Geoffrey Macnab

In his 2018 feature documentary Breathless, Daniel Lambo took on the asbestos industry. In his new project Porto Central, (a documentary feature pitch at Connext), Lambo has Shell and the oil industry firmly in his sights. “Usually, that is a motor for my work. When I get kind of angry, I need to do something with this anger,” Lambo tells BDE of what motivates him as a filmmaker.

It’s over 30 years now since the night skies of Belgium were lit up by what seemed to be an invasion of UFOs. All these decades later, there is still fierce debate as to whether the visitation from the UFOs happened for real or whether it was an elaborate hoax. Bram Conjaerts’ new doc series project attempts to get to the bottom of the unsolved mystery. The director talks to BDE.

Emmy Oost (Cassette for timescapes) is one of Belgium’s most innovative producers whose work invariably has a strong sense of political and social engagement. One such work is the new doc series She They Us - Towards an Equal Future by Sam Peeters, Heleen Declercq and Zaïde Bil which profiles seven people facing discrimination because of gender, sexuality, colour, age, class and religion. The producer talks to BDE.

“This year, it is quite obvious that filmmakers have gone out again, looking further…it was possible again after the lockdowns to go out into the world,” the Leipzig boss tells BDE about one of the trends within his 2023 programme. He also fulfils a longstanding ambition in 2023. For the first time, DOK Leipzig will host an International Competition for animated film.

“The ongoing success of Swedish documentaries owes a lot to co-production forums and festivals such as Nordisk Panorama,” SFI Doc Film Commissioner Anna Weitz tells BDE. “For Nordic filmmakers, the Nordisk Panorama is the one where concrete collaborations take off…it is really the place to go to pitch a project that can turn it into a Nordic co-production.”

Iris Olsson is one of two documentary commissioners at the Finnish Film Foundation. That means she is gatekeeper, assessing which projects will receive support from the Foundation. “In our strategy, we support diversity. With the means we have, we are trying to help upcoming artists to start their career; we are trying to get the international hits; we are trying to tackle the big, current subjects,” she tells BDE.

Fiction? Documentary? For prolific Danish producer Rikke Tambo Andersen, CEO of Tambo Film, both forms are equally appealing. “It’s two very different ways of thinking, both creatively but also financially,” Andersen tells BDE of the contrast between dramas and docs. “It keeps me on my toes creatively.” Andersen is at the Nordisk Panorama this week with two of her new doc projects in the Forum.

In Bresky’s latest film she tells the story of a group of Sámi artists who , back in the 1970s, formed a collective and became involved in protests against the building of a massive hydroelectric dam which threatened to obliterate their community. “I think I bring a part of Sámi culture, history and heritage and give it to the Sámi people,” Bresky reflects to BDE on one of her main goals in making the documentary.

After rave reviews at Hot Docs, Icelandic filmmaker Gaukur Úlfarsson’s new doc is in Nordic Competition at Nordisk Panorama 2023. He talks to BDE about the “near genius” artist and provocateur Ragnar Kjartansson who, in 2021, had the madcap idea to recreate American soap opera Santa Barbara in Russia. But then the war happened. “Putin didn’t just invade Ukraine. He also invaded this documentary. He invaded everything!” says Úlfarsson.

Now in her early 70s, Sigrun Gunnarsdóttir is one of the most admired artists currently working on the Faroe Islands. The simplicity of her paintings is deceptive. She uses allegory and symbolism in a subtle and disarming way. Co-director Marianna Mørkøre discusses her film, which includes stop-motion animation, with BDE. “We felt that if we were making a different kind of documentary,” she says.