Davide Abbatescianni

At IDFA 2022, Amsterdam’s Royal Theatre Carré hosted a 90-minute conversation with Golden Lion, Academy Award-winning director Laura Poitras (Flag Wars, Citizenfour, The Oath, My Country My Country, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed), moderated by IDFA’s artistic director, Orwa Nyrabia.

Icelandic director Rut Sigurðardóttir tells BDE about her feature doc debut Skuld and her overall approach to non-fiction filmmaking. “I always believed that I wanted to tell other people’s stories...but very soon I realised that, of course, I’m always telling my own personal story, exploring my personal identity and role in this crazy world. [It’s] so obvious when you think about it... my covert narcissism disguised as altruism!”

Business Doc Europe caught up with Hadar Porubanova, managing director of the sales and distribution firm Ruth Films. “We were offered an unprecedented number of films this year, and only a few of them could make it to the Ruth Films’ catalogue. We try to keep things intimate, while picking subjects that are less covered by mainstream cinema,” she underlined.

Antipode’s IDFA slate will feature two lead titles, Humaira Bilkis’ Things I Could Never Tell My Mother (Best of Fests) and Kirill Nenashev’s Doc for Sales film Ice Under His Feet. Originally based in Moscow, Antipode relocated to Israel following the unfolding of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The company’s Anisa Kazakova explained that the sales outlet’s catalogue also includes several protest films.

A raft of new documentaries, spearheaded by Susanne Regina Meures’ Girl Gang (one of five feature docs recently nominated for a European Film Award) and Jorgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed’s Music for Black Pigeons, form Berlin-based sales agency Rise and Shine’s Docs for Sale line-up, ready to spark the interest of buyers and distributors at this year’s IDFA.

This year, Berlin-based sales agency Magnet Film brings seven new documentaries to IDFA’s Docs for Sale. Business Doc Europe talked to the German firm’s CEO, Georg Gruber, to find out more about the company’s rich non-fiction slate. “We are always looking for films with strong narratives, compelling subjects and characters, and with a clear appeal to a worldwide audience,” he says.

With a large Italian contingent of docmakers and professionals taking part at IDFA 2022, BDE sat down with two reps of DocIt, Italy’s national association of documentarians, to discuss how the country’s doc scene is developing, their agenda for the fest and the Italian titles and projects set to be showcased or screened this year. DocIt president Francesco Virga, and Lucia Pornaro, in charge of DocIt’s internationalisation processes, filled us in.

On 29 October, Ji.hlava IDFF hosted a panel during which European festival directors discussed the boycott of Russian cinematography and other ethical dilemmas. Panelists included Cintia Gil (co-curator of Unidocs’ Artistic Differences), Veton Nurkollari (artistic director of Kosovo’s DokuFest), Viktoria Leshchenko (programme director of Docudays UA) and Marek Hovorka (director of Ji.hlava IDFF).

On 28 October, the Ex Oriente Film workshop, organized by the Institute of Documentary Film at Ji.hlava IDFF, hosted a masterclass by award-winning Czech director, script editor and FAMU lecturer Lucie Kralová. During her talk, the helmer focused on her latest documentary feature, titled ‘Kapr Code’ and revolving around the progressive Prague-born composer and prominent communist activist Jan Kapr (1914–1988).

On 14 October, the Rome-based MIA market shone the spotlight on one of the most successful non-fiction hits of the year, the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler. The one-hour discussion, moderated by Joel Zimmer, President of AGC Unwritten at AGC Studios, saw the participation of director Felicity Morris.