Business Doc Europe

In The Witness, Spanish filmmaker Pere Salom tells the story of Eduardo Palmer, a prolific filmmaker who documented the rise to power of Fidel Castro in Cuba in the 1950s, but who also took part in the counter-revolution against the regime, eventually settling in exile in the US. “Palmer is, on the one hand, an important and respected producer in many Latin American countries. But on the other hand, he is completely unknown to most people. I want that to change,” Salom tells BDE.

Chilean producer María José Díaz discusses her mixed reality mindfulness project, inspired by the native forests of southern Chile. “The experience [enables] the user to transform their daily life space, like their home or office, into a cosy cabin in a remote place called Cañón del Blanco, a mountain landscape with native temperate forests rich in biodiversity and the presence of millenary trees,” she tells Business Doc Europe.

The archive-based portrait of Roberto Rossellini promises to tell the Italian master’s story and in the process ‘debunk the clichés surrounding the myth’. “For those who love cinema, Rossellini is the genius of great masterpieces, such as Rome, Open City. For those who love great stories, he is the man of scandalous love affairs. He is a fascinating personality, where life and art merge. [This film] is a biopic that can fascinate a wide audience,” producer/director Raffaela Brunetti tells Business Doc Europe.

One Inch Eastward will be the second film in a trilogy about the Washington/Moscow relationship that played out some 30+ years ago. Moscow Nights, the first film, told the story of how Gorbachev, Reagan and Bush ended the Cold War. This new film concerns the Yeltsin and Clinton era. “We were drawn in to these stories by our love of the archives, then we became fascinated by what they revealed to our filmmakers’ eye,” producer Brendan Culleton tells Business Doc Europe.

“I didn’t fully choose the subject, it also chose me,” says Spanish filmmaker Guillermo F Florez of his feature doc nearing completion and presenting this week in Barcelona. “I found myself embarked in the most unexpected project: a comedy about an old woman planning her suicide.” That old woman is the irrepressible Carmen (86), who lived through the Civil War, was previously a nun, was married then divorced in a conservative society, and then took several lovers, thereby following her own very unique path.

Born to Fight explores the developmental journey of Tunisian female kickboxer Nawres from 2017 to 2024 within the context of the Arab Spring. “While many stories focus solely on the journey to Europe and the challenges faced there, this film shines a spotlight on the resilience and determination of those who opt to confront adversity head-on in their own communities,” Danish producer Rikke Tambo tells BDE.

The big winner was Adelina by Aurela Berila which won both the DocsBarcelona Project Award and the HBO Max Best Pitch Award, as well as the San Sebastian Lau Haizetara Award. Dolya Gavanski’s Confessions of a Female Gamer picked up two prizes; the East Doc Platform Award and the Artist-in-Residency Program Award (Jacob Burns Film Center & Women Make Movies. All awards…

Greek director Efthymia (Efi) Zymvragaki and dok.incubator’s Andrea Prenghyová discussed the development of Light Falls Vertical which, from the most unlikely of starts, was selected for IDFA Envision Competition before being short-listed for the European Film Awards 2023. “Efi didn't have money…Efi didn't have a team…There was a producer who was not really a producer…and there was this strange guy as an editor who never edited anything,” Prenghyová remembers of their first contact.

The maverick, madcap director of the eponymous ‘How to…’ series for HBO Max shared his working methods and creative processes with the audience of Docs Barcelona Industry this week. “The closest thing I can relate it to is when you're at a bar and someone's just talking at you for an hour,” he said of his interview technique. “That's the kind of vibe that I try to recreate in the work, where I like to find someone that can just talk without interruption and just doesn't care what I think, which is, I feel, how most conversations historically for me go.”

“I think that it's easier to describe the essence of MDAG by telling how we do it. We promote the festival's films and their directors rather than just promote the festival itself,” CEO and Fest Director Artur Liebhart tells BDE on the eve of his festival’s 21st edition, which will once more play across seven Polish cities. MDAG runs May 10 to May 19 before going online May 21 to June 6.

The 2024 film programme includes 48 world, 14 international, 17 European and 29 UK premieres from 56 countries of production. The International Competition consists of eight world prems including Tilda Swinton’s feature directorial debut (co-directed with Bartek Dziadosz). The 31st Sheffield DocFest runs June 12-17. The complete Industry programme will be announced May 15.

Six new teams are announced to compete for prize funding for innovative new audio projects June 15 at Sheffield DocFest 2024. A grand first prize of £5,000 will be awarded, with £2,000 going to the runner up. The award is designed to celebrate the global trend towards solo and episodic listening to factual audio. Sheffield DocFest runs June 12-17.