ and to protest at the unacceptable levels of femicide, rape and sexual abuse in the country. “It aligned with the kind of storytelling we wanted to do, that was character-centred and about how real people make real change in their community without waiting for the system to change or without waiting for permission,” co-director Vickie Curtis tells BDE.

In her feature doc debut, UK director Jessi Gutch talks to folk in her new home town of Folkestone, which overwhelmingly voted for Brexit in 2016, about the business of identity and what it means to be British. Or perhaps more accurately, what does it mean to be English? “I wanted to just talk to people and not make this into a kind of hero-villain thing. I was going to go into this more open-minded with people, starting from a place of compassion rather than starting from a place of judgement,” she tells BDE.

The 2025 Sunny Side of the Doc pitch award winners were announced June 26 during the event’s closing ceremony. Over four days, the market gathered 2100 participants from 60 countries, over 1000 companies, 85 exhibitors, and 260 international decision-makers including major broadcasters, streamers, foundations, distributors, financiers, and museums from around the world. All winners…

Award-winning US docmaker Dawn Porter delivered a stirring keynote on the final day of Sunny Side 2025 during which she demonstrated how, through use of archive, history can (perhaps must) be told in many ways, and from myriad perspectives, but always with precision. “I can assure you that the reports [in the US] of the attack on truth and journalism…are not exaggerated,” she said. “We are not only tasked with telling history stories, but with making sure that the history that is told is not erased or distorted.”

Sitting on a potential goldmine of approximately 25% of the world's hydrocarbon reserves, the third-largest uranium reserves, and 20% of rare earths, Greenland is an icy Eldorado that today sparks all sorts of ambitions. “It's not the beauty of the landscapes which interests Donald Trump,” Jean-Yves Cauchard, co-director of Greenland, told the SSD professional audience of his latest project.

Mathare Fathers spotlights the lives of three single fathers from the vast Mathare slum (Nairobi, Kenya) who have left behind a life of crime to start a new one as single fathers. “Today, masculinity is at the crossroads,” says co-director Mattias Grosin says. “But these guys, they're building something so strong and beautiful together with the kids in one of the world's most harsh places. Love has become a lifeline.”

Leading documentary associations from the UK, Canada and the US announced this week in Sheffield the formation of a new international alliance to coordinate support for independent documentary film. IDA Director of Programs Abby Sun said: “We can all see the present and coming challenges to the sector on a political, financial and technological level. I know that together we are stronger, both in the US and internationally. Doc makers are some of the most resourceful, committed and agile people in the industry and right now we all need to pull together.”

“Are you sure about this, who’s going to want to watch a film about leftovers and creepy crawlies? It’s gross!” Producers Julien Adam (Capa Presse) and Sally Blake (Films a Cinq) invited the professional audience at Sunny Side into the loamy world of the compost bin during the pitch for their new doc project, Compost, The Hidden Treasure of our Waste, directed by Guilhem Touzery.