Nick Cunningham

Some ideas can be surprisingly simple, and the perfect execution of such an idea can result in something brilliant. That happens in The Hearing, a documentary which gives an unexpected twist to the asylum application procedure in hyper-correct Switzerland.

Fremantle Documentaries unveiled March 21 its new Undeniable label, dedicated to producing world-class premium feature documentaries and series. The label will develop and produce premium projects, “and harness its global expertise to attract and work with high-profile talent and international commissioners,” the company says. 

Finnish director Juha Suonpää may never have seen an Eurasian lynx, but the bearded and grizzled Hannu certainly has. He is a keeper of the forest, and a man who has turned his back on just about all that the 21st Century has to offer. In Lynx Man, world-premiering in CPH:DOX, Suonpää not only documents the elusive cat’s re-emergence into the wilds, but profiles the life of this shaman-like guardian of nature.

Swedish director Mia Engberg tells how she made her new documentary during a period when she had no idea how long she was likely to live, following a bleak, and unexpected, medical diagnosis. She had decided to make a film with just a black screen and voices, as she believed it would be her last. “But then I survived, so I just added more and more images and music and layers to the film,” Engberg says.

In Vintersaga, based on a 24-stanza epic song, albeit one composed as late as 1984, Swedish director Carl Olsson frames ordinary folk doing ordinary things. Shot in the main from a static camera, the effect is hypnotic. “It’s always a balance or a dance,” Olsson tells BDE. “How much can I can push the language, push the setting, without disturbing this very fragile authenticity?”

The Grand Geneva Award (CHF 10’000) was won March 18 by Inna Sahakyan for Aurora’s Sunrise. Colette et Justin picked up the Gilda Vieira de Mello Award (€5000). My Name is Happy by Ayşe Toprak & Nick Read was awarded the Youth Jury Prize, while Abbas Rezaie’s Etilaat Roz won the Prize of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT).

CPH:INDUSTRY kicks off in earnest March 20 with a chock-a-block 6-day programme of masterclasses, case studies, talks, debates and screenings, not to mention the 33-project CPH:Forum selection of new projects. “CPH:INDUSTRY is reflecting a deep connection with the festival side of CPH:DOX. All what we do embodies the same philosophy, the same values and a deep interest in non-fiction art, science and the society,” says Industry boss Tereza Simikova.

Lightdox is expanding its sales operations into France, MD Anna Berthollet told BDE on the eve of CPH:DOX 2023. With a new base in Annecy, the move will allow the Swiss company “to explore all the new opportunities around impact and semi-theatrical distribution, and basically to do more crafted work for films that we engage on board each year,” she said. The company will handle sales on new CPH docs Motherland and The Other Profile.

“I wanted to make a hymn to nature and to my parents and my ancestors,” Norwegian director Margreth Olin tells BDE of her epic new documentary Songs of Earth, world-premiering at CPH:DOX and filmed beside Europe’s largest inland glacier, the same one that dominated the landscape where Olin grew up. “I wanted nature to be the main character of the film.” But, as we see, Songs of Earth is as much an ode to her dear father.

In New Boats, illegal fishing by companies from Far Eastern countries is forcing fishermen in Sierra Leone to emigrate, but some of them are putting up fierce resistance. “The documentary is an investigative piece that tells a relevant story of a community struggle trying to save not only their livelihoods but the critical food source that the country depends on,” says director Lansana Mansaray.