Geoffrey Macnab

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.

The presence of outsiders - whether missionaries, doctors or illegal gold prospectors - leaves a deep impression on the lives of indigenous Wayana folk living on the border of Surinam and French Guyana. These Invasive encounters continue to reshape their daily lives. The film is shot in black and white to echo the films of earlier missionaries. Another reason was to introduce nuance. “There is no good and bad - but a lot of grey,” co-director Zaïde Bil tells BDE of life in the region.

Cassette for timescapes producer Emmy Oost discusses Belgian-Turkish director Volkan Üce’s new project, a work-in-progress at Flanders Film Days. It is a film very much about men and masculinity. “Through the lens of the military service, [Volkan] will be looking at the patriarchy, but the conclusion is the same - that men and women are equally victims of patriarchal structures,” she tells Business Doc Europe.

“Initially a small, obnoxious collective of like-minded film students,” is how Brussels-based production outfit Visualantics describes itself. At the inaugural Flanders Film Days, the company is presenting four diverse works-in-progress. “For most of these projects, it is the very first time they have been shared with such a large audience of film professionals. It’s a good opportunity to see how they are received and what feedback we get from the room. Anything else is a nice extra, already a plus,” producer Steven Dhoedt tells BDE.