Geoffrey Macnab

What do you do when a close friend disappears out of your life? This is a dilemma that filmmaker Christine Saab wrestles with in her short film In The Space You Left, which received its premiere in UK competition at Sheffield Doc Fest this week. The director muses further with BDE.

Nira Burstein’s debut feature Charm Circle (whose world premiere this week at Sheffield Doc Fest was very warmly received) is a warts-and-all family affair in which the director gets up close and very personal with her mother, father and sisters. The director does the same with Business Doc Europe.

It was a day that shook the world, and 20 years on its reverberations are still being felt. Now, Arthur Cary has made Surviving 9/11 (Working Title) for the BBC that will be broadcast in the early autumn to mark the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. The director answers questions from BDE.

It is 75 years since Pakistani freedom fighter Fatima Sughra clambered on to the top of a high building to pull down the British flag. Her example still inspires the Karachi feminists featured in Anam Abbas’ feature debut This Stained Dawn, screening as a world premiere in Sheffield this week. Abbas explains to BDE.

The prolific Irish/Scottish director talks to Business Doc Europe about the joys of looking and the brilliance of selfies, Gertrude Stein’s equation on observation and construction and what it’s like, post-cataract op, to have Robert Altman living in one of your eyes.

US experimental filmmaker, photographer and poet Lynne Sachs’ new short E•pis•to•lar•y: Letter to Jean Vigo (screening June 6 as part of Let’s Start Again at the Sheffield Doc Fest) offers an unusual meditation on the events of January 6, 2021, when protesters stormed the United States Capitol in Washington. The director explains to BDE.

Sérgio Borges and Helvécio Marins Jr. aren’t just respected filmmakers whose work has been shown widely on the international festival circuit. They’re also passionate fans of Clube Atlético Mineiro, the Brazilian football team nicknamed Galo, the subject of their IFFR selection. Marins Jr. discusses the beautiful game with BDE.

Spanish director Alba Sotorra talks to Business Doc Europe about her doc in which she she explores the plight of the so-called ISIS brides, including the divisive Shamima Beguma from the UK and the American Hoda Muthana.

After an eight-hour phone conversation, Russian filmmaker Julia Sergina and the charismatic, outspoken, ranting and highly unusual taxi driver Viktor decided to work together on a doc. The resulting film screens in Krakow Documentary Competition. The director flags down BDE to explain more.

To call Walk With Angels a tough documentary to make is somewhat of an understatement. During shooting in the townships surrounding Johannesburg, Polish director Tomasz Wysokiński had a shotgun pointed in his face and saw someone murdered in front of him. He tells all to BDE.