Business Doc Europe

Britpop band Blur get the full doc treatment in Toby L’s new film, released in the UK and Ireland on July 19. It is a fully cinematic experience, telling how the band put together its first album in eight years before going back on the road. “One of my pet grievances with music docs is that they feel a bit detached. They don’t emotionally tune you into the vibrancy of the performance. For me, I obsess over those details. To put people in a dark room with a big screen, that is definitely my desire,” the director tells BDE.

The prolific Northern Irish docmaker profiles Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, a woman whose brain underwent profound recalibration after she climbed the Grindelwald Glacier in Switzerland in 1949. There she encountered the mathematical "certainty” which would inspire and inform her later paintings. “When I first saw her pictures in the late 80s, I was drawn to them, as if by a tractor beam,” director Cousins tells BDE.

It’s a disturbing anomaly that, until recently, only six Black cyclists had competed in the Tour De France, the sport’s blue riband event. In his latest feature documentary This Is My Moment, Lieven Corthouts tells the story of the seventh, the Eritrean cycling prodigy Biniam Girmay (currently setting this year’s Tour ablaze with multiple stage wins). “I knew from the beginning he was good. I couldn’t imagine how good,” Corthouts tells BDE.

Irish multi-hyphenate Nick Kelly (director, screenwriter, pop star, activist, not to mention long distance cyclist) talks to Business Doc Europe about how he cycled from Ireland to Glastonbury carrying his tent and his guitar, to prove that the business of making art doesn’t have to kill the planet. Kelly’s saddle-bound feature doc world premieres July 12 at Galway Film Fleadh.

As Swedish artist Victoria Verseau examines her life more than a decade after the transition surgery she underwent in 2012, she also attempts to process the fragmented memories she has of her friend Meril who underwent similar surgery at the same time, but who died three years later. Verseau additionally follows Athena and Aamina, who are on their own journeys towards transition. “It’s a movie made by and about trans people, aiming for an honest portrayal of our lives,” says Verseau.

Not many films happen by accident. However, Ukrainian director (and soldier) Oleh Sentsov freely admits that his new project Real (world-premiering this week at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival) was not planned in advance. “It was everything that the go-pro shot that day,” he tells BDE of his film shot in the front-line trenches during the counter-offensive against the Russian invasion. “Usually, when you see videos from the war, they are edited. This is what makes Real different. It is just raw footage.”

“This year’s selection can be described as ‘fishing in the river of time,’” says programmer Rada Šešić. “This method, creatively applied in a large number of chosen films, offers a unique authorial perspective on the passage of time, whether through exceptional archival material or refined cinematic observation.” Two additional feature docs to play Out of Competition.

More than 100 new documentary projects were submitted by leading Nordic makers for the 31st Nordisk Panorama Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries. Between 23-24 September in Malmö, Sweden, twenty-four of these new doc projects and 22 observer+ projects will be pitched and presented to the (approx) 70 decision-makers in attendance. (Pic: 'A Face to be Loved' by Angelica Ruffier)

New docs by such heavyweights as Petra Costa, Amos Gitai, Asif Kapadia, Kevin Macdonald and Errol Morris play in the Out of Competition Non-fiction sidebar, while Wang Bing’s Youth - Homecoming gets the nod for Venezia 81 Competition. Orrizonti Competition hosts the feature docs Wishing On A Star by Péter Kerekes and Mistress Dispeller by Elizabeth Lo. A further nine docs on cinema are selected for Venice Classics.

The Canadian fest will present Elton John: Never Too Late by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish; Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band by Thom Zimny, and Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe by Cosima Spender. Josh Greenbaum’s Will & Harper, which bowed at Sundance 2024, receives its Canadian premiere. The Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5 – 15, 2024.

The Sitges-based Euro-Mediterranean Documentary Market is seeking new doc projects-in-development and finished films. “We are looking for European producers and filmmakers that can provide independently produced documentaries, projects engaging in creative risks, advancing issues and presenting points of views not typically seen on television,” organisers write. The 25th MEDIMED runs 17-20 October 2024.

Spanning 15 programme and presenter categories, the list reflects “the best documentary singles and series launched across broadcasters, streamers and online, as well as theatrical releases.” Nominations will be announced September 23. The Awards Ceremony will take place Wednesday 6 November at London’s Roundhouse.