Nick Cunningham

Derren Lawford (DARE Pictures) and Alex Tondowski (Tondowski Films) announced January 19 a new strategic partnership that will focus “exclusively on a selection of bold premium documentary productions for the international market.” Fatima Shafiq is hired as Head of Development to focus on new international doc projects.

Seven doc titles including Ukrainian Alisa Kovalenko’s We Will Not Fade Away, about five teenagers living in the conflict-ridden Donbas region of Ukraine who are given brief respite from reality when they are sent on a Himalayan expedition. The Special title Kiss the Future documents how the Dublin band U2 were enlisted to help shine a light on the seemingly forgotten citizens of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War.

The leading Greek festival has announced “a multifaceted and intriguing tribute to observational documentary” as the main tribute of the upcoming edition, running 2-12 March. “Masterpieces of world cinema redefine our perspective and interpretation of life and the world, while masterclasses from acclaimed international and Greek filmmakers unfold the secrets of this fascinating cinema genre,” write organisers.

The 28 films (10 docs) that make up the main programme of 53rd Berlinale Forum “celebrate the diversity of cinematic forms, approaches and narratives and explore the predicaments of the past and present in unflinching fashion,” writes the festival. The selection includes new docs by French Claire Simon, Polish Tomasz Wolski and Paris-based Iranian filmmaker Mehran Tamadon.

Netflix announced January 16 the return of the Documentary Talent Fund, to support emerging filmmakers. This year sees the programme extend to include the Republic of Ireland as well as the UK. “Building on the success of year one, the fund will continue to inspire and discover a new generation of documentary storytellers,” says Netflix. The theme for the next round of fully funded short docs is Connection.

Oscar-winning producer John Battsek (One Day In September), sat down with Daniel Roher and Bulgarian Christo Grozev, director of and key protagonist within the highly acclaimed documentary Navalny, about the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the subsequent (and shocking) investigation into the crime.

Oscar nominated Brazilian docmaker Petra Costa got to grips with Alex Pritz, director of The Territory, and the rain forest activist and Indigenous leader Bitaté Uru Eu Wau Wau. In the Academy Award short-listed feature doc, when a network of Brazilian farmers seizes a protected area of the Amazon rainforest, Bitaté and his mentor must fight back in defense of the land as well as other Indigenous peoples living deep within the forest.

Docmaker Leo Chiang sat down with Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine to discuss the pair’s Oscar shortlisted Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, an exploration of the life of the singer-songwriter as presented through the prism of his much covered and much renowned modern-day hymn. The film was a long time in gestation, maybe even as far back as 2009 when the pair saw Cohen in concert for the first time, suggests Goldfine…

Oscar-nominated Danish documentary maker Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Flee) spoke to Sara Dosa about her hotly tipped feature doc Fire of Love which tells the story of the doomed volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. “It was their character, their personalities, their philosophies which were so embodied in their life story,” she explains of the fascination she developed for her intrepid subjects.

Oscar winner James Marsh (Man On Wire, 2008) talks to Matthew Heineman about the powerful new doc Retrograde which captures the final 9 months of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan from multiple perspectives: one of the last U.S. Special Forces units deployed there, a young Afghan general and his corps defending their homeland from the Taliban, and the civilians desperately attempting to flee as the country collapses.