Orwa Nyrabia on the return to ‘live’, for the sake of filmmakers and audiences
“Cinema needs to defend itself like never before,” the IDFA Creative Director tells BDE. “A thousand persons watching the film at home over a week are not equal to 1000 persons in a cinema watching the same film.”
Cannes Marché: Shooting on the Covid frontline
One of the first docs made during the pandemic, London-based Sasha Joelle Achilli was not prepared for what she witnessed when she returned to Italy to shoot Italy’s Frontline: A Doctor’s Diary for PBS/BBC in early 2020.
Marché: Metrafilms in from the cold
Leading Russian outfit Metrafilms is getting back into the documentary groove with an espionage thriller as embroiled and complex as anything found in dramatised spy movies.
Marché: Van Messel yearns for the return of the collective experience
The ‘fest’ has been taken out of the festival and all the hard work isn’t bringing the expected dividends. “Our real merchandise are emotions, and these are best shared,” First Hand Films boss Esther van Messel tells BDE.
Cannes Marché: Ode to Joy
London-based REASON8 Films is selling Joy Womack: The White Swan, Dina Burlis’ feature doc portrait of the American ballet dancer who went to Russia to study at the Bolshoi.
Cannes Docs: Singing in Ukraine
This was set to be the first Cannes outing for Ukrainian Docudays UA and promo body Ukrainian Institute. Instead, the showcase of new Ukrainian doc projects in post-production goes ahead online during Cannes Docs 2020.
Hitting the Sweet Spot
“We are the new kids on the block on the sales agent documentary landscape,” Anna Berthollet says of Sweet Spot Docs, the company she and her colleagues Bojana Maric and Nevena Milasinovic set up in Switzerland 18 months ago.
Cannes Docs: The shock of the real
PARISDOC, the industry arm of Cinéma du Réel, presents four new projects at Cannes Marché, three of which are set in the US, one featuring the niece of murdered Minnesota resident George Floyd.
Marché: Thessaloniki doc projects muscle into Cannes
Three Greek documentaries-in-progress are presented June 22 at the Cannes Marché, including Michael Klioumis’ Made in Vain, about the pursuit of the body beautiful.
Cannes Marché: Home sweet home
Marc Isaacs’ new feature The Filmmakers’ House is labelled as “documentary.” Some doc purists, though, may be startled by the director’s freewheeling approach toward a project which was indeed shot in his own house.
