Visionary Taiwan digital minister Audrey Tang, Iranian fake news expert/blogger Hossein Derakhshan, controversial economic commentator Grace Blakeley, award-winning producer Ted Hope and Hilda Flavia Nakabuye, founder of Fridays for Future Uganda will join other forward thinkers and creative voices at CPH:CONFERENCE 26-30 April.
Titled RESET!, this year’s conference is aiming to rethink and reshape the film, media and arts industries through the lens of ‘the social order’. The festival underlines how ‘topics of democracy, economy, representation and climate will offer a prism throughout the 5-day event for discussing the role and resilience of artists and storytellers in a more equal and just post-pandemic world.”
“CPH:CONFERENCE is this year dedicated to looking into the immense changes and questions posed by COVID-19. The pandemic has laid bare the unstable, unequal nature of the global economy, but the pandemic has also shown us that large scale structural change can happen in ways that no one had imagined,” explains Tine Fischer, director of CPH:DOX.
“Will the film industry and cultural sectors ever be the same again after COVID-19? How can audiovisual storytelling help to reclaim the digital public sphere, challenge disinformation, document injustices, and lift up new and marginalized voices? What role is storytellers and artists playing in challenging platform capitalism, corporate surveillance and tech monopolies? How are artists, creators and storytellers leading in the fight for a global Green New Deal? These are some of the ambitious questions that will be posed to some of the brightest minds in the industry at CPH:CONFERENCE. We are beyond proud to have them on board,” Fischer adds.
Besides offering an abundance of inspiring keynotes, case studies and discussions, this year’s conference will also ‘urge us to take action.’
AC Coppens, founder of The Catalysts and lead curator of CPH:CONFERENCE 2021, says: “Taking quite an “activist” approach, we are excited to invite the audience to collaboratively work for the better. Inspiring individuals, organizations and collectives will help us rethink, renew and reset the inherent systems of the industry directly through dedicated workshops that will allow for exchange of ideas and active application of new initiatives to strengthen our industry for the future.”
Once again, CPH:DOX presents the conference in partnership with leading European training initiative Documentary Campus, which aims to develop the documentary industry at large and support the coming generations of filmmakers.
Donata von Perfall, Director, Documentary Campus, comments: “New collaborations are at the core of our work at Documentary Campus. We strongly believe in partnerships and love to connect new and different voices every day. Our wonderful partnership with CPH:DOX results in the CPH:CONFERENCE that reflects this diversity and encourages all of us to build new alliances to help powerful stories travel the world.”
The CPH:CONFERENCE will be fully accessible online and broadcasted live between April 26-30.
CPH:DOX 2021 takes place 21 April – 2 May. Its industry events run 23 – 30 April, 2021.
