Geoffrey Macnab

For Intersection, Karoline Rößler designed a computer game that reveals the levels of discrimination that certain players face. It’s a game designed to be unfair. In the documentary, six protagonists who’ve faced discrimination because of their sexuality, ethnicity or disability, are interviewed individually and take part in a round-table discussion. “I just researched a lot of people who felt were like-minded about the topics I want to stand for, and that I wanted this film to speak about,” the director tells BDE.

Ron Rothschild’s A Jewish Problem probes into very uncomfortable areas both in his family’s history, and that of the state of Israel. Its central figure is his grandmother, Ruth, whom he interviewed at length before she died. “She was a complex figure. She was involved in actions that are morally dubious and she is testifying about this,” Rothschild tells BDE. “I myself had the same kind of history. I am not in the position to judge her.”

Without silver, the 21st Century would be unrecognisable, such is its ubiquitous use across tech - from phones to electronics to AI. But it’s also the cause both of widespread exploitation and many deaths within the mines where it is sourced. In her feature doc, Natalia Koniarz follows the Indigenous folk of Potosi, Bolivia, who have worked these mines for 500 years. “Over 8 million people are believed to have died here since silver was discovered in 1545,” she tells BDE. “They were enslaved. They were forced.”

In Trumpian America, there are still small corners where an old-fashioned sense of community still prevails. One such place is Lumpkin, in Stewart County, Georgia, where there is a hardware store run by the very affable Kellie. Her shop is a bastion of good-natured tolerance. As for their film’s selection for Leipzig, the filmmakers speculate to BDE that one of the reasons may be that “in times of ultra-crazy political divisions,” it shows people simply “getting along.”

Melt is a movie that intends to wrap its audience in a giant white shawl; to explore snow in all its manifestations and guises - and, yes, we do also see penguins traipsing across icy landscapes. But it also offers a grim reflection on how snow is an element in retreat. “If this film had had the title ‘Climate Change,’ nobody would have wanted to see it,” he reflects. “I’m not expecting a film like this to change the world, of course not, but consciousness is the beginning for any change…you can raise awareness!”

Industry chief Nadja Tennstedt fills in BDE on what professionals can expect over the coming week, during the 68th edition of DOK Leipzig. This year, a record number of 391 projects were submitted for the DOK Co-Pro Market, of which 35 were chosen, and funders, broadcasters and sales agents were alerted in advance to the projects and filmmakers they may wish to focus on, and vice versa. “That’s how we schedule over 900 meetings that take place over the course of two days,” Tennstedt affirms to BDE.

White Smoke over Schwarze Pumpe, selected for German Competition at DOK Leipzig, is a film of two halves, looking at working class life in an East German industrial town. The first part was shot by Peter Badel and Dieter Chill just after reunification, the second half between 2019 and 2025 by Badel and Martin Gressmann, the latter of whom answers questions posed by Business Doc Europe.

Swiss audiences may be startled by Gregor Brändli’s new feature premiering in International Competition at DOK Leipzig, and sold by Filmotor. The film looks at the very troubling legacy of the Swiss naturalists Paul and Fritz Sarasin who looted huge amounts of sacred objects and even body parts from Sri Lanka in the late 19th and early 20th Century. “We always grew up with the narrative that we didn’t have colonies and so we’re the good guys,” the director tells BDE, and therefore hopes the film will spark discussions about this little-known side of Swiss history.

Roberto Rossellini - Living Without A Script is the latest production from B&B Film, the company which also made the hit 2020 documentary, The Rossellinis, about the great director’s colourful and eccentric family dynasty. In their new film, Ilaria de Laurentius, Andrea Paolo Mascara and Raffaele Brunetti place the focus firmly on Rossellini himself. “I think I discovered not so much the filmmaker, but Rossellini the man, his fragility and his contradictions,” co-director de Laurentiis tells BDE.

Director Chai Vasarhelyi is fulsome in her praise for courageous and “diligent” conflict photographer Lynsey Addario, the subject of the new National Geographic feature doc Love+War. Wherever she is, Addario has “the discipline to do the work to an excellent, uncompromising level…and what is so special about her work is the heart, humanity and emotion she brings to it,” she says. Addario joins Vasarhelyi in conversation with BDE.