Davide Abbatescianni

Vienna-based sales agency Filmdelights presents two films in IDFA official selection - Dear Beautiful Beloved by Juri Rechinsky and Personale by Carmen Trocker - as well as acclaimed filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić’s new project Blum and Eva Kübar’s My Partners as part of their Docs for Sale slate. “To put it simply, our editorial policy comes down to films we find interesting and that resonate with us,” Christa Auderlitzky, Managing Director tells BDE.

In Pictures in Mind, Eleonora Camizzi uses the medium of cinema to confront her father, Vincenzo, who has schizophrenia, asking him the difficult questions she has avoided for years. Set in a minimalist, symbolic space, the documentary explores their strained relationship and the challenges of living with a father in a different reality. The director recalls: “When we first watched it together, he said, ‘luckily I said yes to this project; it’d be a shame if this film didn’t exist.’”

On the eve of IDFA 2024, BDE sat down with Italian documentarian Camilla Iannetti whose debut feature, The Golden Age, is about to celebrate its international premiere in the main competition of the Dutch gathering. The intimate doc, produced by Zabriskie with Cut&, follows Lucy, a music student from Palermo studying in England, who faces the end of her studies because of student debt. She is also preparing for the birth of her baby, Futura…

At Ji.hlava 2024, Business Doc Europe chatted with Michal Sikora, one of this year’s Emerging Producers. A Czech producer based in Prague, he established his company, Lonely Production, nine years ago during his studies at FAMU. During our conversation, Sikora discussed his new projects and the joys and pains of the producer’s job.

The 28th edition of Ji.hlava hosted a talk with the multi award-winning DOP and director Kirsten Johnson. The US filmmaker is best known for her work on acclaimed documentaries such as Citizenfour, The Oath, and Dick Johnson Is Dead. In her talk, Johnson delved into the emotional impact of her work, the ethics of documentary filmmaking, and the role of images and AI in modern society.

“I think I always try to see which form benefits which narrative, story, or topic. For me, it’s always organic,” Ji.hlava IDFF Emerging Producer Mariia Ponomarova tells BDE of her willingness to work across both documentary and fiction. “I studied in a film school in Ukraine where they taught us both, and I never had this idea of choosing one over the other. That’s why I’m going to work on my first hybrid film. […] I like switching hats, and it sometimes gives me necessary distance.”

At Ji.hlava 2024, writer-producer-director Maté Konkol and producer Balász Zachar pitched their timely new doc project, titled Books Are Our Weapons. Set in Hungary, the feature delves into life within a socially committed student commune. “Today, we all feel that young adults are aware of living in a society ruled by patriarchy and capitalism. They want to change things and their ways of life,” says Konkol of the project that is nearing completion.

Nardelli and La Rosa’s feature doc project is set in an isolated neighbourhood of Palermo, where three kids turn an abandoned building into a secret shelter. Together, they try to escape the violence of the outside world and share their dreams. “Here growing up means becoming part of a community wherein girls get pregnant at the age of 15, and boys drop out of school to get odd jobs or join the ranks of organised crime,” La Rosa told the Ji.hlava audience.

BDE takes a closer look at Dmytro Hreshko’s documentary Divia, pitched at this year’s New Visions Forum, hosted by Jihlava 2024. The film, fully financed and currently in post-production, examines the environmental impact of Russia’s invasion on Ukraine. “It’s hard to put some emotions into words because most of them are inside this project,” said Hreshko. “It’s really personal, and it’s hard to realise how many natural resources have been destroyed, mined, or occupied by Russian military forces.”

Haunted by the silence that defined his father’s life, director André Robert seeks to confront the legacy of intergenerational violence burdening the men in his family in his feature doc, currently in post-production and pitched at New Visions Forum. “I’m a queer filmmaker; I’m sure you know what ‘remaining silent’ means,” he told the professional audience at Ji.hlava.