Nick Cunningham

The Thessaloniki International Film Festival has issued a plea to for the use of geo-blocking technology to protect films and festivals in the digital era. The petition has already been signed by 18 major international film festivals.

UK-based Screenbound International Pictures announced Marché sales activity on Simon Sheridan’s doc Everything, about the 1970s UK soul combo The Real Thing. The company is also handing sales on Audrey Rumsby’s vaudeville-themed Barry and Joan, screening June 26.

Halted in March due to the global pandemic, new dates have been selected for continuation of the “world’s largest human rights film festival”, organisers say.

PARISDOC, the industry arm of Cinéma du Réel, presents four new projects at Cannes Marché, three of which are set in the US, one featuring the niece of murdered Minnesota resident George Floyd.

During its Cannes Doc panel on June 24, Ji.hlava IDFF presented updated findings about geo-representation across international film festivals, prompting festival directors and programmers to discuss their selection rationale and modus operandi.

Marc Bauder’s Who We Were, which is presented June 24 and 26 at the German Producers Present forum, is a philosophical essay on the dire need for engagement with the world in which we live.

The CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator training initiative presents four docs-in-progress during Cannes Docs, each from a CIRCLE alumnus. Founder and program director Biljana Tutorov tells BDE about each, in a round-about way.

A Black Jesus, directed by Luca Lucchesi and produced by Wim Wenders, poses a poignant and pertinent question. How can the residents of a Sicilian village worship a black Jesus but disregard the refugees who pray in the same church?

“Cinema needs to defend itself like never before,” the IDFA Creative Director tells BDE. “A thousand persons watching the film at home over a week are not equal to 1000 persons in a cinema watching the same film.”

Academy Award-nominated Brazilian director of The Edge of Democracy to join Doc Talk about the convergence between political and autobiographical documentaries in Latin America. Kick-off 17.30 CET