Geoffrey Macnab

“Time,” director Barney Douglas tells Business Doc Europe when asked just how he managed to prise tennis star John McEnroe so far out of his shell in his revealing and intimate new feature documentary, McEnroe, receiving its international premiere at Sheffield Doc Fest in advance of its UK release next month.

Bob Rosenzweig is an abrasive, quick-witted Jewish New Yorker, devoted to his family. He loves to play the guitar drink a whisky and tell stories about his wild, carefree youth - how he went to Woodstock as a teenager and his encounters with famous rock stars. But Bob is also suffering from Parkinson’s Disease and has decided he wants to end his life, a process that Amiel Courtin-Wilson chronicles in his new film, selected for International Competition. Courtin-Wilson talks to BDE.

Doc Society will be a major presence at Sheffield DocFest this week. The UK not for profit foundation, which has run the BFI Doc Society Fund since 2018, will have 10 films screening in the festival, including the world premiere in competition of Kim Hopkins’ crowd-pleaser A Bunch Of Amateurs, sold by MetFilms, and presents 6 works-in-progress. Doc Soc’s Shanida Scotland and Sandra Whipham tell BDE what to expect.

UK doc specialist outfit Dogwoof came to Cannes ten days ago with realistic expectations of what could be achieved on the Croisette, given that the festival is primarily driven by theatrical titles. “With the theatrical figures not looking great anywhere, we knew it was going to be a very tricky market,” Ana Vicente [Dogwoof head of sales] tells Business Doc Europe.

The celebrated French writer talks about her archive documentary, selected for Directors Fortnight and co-directed with her son David Ernaux-Briot, which is comprised of home footage filmed by her then husband in the 1970s and 80s and accompanied by a very pointed commentary on when and why all the footage was shot. Son David joins her in conversation with BDE.

Tel Aviv-based Cinephil has been making waves in the Marché this week with a slate of new docs, among them Julie Bertuccelli’s feature Jane Campion: The Cinema Woman, which has been screening in Cannes Classics. The archive-based doc looks at the life and career of Campion, the director of Power Of The Dog and The Piano. Cinephil MD Olivier Tournaud tells BDE about the Campion doc and his entire Cannes slate.

The directors talk to BDE about their documentary that deals in very graphic detail with aspects of the human body doc and for which they were granted free access to the hospitals of northern Paris, establishing a rapport with the doctors. “Every time, they go smoke a cigarette, we were with them…we followed them to the operating rooms everywhere. When you have access, you have access.”

Chiledoc Director Paula Ossandón and Chief Executive Diego Pino outlined the Chilean offer at the Cannes festival and market in 2022 ahead of the May 23 Chilean Showcase. “Chile has a tradition of documentary but in the last 10 years we have had an internationalisation of Chilean films. We created Chiledoc thinking about how to support new filmmakers and [to help] experienced filmmakers be present in these kind of festivals,” says Pino.

Jane Campion is one of the towering figures of world cinema. She was the first woman to win the Palme D’Or in Cannes and has made a string of hugely powerful and influential movies, among them An Angel At My Table, The Piano, Portrait Of A Lady and, most recently, the Oscar winning Power Of The Dog. Nonetheless, the New Zealander still doesn’t always get her due, director Julie Bertuccelli tells BDE.

It’s a mind boggling number. China, as Gary Lennon’s new film Piano Dreams reveals, has 40 million piano students. They practise for 10 hours a day or more - and they nearly all dream of emulating the success of China’s global superstar, Lang Lang. The director duets with Business Doc Europe about the new doc, sold by MetFilm Sales and a market premiere in Cannes.