Nick Cunningham

A New Yorker with an astonishing voice and the most vagabond of creative sensibilities, 82-year old Meredith Monk is the genius that few people have ever heard of. Unless, of course, you’re David Byrne or Björk, or Philip Glass for whom “she, among all of us, was – and still is – the uniquely gifted one.” “I've talked to people who've had a whole career producing music documentaries, and the first question they ask is, ‘is she related to Thelonious?” director tells BDE of his inimitable but largely unknown subject.

Outrageous, internationally acclaimed queer artist Ivo Dimchev’s response to the pandemic was to perform more than 400 private concerts in people’s homes in his home country of Bulgaria, as well as in Istanbul, New York, and Los Angeles. But the concert he really needed to perform, and which concludes the film, is for his parents who never stood by him when he needed them most. “I was drawn to Ivo’s defiance—his passion for life,” comments director Kristina Nikolova. “He reawakened something in me that had gone dormant in motherhood and during COVID.”

Running 25 June to 24 August in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, the Oscar-qualifying docfest will present 32 world premieres and 20 international premieres, “Tackling themes of community, resilience, and the universal power of human connection,” organisers write, “these films are bold, raw, and resonant—reflecting the festival’s 20-year legacy of fearless storytelling.”

The 28th edition of the Catalan fest launches May 8, heralding 11 days of frenetic professional and public-facing doc activity, the whole thing kicking off with Andres Veiel’s Riefenstahl, which offers a reminder of the dark role that cinema played 80 years ago, before the Allies’ liberation of Europe. “It felt important to revisit Riefenstahl’s legacy — not to glorify it, but to interrogate it,” says incoming co-director Maria Colomer. “Her images shaped a totalitarian vision, and the film asks us to confront how beauty can be weaponized.”

The programme includes 51 world, 16 international, 8 European and 39 UK premieres from 68 countries of production. Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato are named as Guests of Honour while the first solo exhibition in the Alternate Realities Programme features Baff Akoto’s cutting-edge immersive work Collateral Echoes. Talks to include a BBC Interview with Professor Brian Cox, a Channel 4 Masterclass with Oobah Butler, and David Blaine x Nat Geo: Bringing the Magic to Factual.

Sunny Side of the Doc, the international community and marketplace dedicated to linear and non-linear documentaries, revealed May 6 the 42 projects that make up the official selection for its 36th edition (23-26 June 2025, La Rochelle, France). The projects will be pitched across seven thematic sessions, supported by key industry partners including PBS Distribution; Blue Ant Media & Love Nature; RTBF; Al Jazeera Documentary & AJB DOC, and ZDF Studios.

Designed for emerging filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe, the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Short Pitch Program provides a platform for directors of short documentaries to present their work-in-progress to a curated audience of sales agents, distributors, festival programmers, and broadcasters. This year’s presentation takes place May 10 in Warsaw.

“While things like artistic values, or thematic importance are always a place to start…at the end of the day, however simple it sounds, we really are searching for the best films,” Millennium Docs Against Gravity Artistic Director Karol Piekarczyk explains his programming approach on the eve of the festival’s 22nd roll-out. The festival runs 9-18 May across seven Polish cities, and 20 May to June 2 online.

For the 40th edition of DOK.fest Munich, new director Adele Kohout will be sharing executive duties with outgoing director Daniel Sponsel who is standing down after the festival. “What is our mission? It is basically to create dialogue, to be open and propose ideas, propose perspectives, and to stay in touch with all different fragments of society, especially when it comes to the democracy issues that we are all being challenged right now,” Kohout tells BDE.

World-premiering May 9 in International Competition of the 40th DOK.fest Munich, In Hell with Ivo follows Bulgarian queer artist and songwriter Ivo Dimchev who transforms personal and social hardship into provocative public and intimate private spectacles, boldly exploring sexuality, identity, faith, and activism in a liberating celebration of queer visibility.