Nick Cunningham

With films by Helke Misselwitz, Tamara Trampe, Petra Tschörtner and Angelika Andrees, as well as newly discovered and rediscovered works of GDR film history, the Retrospective includes portraits of institutions, essays and observations of everyday life – including DEFA, university and TV productions dating from the founding of the GDR in 1949 to the year the Wall fell. The 65th DOK Leipzig runs 17-23 October.

Three works by the late, great European filmmaker are presented from September 5 on DAFilms.com. The works have been restored by the EYE Filmmuseum, Netherlands. The presentation includes van der Keuken’s most celebrated work, the four-hour Amsterdam Global Village (1996), as well as Brass Unbound (1993) and The Long Holiday (2000).

Industry Days is a new platform created in co-operation with the Al Jazeera Documentary channel with a goal “to support the development of production of documentary films from across the world, including international and regional productions.” The program will take place from September 10 - 12 during the 5th edition of AJB Doc, and offers up 30 new projects within three pitch categories. Co-production awards worth $60,000+ are up for grabs.

The specialist documentary distributor has sold the 1 x 52’ documentary Musk vs Bezos: The New Star Wars to RTBF, ZDFinfo, TVE, SIC, and HRT Croatia, with more sales in the offing. The France 5 commission from Magneto tells the story of the vicious ongoing space race between two of the richest men in the world. Java Films is this week attending attending Le Rendez-Vous in Biarritz with 20 new docs.

The first fully in-person edition since 2019 will welcome audiences to London’s Bertha DocHouse, Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, Close-Up Cinema, Curzon Soho, Genesis Cinema, Institute of Contemporary Arts, LUX, Tate Modern and the Festival Hub. Running 7-13 September, this year opens with It Is Night In America by Ana Vaz, and closes with Tsuchimoto Noriaki’s masterpiece The Shiranui Sea (1975).

On the remote Greek island of Arki one child remains, 10-year old Kristos, the only pupil of teacher Maria. Will Kristos stay on the island to become a shepherd like his brothers, which is the wish of his father, or will he leave to continue his education far away on the other side of the Aegean sea? The filmmaker discusses her film, which world premieres in Giornate degli Autori, with BDE.

Eight feature documentaries and nine doc projects to be presented between 21-23 September during Finnish Film Affair, the industry event of Helsinki International Film Festival. The three-day event will welcome execs from industry giants such as Netflix, TrustNordisk, and Cannes, Venice, and Berlinale film festivals. In co-operation with German Films, German producers interested in co-productions will also journey to Finland.

Casa Susanna tells the intriguing and deeply moving story of a house in the Catskills region of New York that was used in the 1950s and ‘60s as a refuge for an underground network for transgender women and cross-dressing men. “The story of a clandestine community is there for all to see. With it, a fragment of queer history, stretching from the McCarthy era to the 1970s, is revealed,” explains director Lifshitz.

Comprising four themed sections including an International Competition, as well as a comprehensive (and inaugural) Industry Days programme, the Sarajevo-based fest will run 9-13 September. “Aware of the fact that peace as the highest ideal is eluding mankind again, we found inspiration and faith in a better tomorrow in authentic and touching human stories that return the focus to the ordinary man, providing us with an insight into his fear, hope, regret – and cry for peace,” write organisers.

The 2022 IDA Screening Series will showcase 43 feature-length documentary films that are eligible for consideration for the upcoming Academy Awards; 20 films to be screened both in-person and online, and 34 will be available for virtual viewing only. The screening program runs Sept 9 to Nov 23. Ten projects selected for the 2022 Awards Campaign Access Initiative (ACAI).