Helen Fripp

“What initially began as a portrait of loss and transformation is now evolving into something luminous, where life, resilience, and affection create space for hope,” says producer Estephania Bonnett (Playlab Films, Barcelona) of her latest project, Captain. Currently in production and pitching this week during FIPADOC Pro Industry days, the film records a farewell between a father suffering from Alzheimer’s and his daughter (director Laura Otálora).

Jane Ray, Artistic Director of The Whickers, presented January 28 findings of her organisation’s eighth Cost of Docs survey to the professional audience at FIPADOC in Biarritz. The report includes revelations and insights about the use of technology and AI within the doc industry, positive and negative experiences in co-production, and the ever-present concern around funding. Before her presentation, Ray spoke exclusively to BDE.

The first major doc fest of the year, and screening over 150 films from 35 countries, the 8th edition of Biarritz-based FIPADOC kicks off January 23, running to January 31. Additionally, Industry Days, a key event in the local and international doc calendar will see a gathering of France’s foremost docmakers, producers, broadcasters and industry professionals. FIPADOC boss Christine Camdessus discusses her festival’s offer, both for public and professionals, with BDE.

Flemming Fynsk’s intimate portrait of Ginny Williams (1927-2019) brings to life the story of a collector who seemed to have an instinct for female artists who were destined to take the art world by storm. “I'm all about character and heart and originality and I just had this feeling that it's rare to meet a character like her, somebody who's so confident in who she is, and how she interacts with the world. And I had a great desire to capture it,” Fynsk tells BDE.

The part-animated feature documentary tells the story of the firebrand Nora Morales de Cortiñas, aka Norita, who became a symbol of resistance in Argentina after her son Guistavo was disappeared in the 1970s, along with thousands of other young activists. With other grieving women, she founded the campaigning Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. “It's just remarkable. It's phenomenal to think that a group of housewives basically toppled a military regime,” says co-director Jayson McNamara.

Docmaker Mary Stephen’s Palimpsest: The Story of a Name draws on family secrets and outstanding archive footage to pose the universal question, what’s in a name? As the late Eric Rohmer’s editor, Stephen is a cutter of high renown, a fact that informs her debut feature doc. “The real structure of the story really comes out when I'm editing, so that confirms that editing is my calling,” she tells BDE. “That really is the guiding approach to this film. I kept saying to people that [the story] will come when I'm editing it. Try and convince an unknown funder with that! Luckily, we had ARTE come on board very early.”

Back in 2023, filmmaker Josh Appignanesi screened his feature doc My Extinction at COP28 in Dubai. While there, he got his camera out to record his impressions, which he presents in the feature doc Colossal Wreck, which opens this weekend across the UK. “I thought, well, obviously, I have to go because it'll be interesting and fun,” he tells BDE. “Also, surely Dubai is going to be insanely dripping with visual irony with every image that surely will be a sort of metaphor for the state of play in the world at large…”

Four documentary changemakers from diverse backgrounds united during the Sunny Side of The Doc ‘Sunny Ladies: Let’s get powered up!’ session. Dawn Porter, Director of Trilogy Films (US), Shaminder Nahal, Head of Specialist Factual at Channel 4 (UK), Andrea Rawlins, Director and Producer at Capa Presse (France) and Rafaella Costa, CEO of Manjericão Filmes (Brazil). Business Doc Europe reports.

Sitting on a potential goldmine of approximately 25% of the world's hydrocarbon reserves, the third-largest uranium reserves, and 20% of rare earths, Greenland is an icy Eldorado that today sparks all sorts of ambitions. “It's not the beauty of the landscapes which interests Donald Trump,” Jean-Yves Cauchard, co-director of Greenland, told the SSD professional audience of his latest project.

Mathare Fathers spotlights the lives of three single fathers from the vast Mathare slum (Nairobi, Kenya) who have left behind a life of crime to start a new one as single fathers. “Today, masculinity is at the crossroads,” says co-director Mattias Grosin says. “But these guys, they're building something so strong and beautiful together with the kids in one of the world's most harsh places. Love has become a lifeline.”