Mark Adams

When two Brazilian filmmakers in separate continents - one in Sao Paulo, the other in LA - decide to eschew messaging and social media, instead creating a manifesto of video-letter correspondence, the resulting film is an engaging delve into the lives of two intelligent and creative women as they reflect on art, politics, emotions and friendship.

It is a tough call to make a gripping documentary centred around economics, but it is to Chilean Carola Fuentes and Rafael Valdeavellano’s credit that their central characters are intriguingly complex, presented against a backdrop of the country’s popular revolts of 2019. The film world premieres in Rebellion Strand.

Palestinian political figure Marwan Barghouti, often described as the ‘Palestinian Nelson Mandela’, is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison following what was seen by many as his unlawful arrest and imprisonment. Sophia Scott and Georgia Scott’s film may well be straightforward in tone and structure, but this takes nothing from the strength of this provocative and compassionate story.

Very much the perfect fit for public audiences at the Sheffield DocFest, the engagingly enthusiastic Studio Electrophonique tells the strange and rather wonderful story of an amateur music engineer who built a sound studio in his own modest house, ending up working with a series of now-iconic local bands during the 1980s and 90s and helping them onto the road to success.

A deeply prescient and gently revealing documentary, One Day in Ukraine delivers just as the title states…a snapshot of one day in a country under siege as ordinary people (and sometimes extraordinary ones) go about their lives, whether it be preparing food or walking devastated streets, heavily armed and ready to fight.

For his directorial debut, Ethan Coen offers up a vibrant and often exhilarating look at the turbulent life of a true rock’n’roll legend, dealing with the demons that drove Jerry Lee Lewis. To an extent this is a non-judgmental film that is as much about his determined resilience as it is the scandals that haunted his life, but it is also tight and lean, brimming with mesmerising footage and illuminating interviews.

It seems shrewdly appropriate that director Julie Bertuccelli’s documentary Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman should have its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Classics section. Not only does it highlight the importance the festival has played in her illustrious career, but it also reinforces the challenges women still have in terms of making films in an industry historically dominated by men.

A charming and often melancholic documentary that follows the efforts of two avian- and environmentally-minded brothers, Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes tells the story of Saud and Nadeem as they rescue and care for thousands of New Delhi’s black kite birds. A winner in Sundance World Documentary Competition earlier this year, the film gets a Special Screening at Cannes.

A striking portrait of a young teenager working as a labourer around the Perkoa gold mine in Burkina Faso, If You Are A Man sees the young Opio face the toughest of decisions as he realises that the only way to make money to pay for his schooling is to head down into the mine himself, a prospect that terrifies him.

A love story about two young disenfranchised Germans, whose romance is played out against the backdrop of Berlin’s streets, Heiko Aufermauer and Johannes Girke’s engaging and watchable film never passes judgment as this sometimes troubled couple kiss, embrace and also struggle to kickstart their young lives.