Helen Fripp

BDE caught up with Dutch artists/filmmakers Lonnie van Brummelen & Siebren de Haan, as well as Surinamese writer, theatre maker and performer Tolin Alexander, the three directors of Monikondee (Money Land), which world-premiered at Cinéma du réel. Produced by Vriza Productions, the film follows a boatman, Boogie, who delivers cargo to remote indigenous and Maroon communities along the river bordering Suriname and French Guyana, overcoming increasingly complex challenges en route.

‘From a child’s perspective, I soon questioned the imbalance in these relationships, wondering how these incredibly young women had the strength to leave their homes,’ Portuguese director Leonor Noivo describes how a seed planted in her childhood eventually grew into her latest work, Filipinas, which follows the fate of three women at different stages of their experiences as live-in maids - a phenomenon she’d observed growing up in 80s and 90s Macao.

“Crossing the Mountains is a necessary and urgent film, telling the story of one of Europe’s most symbolic borders through an intimate and political lens,” says producer Céline Loiseau of her ParisDOC 2025 project. “At a time when fascism and migration repression are intensifying, this film offers a powerful narrative of resistance and solidarity. It is not just a documentary about the migration crisis, but a broader reflection on our times, on the struggles of those who challenge borders, and on the fragility of our idea of freedom.”

“First and foremost, it is a rare and unique point of view, one of the very few representatives of Chechen culture in contemporary cinema,” says French producer Alexandra Mélot ahead of the March 27 ParisDOC Work-in-Progress screening of Imago by director Déni Oumar Pitsaev. “Imago is an initiation tale about a free-spirited young man's search for his roots as he confronts the traditional dogmas of his clan, which he left as a teenager to exile in France.”

“Two out of three protagonists of Anatomy of a Portrait are on stage while the third, despite being the reason for their initial encounter, is a ghost,” begins the synopsis of Mattia Colombo and Francesco Clerici’s latest documentary opus, presented at this week’s ParisDOC Work-In-Progress forum. BDE was intrigued enough to catch with the film’s producer, Marco Malfi Chindemi to find out more.

BDE caught up with Elijah Stevens, producer of Barbara Forever, ahead of the project’s March 26 Work-in-Progress presentation at ParisDOC. Directed by Brydie O’Connor, the film is described as the first ever feature documentary to exclusively tell the story of the lesbian experimental filmmaker, Barbara Hammer. “Her work [has] become a blueprint for a new generation of queer and radical artists to write our own histories into existence,” says Stevens.

Traditionally based in the Pompidou Centre and opening March 22, the 47th edition has shifted this year to Paris’ Latin Quarter, and will take place across a series of commercial cinemas. There are 37 films in the competition, showcasing, as the festival tells us, ‘documentary creation in all its diversity, as well as world, international, or French premieres.’ Core to events is ParisDOC, the festival’s industry forum, which kicks off March 25.

Three documentary toppers shared their points of view on the non-fiction landscape at Fipadoc in Biarritz 30 January 2025. Hanka Kastelicova of HBO Max, Mark Edwards, former Director of Documentaries for Netflix (Europe), and Renaud Allilaire from France Télévisions, formed the panel which was chaired by Fipadoc’s Head of Co-production Forum, Ove Rishøj Jensen.

In Biarritz, the producer/director team of Johnny Brewin and Laura Plancarte presented their project Boom!, the story of Champion fighter G-Air and Sonia, a boxing couple who find solace in Muay Thai. At the heart of the story is a dilemma - what happens when they stop fighting? This layered story explores the balance between parenting, societal expectations and the relentless internal noise that pushes them to their limits.

Presented in Biarritz and tying in with this year’s focus on the Balkans at Fipadoc, co-directors Filip Grujić and Aleksa Borković’s doc Yugo Goes to America is based on an odyssey across America in the eponymous car that every family within the former Yugoslavia has a story about. “We wanted to see if we can actually have the best time in the worst car ever,” Grujić told attendees.