CPH:DOX 24

As Norwegian filmmaker Ellen Ugelstad shows in her new feature documentary, cruelty and coercion within mental health care still continues today. But in tackling it, she takes an unusual stylistic approach. Rather than use verité filmmaking, the director tells her story as if she is making a report for a CNN-like TV news channel. “I thought how can I convey it not in a more entertaining, but a different way, and get a different perspective on it,” the director tells BDE.

Rand Beiruty’s Tell Them About Us is a refugee movie with a difference. Its young female protagonists have fled their homelands to come to Germany. They and their families are living in difficult circumstances but the tone of the film is very upbeat. “I wanted it to be more participatory and more empowering for the girls,” Jordanian director Beiruty tells BDE of her intentions. “It’s also a film about family, about friendship and about the love they have for each other.”

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.

From the debris of the 2019 Iraqi protests, Maja Tschumi has created a beautiful, cinematic monument for its heroes. Immortals is an unusual portrait of a country, a generation and a revolution, featuring two special young protagonists from a modern society where young people now dare to dream, hope and fight. It is also a film that delivers profound emotional impact. 

The population of Gran Canaria comprises many different groups. There are the four million holidaymakers who descend on the island each year, the long-term residents and, increasingly, refugees from the African continent, all of whom are portrayed by Danish director Mette Carla Albrechtsen. Meanwhile, a volcano threatens to erupt.

In her thriller-like dive into the secret community of baloeiros, the Brazilian men who illegally build giant hot-air balloons, Danish director Sissel Morell Dargis provides a rare female perspective on this macho world which, as its deeply committed members proclaim, offers an alternative to joining the drug cartels.

Chile arrives at CPH:DOX 2024 where Oasis, the latest film from the MAFI collective, is in selection following its world bow in Berlin Forum. Additionally, the project Unwelcomed, Amilcar Films' debut doc, will be presented at CPH:WIP. “The presence of Chilean documentaries at events like CPH:DOX demonstrates the growing interest in the Nordic countries and worldwide in our country's creative industry,” says ProChile’s Catalin Butnariu.

As doors opened on CPH:DOX 2024, Salma Abdalla, CEO of Vienna-based sales outfit Autlook, was striking an upbeat note. After all, the company is arriving in Copenhagen after a strong start to the year. At Sundance in January, Autlook closed an eye-catching global deal with Netflix for Ibelin, its film about a gamer’s secret life, directed by Benjamin Ree. Business was also brisk at the Berlinale last month, she tells BDE.

New Head of Industry Mara Gourd-Mercado and MD Katrine Kiilgaard spoke to BDE about how CPH goes about the business of doc. This year the Forum presents a whopping 46 projects whose key criteria are artistic quality, relevance and marketability, they stress. “It's that kind of magic formula that ties it all together that we're looking for, something that will interest the industry, that will garner attention and that will potentially go and get those partners and get these projects made,” says Gourd-Mercado.

The statistics are stark. More than 400,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide in the past 20 years. In his new feature documentary Marching In The Dark (sold by Lightdox and world-premiering at CPH:DOX), Kinshuk Surjan explores the circumstances leading to this tragic loss of life. He also talked to Business Doc Europe on the eve of the Danish docfest.