Nick Cunningham

Do you remember when tech start-ups would find you a place for the night, or locate a taxi just a minute away, or deliver you a burger? Just to make the business of living that little bit easier. Well, now start-ups are dealing in death, enabling grieving folk to communicate with AI-generated versions of their deceased loved ones, via web chat or VR. “[People] don't believe in God anymore…but at the same time, they can't deal with the fact that death is finite,” co-director Moritz Riesewieck tells BDE. “And these tech companies have a big chance to fill this gap.”

Over CAD 47,000 (approx. €32,000) in First Look prizes were handed out May 1 as doors closed on Hot Docs Forum 2024. The first prize of CAD 20,000 (€13,600) went to Arrest the Midwife (WT) by Elaine Epstein (US). The second prize of CAD 10,000 (€6,800) went to Autumn of the Patriarch by Anna Bogoliubova (Norway). The third prize of CAD 5,000 (€3,400) went to Under the Flags, the Sun by Juanjo Pereira (Paraguay). The 2024 CMF-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Pitch Prize was won by This Land of Ours by Ngardy Conteh George.

Thirty-one members have put themselves forward for election to the board of the new Documentary Film Council. Voting will open May 13 and close on Friday 31 May, with results to be announced June 3. The UK-based sector-wide body was launched at Sheffield DocFest 2023 with a remit “to represent the UK’s independent documentary community, facilitate transparent communication within the sector and take effective, coordinated action to address the key issues facing the sector.”

Before doors open on the 27th DocsBarcelona (May 2 to 12), Business Doc Europe talks to Artistic Director Anna Petrus about the event that has become one of southern Europe’s must-attend doc fests. “The festival takes place during the first two weeks of May when Barcelona becomes the epicenter of documentary filmmakers and professionals from all over the world,” Petrus underlines.

In Malta, abortion is illegal, almost without exception. In Italy, a single woman cannot have IVF treatment, while only a small number of European countries allow for euthanasia or assisted suicide. So it is not surprising that Europe has seen a boom in cross-border “medical tourism” over recent years, a phenomenon that Greek director Elina Psykou examines in her feature doc Stray Bodies, selected for EFP’s Changing Face of Europe programme. Psykou talks to BDE.

Jana is one of a small number of Protestant pastors in Slovenia. But while her faith remains intact, she begins to question her commitment to life as a cleric as she is increasingly sidelined by the Church authorities. At the same time, her marriage is under severe strain, and she further confides to director Prettner, in the most candid of terms, of childhood sexual abuse that she suffered. “We spent two hours a day when we were driving, and in the car she revealed the most intimate stuff,” the director tells BDE.

Norwegian Democrazy may focus ostensibly on Lars Thorsen and Fanny Bråten, a pair of objectionable Quran-burning anti-Islam extremists, but the raison d’etre of the film is to explore the difficult overlap between ‘free speech’ and ‘hate speech’ and how modern democracy is geared up to deal with this. “He knows exactly how far it can go and how far it cannot go,” co-director Kjøge Rønning says of the ‘free speech’ dilemma that Thorsen is all too keen to exploit.

In Limits of Europe, Czech journalist Sasha Uhlová sets out to experience what it’s like to be an Eastern European economic migrant in the West, working impossibly long hours for low wages and leaving behind her partner, four kids and seriously ill father - just as so many economic migrants are forced to do. The film “is a mirror reflecting the world we live in even though we have a habit of turning a blind eye to what is happening in it,” says director Apolena Rychlíková.

The National Competition of the 64th Krakow Film Festival promises a showcase of 40 “outstanding and incredibly diverse” Polish films, twelve of which are feature docs and eight of which are documentary shorts. Furthermore, three Polish docs will compete across the festival’s two International Competitions. The 64th Krakow Film Festival will be held in cinemas 26 May to 2 June and online across Poland from 31 May to 16 June 2024.

Drawn from 533 submissions, the 50 projects in the 2024 selection encompass 44 countries of production and co-production. New works will be presented from experienced producers such as Ina Fichman, Estelle Robin You, Monica Lazurean-Gorgan and Michèle Stevenson, working alongside first time and second time filmmakers. Five Rough Cut titles which will be screened to industry representatives and receive tailored feedback.