DocsBarcelona 25

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.

The award of Best Film was given to Peruvian director Tatiana Fuentes at the May 17 awards ceremony. The festival has so far attracted 11,000 spectators as well as 800 accredited professionals. “This edition has been a celebration of documentary film as a place for collective reflection and shared experience,” said Maria Colomer, Co-Artistic Director and Head of Programming. All winners…

Hot on the heels of its Impact Days and Movies That Matter pitches (March), the First Hand films-produced Kalari Kid tells of the eponymous Indian martial art that is taking on greater significance for women within a society where gender-based violence is commonplace. “Raising awareness is essential to spreading the clear message of zero tolerance for all forms of violence against women and girls,” First Hand Films’ Daniel Schneider tells BDE.

In their film selected for DocsBarcelona Competition, Iranian filmmakers Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni chronicle the ebbs and flows in the life of their main protagonist, Sara Shahverdi, the motorcycling former midwife from a remote Iranian village who took the leap into local politics. “From the very beginning, we knew the motorcycle would be like an essential character in the film,” Khaki says, not least because it is a symbol of Sara’s freedom and her defiance.

“This film is stitched to my heart and soul. There is blood in it – family - and roots that go back decades, tangled with the lives of the communities who welcomed us not as filmmakers, but as kin,” director Alejandro Valbuena (Curare Films, Canada/Columbia) tells BDE ahead of his rough-cut presentation of The Wind’s Thirst at DocsBarcelona Industry.

Impact is at the core of Aline Juárez and Juan Francisco Donoso’s All We Have Is Us, which follows socio-environmental movements defending the Atacama Desert (Chile) and the Jadar Valley (Serbia) against increasingly pervasive lithium mining. "[This] is more than a documentary: this film will be a masterclass, a resource to foster dialogue, inspire action, and connect struggles across continents," says Juárez.

Andres Veiel’s new documentary makes a damning case against notorious director Leni Riefensthal, whose patron was Adolf Hitler. The film comes at a time when Germany is seeing a highly alarming wave of right-wing extremism. “[It] is a warning not to accept this new nationalism and celebration of the strong. That is what’s Riefenstahl’s ideology is. We are really experiencing a renaissance of it,” says Veiel, who is joined in interview by producer Sandra Maischberger.

Capitán (Colombia/Spain) by Laura Otárola took home the DocsBarcelona Award for Best Project during the event’s May 15 awards ceremony. Gaza Sunbirds (Spain/Belg/UK) by Flavia Cappellini won the Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Co-production Award. The awards ceremony marked the conclusion of DocsBarcelona Industry. This year’s edition brought together more than 750 accredited professionals from around the world for four days of pitching sessions, networking events, and many industry-oriented activities.

Guillermo F Florez pitched his feature doc Lord Take Me Soon as a Rough Cut in Barcelona in 2024. This year the finished work world-premieres in Official Selection. The film concerns 86-year-old Carmen - previously a nun and the taker of several lovers – who wanted to end her life through euthanasia. ““Thanks to Carmen’s personality, it’s mostly a life-affirming story, and a portrait of a Quixotesque woman who suffered the oppression of an extremely conservative society, especially of women,” Florez tells BDE.

Homesick explores the personal journey of a Korean adoptee raised in a troubled Danish household. Tanja Inwol deploys visuals, imagination and considering writing skills to revisit her memories and peel back the intricate layers of transnational adoption. “Tanja and I have worked closely together since the beginning of her career, and our long-standing creative collaboration is one of the project’s key strengths,” producer Rikke Tambo Andersen tells BDE.