Business Doc Europe

Betsy Hershey and Emma Wall’s film follows the charismatic (if slightly neurotic) US climate activist and stand-up comedian, Michael Greenberg, founder of Climate Defiance, a group which stages imaginative and very noisy protests at public events involving companies and individuals with links to fossil fuels. ‘Our goal is to help people, young people especially, feeling climate anxiety,” Wall tells Business Doc Europe. “For us, it was always about helping them feel a sense of agency and possibility so they can take a role, whatever it is.”

After he read an article about psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and its potential benefits, Swiss director Marcel Wyss decided to become his own guinea pig. “It said that psychedelics can help people deal with deep fears, including the fear of death,” Wyss confides to Business Doc Europe. “After more than twenty years of making documentaries, many people had trusted me with their personal stories. At some point I felt it was my turn to open up and share my own.”

In a society in which expectant young mothers now need to bring their own medicine and equipment to hospital, Caroline, the subject of Nolwenn Hervé’s feature debut The Cord, is part of a network that gives Venezuelan women a chance of a safe pregnancy. “I didn’t have a producer; I didn’t have resources to do it; I didn’t have money but I was sure I would make it,” director Hervé describes both the film’s humble beginnings and her determination to tell Caroline’s story.

As ever, CPH:DOX Industry Head Mara Gourd-Mercado will be overseeing a packed professional programme that includes FORUM, the INTER:ACTIVE Exhibition and CPH:CONFERENCE, and which welcomes the cream of international creative and business talent. What the festival has no say over, however, is the current turmoil across the globe, which means that arranging travel plans for international guests has been somewhat testing. “It is such a fast-moving situation. We don’t know what it is going to look like from one day to another,” Gourd-Mercado tells BDE.

As doors open on CPH:DOX 2026, Artistic Director Niklas Engstrøm opens up to BDE on the offer for 2026, the new human rights strand, and the importance of acknowledging the festival’s establishing ethos. “CPH:DOX has always been known for being brave when it comes to the curatorial approach, being curious and trying to explore the boundaries of documentary, and I think that is still a core value,” he underlines.

Dutch-Japanese filmmaker Kiriko Mechanicus discusses the mutual roots of obsession between her and a shooter who killed 8 Asian women within Atlanta massage parlours. “One reason why I wanted to make this film was, of course, that I wanted to show the world as a form of manifestation that me as a person, but also me as a representative of Asian women, can be more than just this submissive woman that I've been for a very large part of my life,” she says.

Visions du Réel unveiled March 12 the projects selected to participate in the 24th edition of VdR–Industry, the festival’s four-day programme dedicated to industry professionals, and which features an “exciting slate with bold artistic ambition,” alongside returning talents and new faces to Nyon. The opening of Industry Days will feature a conversation with Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras. Under the direction of new Head, Sabine Fayoux Cantillo, the 2026 VdR–Industry Days will take place April 19-22.

A new creative doc exploring how young Ukrainians navigate war through music, nightlife and community was presented to professionals at Agora Docs in Progress at Thessaloniki Doc Fest 2026. Titled Immortal Flowers, the project is currently in post-production and seeking partners for its final stage. "“My hope is that audiences first connect with the characters and their energy, and through that begin to understand the reality they’re living in," says director Brian Logvinsky.

Four international and one Swiss award were handed out March 10 as doors closed on the 8th Impact Days, the professional arm of FIFDH. The StoryBoard Impact Award, valued at CHF 10,000, was given to Olimbi - Mother Courage by Karlo Mlinar. The Swiss Focus Impact Award, valued at CHF 2,500, was given to To the Moon and Back by Elisa Gómez Alvarez. All awards…

Renowned Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, born and raised in Gaza’s Al-Shati refugee camp, explored two vital aspects of film and filmmaking in Gaza during his Impact Days keynote on March 9. He articulated the urgent need to bring the works of Palestinian filmmakers to international audiences. At the same time, films from around the world must be delivered to children in Gaza, who have grown up surrounded by blockade, loss, and repeated wars, to offer moments of escape, imagination, and emotional relief.

The Polish filmmaker/producer team of Elwira Niewiera and Maciej Kubicki made a powerful impact pitch March 10 for their feature doc project Women and War, which explores the psychological toll of war through the personal journeys of four women – Julia, Lena, Iryna, and Olena – who have survived the horrors of Russia’s war against Ukraine. “What I have learned from them is that the war doesn't end when the war is over,” she told the professional audience in Geneva. “It stays in their minds, in their bodies, and in their everyday lives.”

The next time you scoop out the delicious flesh of an avocado, think again of its provenance. In Mexico, where half the world’s avocados are produced every year, the cartels are muscling in on this lucrative business, tearing down forests to create illegal avocado farms, and killing the environmentalists who stand in their way. “Organized crime…has muscled into the supply chain, extorting growers, razing forests for illicit orchards, and diverting water sources,” Ivonne J Serna explains the dilemma at the heart of her and Selim Benzeghia’s new feature doc.