CPH:DOX 24

Danish production company Snowglobe announced March 25 that Journeyman Pictures has acquired world sales rights for David Borenstein’s documentary Can’t Feel Nothing, following its world premiere in the F:ACT Award section at CPH:DOX. The film is written by Borenstein and co-writer Christian Einshøj, and produced by Mikkel Jersin, Katrin Pors and Eva Jakobsen.

Even at the age of nine, Iranian Melina has already learned to deal with disillusionment and broken promises - she sees her mother much less than is promised; her father uses Melina's passport, which is in his possession, to exercise power. With great patience, respect and attentiveness, the filmmaker has made a very personal and relatable story of a universal phenomenon: the child who, between two bickering parents, has to fend for themselves.

The winners of the CPH:INDUSTRY awards 2024 were announced March 21 in Copenhagen. Four awards were handed out to CPH:FORUM projects looking for gap-financing as well as CPH:LAB projects with their focus on immersive non-fiction. Three CPH:LAB project awards were handed out at the Prototype Event in Odd Fellow Palace on March 18. All winners…

The prolific and versatile Alina Simone has been working as a journalist and radio reporter for many years. She is also an essayist, author and singer-songwriter - and now she has turned feature filmmaker too. Her documentary Black Snow, about a Siberian mother-of-three who finds herself under the aggressive scrutiny of the Russian authorities when she steps up as a citizen journalist, world-premiered this week at CPH:DOX. Simone talks to BDE.

Norwegian docmaker Benjamin Ree talks to BDE about his double-Sundance winning Ibelin, which screens at CPH ahead of its launch on Netflix. The film, about a young man and his secret gaming life that is only discovered after his untimely death, has been wowing both young and older audiences alike back in Norway. “A lot of them [the older generation] go to the cinema because they want to understand their children or their grandchildren,” says Ree.

Swedish doc debutant Loran Batti talks to BDE about his deeply intimate debut G - 21 Scenes from Gottsunda, set in Uppsala’s notorious titular suburb. In the film, Batti grapples with the desire to move away, but is torn by loyalty to his childhood friends who lead a criminal life. “Speaking about the spiritual and the human aspect, it was so hard for me to keep distant from the film, the project, the place and the subject,” he tells BDE.

A playfully self-aware film-within-a-film, My First Film veers between moments of blissful joy through to self-doubt and untold truths, but is always driven by director/creator Zia Anger’s refined and astute sense of what she is trying to deliver, and given energy by a cast and crew that buy into her vision.

Described by director Virpi Sutaari as “a kind of morality play where love for forests turns into beautiful action,” it's hard to imagine a more exquisite, convincing or perfectly crafted warning about the world’s climate crisis than Once Upon A Time In A Forest, which world-premiered March 16 at CPH:DOX. It’s an activist doc, but it doesn't always feel like one, mesmerising, instead, viewers with the astonishing beauty of Finnish nature and the dedication of those who seek to protect it.

84 world, 32 international and 9 European prems feature at CPH:DOX 2024, whose film programme is this year presented in cinemas across Copenhagen and 42 Danish municipalities. Artistic Director Niklas Engstrøm says: “In a world increasingly marked by polarization, we must be willing to challenge our own established truths and engage in meaningful dialogues with those holding different opinions and perspectives.” The 21st edition of CPH:DOX runs March 13-24.

Yance Ford’s new feature doc Power (which screened at CPH:DOX and is soon to launch on Netflix) looks at the origins of police power in the US and asks why American citizens have allowed cops to hold so much sway over their lives. The film features interviews with many leading academics who detail with chilling clarity the reasons behind 200 years of American police bias and brutality. This, as Ford puts it to Business Doc Europe, is a system with “violence, coercion and control’ at its core.