CPH:DOX review: A Taste of Whale by Vincent Kelner
A Taste of Whale is definitely not for the faint-hearted with copious amounts of bloodshed and much animal cruelty on display. At the same time it paints a very nuanced picture of what is perceived everywhere as a barbaric tradition: the Grind – the killing of the pilot whales by the Faroese people.
CPH:DOX/Visions du Réel interview: Sara Dosa on Fire Of Love
When she was preparing her documentary Fire Of Love (an international premiere in DOX:AWARD and Visions du Réel opening film), Sara Dosa took inspiration from François Truffaut’s New Wave classic Jules et Jim, she tells BDE. Her film is also about a love triangle, the passion French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft felt for each other - and their romantic obsession with volcanoes themselves.
CPH:DOX Forum pitch: Body Parts by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan
Director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and producer Helen Hood Scheer pitched their feature doc project Body Parts, now fully financed and recently selected for an as-yet unnamed US ‘A’ fest. The film explores the making of American ‘sex’ scenes, and assesses the toll on those involved. What if women speak up, shed light, and demand an entertainment industry that takes its responsibility to heart, the filmmakers ask.
CPH:DOX review: Daughters by Jenifer Malmqvist
Daughters is both a heart-wrenching and cathartic documentary about three sisters who have lost their mother to suicide. Filming the girls over a long period of time, connecting the past to the present through memories, it shows the impact of grief on young children and the importance of love, connection and communication.
CPH:DOX review: Holidays by Antoine Cattin
Swiss director Antoine Cattin’s thoroughly absorbing Holidays offers a fascinating - and absolutely prescient - look into the lives of a series of ordinary folk living in St Petersburg as they celebrate (or often simply endure) a series of Russian national holidays.
CPH:DOX interview: Sportcast 2 by Sara Sjölin
In Sportscast 2, a Swedish football match offers director Sara Sjölin the perfect vehicle to commentate on the demise of her break-up with her boyfriend. The two teams were arch and bitter rivals. This, therefore, seemed the perfect match through which she could explore her relationship with him, she tells Business Doc Europe.
CPH:DOX review: The Pawnshop by Łukasz Kowalski
It is tough to strike the right tonal balance when it comes to looking at the impact of poverty on the vulnerable in society, but while Łukasz Kowalski’s humour in his new doc may well be pitch-black at times, the CPH:DOX Next:Wave film is also astutely compassionate as it dwells on staff and customers as they struggle to deal with their harsh lives.
CPH:DOX review: Abyss by Jeppe Lange
A maelstrom of images poetically reflects Life on Earth in this short film by Danish video artist Jeppe Lange, co-directed by Google’s Image Recognition AI, at the same time providing a cosmic trip for the viewer. World-premiering in CPH:DOX New:Vision, it’s like an alien intelligence is sifting through images representative of the planet - and trying to make sense of them.
CPH:DOX interview: Licht – Stockhausen’s Legacy by Oeke Hoegendijk
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) was a towering figure in contemporary music. A genius, but one with a headstrong and flawed personality. As well as telling the story of 2019 staging of his magnum opus Licht, Dutch director Oeke Hoegendijk also offers an intimate and revealing portrait of Stockhausen himself, from the point of view of his wives, former lovers, children and collaborators. She explains more to BDE.
CPH:DOX interview: Karaoke Paradise by Einari Paakkanen
In his heartwarming film competing for Nordic:Dox Award, director Einari Paakkanen introduces us to a cast of Finns for whom karaoke is more than mere entertainment, rather a support mechanism that alleviates, at least temporarily, personal tragedies, problems and concerns. What’s more, the director explains to BDE, it is a particularly ubiquitous form of expression. “It's huge. You can go to any small town in Finland and there's two things you'll find - the alcohol shop and the karaoke place.”
