Geoffrey Macnab

We may live in an era of fake news and rapidly declining trust in media sources but Writing With Fire (sold internationally by Autlook and in the US by Submarine) reminds us of just how vital journalism can be in protecting democracy and human rights. Co-directors Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh talk to BDE.

It’s summer in New York, a time of mild respite from the COVID crisis. Across the city, young and old alike are looking for romance, companionship or sex. And they’re all using online dating apps in the hope of connecting with the perfect match.

“There is someone with a gun, but Gianfranco doesn’t want to stop shooting, so please call him,” was just one of the demands that producer Donatella Palermo had to consider when producing Gianfranco Rosi’s Notturno, the Italian candidate for the International Oscar. Palermo tells more to BDE.

If there is one filmmaker who can cope with lockdown, it is Victor Kossakovsky. Put it to the director of porcine-themed Gunda that you could put him in a shoebox and he’d be able to make a documentary, and he readily agrees. Kossakovsky gets cosy with Business Doc Europe.

British doc director Oliver Murray (whose film Ronnie’s about legendary jazz club proprietor Ronnie Scott is still screening on the festival circuit) is preparing an ambitious new three-part documentary series about the Montreux Jazz Festival. BDE reports.

As the awards momentum behind Romanian director Alexander Nanau’s Collective (sold internationally by Cinephil) gathers, one executive who can justifiably feel pride is Hanka Kastelicová, Executive Producer of Documentaries for HBO Europe. She talks to Business Doc Europe.

“I am making this film for my family, for my people, for me,” Swedish-based Iranian director Nahid Persson tells Business Doc Europe ahead of her impact documentary Be My Voice’s world premiere in Nordic Documentary Competition at Göteborg Film Festival.

Ebullient producer-distributor-sales agent Frank Mannion, boss of London-based Swipe Films, is taking the plunge into directing with Sparkling: The Story Of Champagne, a feature doc that looks into the origins of one of the world’s most favourite and fizziest of luxury tipples.

International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) founder and former director Ally Derks has paid tribute to British director Michael Apted, who died in Los Angeles last week, aged 79.

Like many other Georgian citizens, filmmaker Salomé Jashi was startled to see images of a gigantic tree floating down the Black Sea. It was on its way to the home of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire former Prime Minister of Georgia, who wanted it for his garden. Jashi branches out with BDE.