Dokumentale

In Fauna, a Catalan shepherd grazes his flock in the woods beside a hi-tech lab that engages in animal testing, all during the time of Corona. Initially the film was going to focus on the lab’s work in finding an antidote to the virus, but its window looked out onto blissful and bucolic nature. “I told myself, if I find a story outside in these woods, this is going to be the film…and then I found the shepherd,” the director tells BDE.

Ten films were nominated for the main prize of €20,000, which was awarded at the close of the Berlin-based fest’s inaugural edition. "Searching for Amani (by Nicole Gormley and Debra Aroko) is a multi-layered film that begins with journalistic investigations into the death of Simon Ali's father and then seamlessly transitions into a story that addresses culture, tradition, identity, and the climate crisis, which affects all of us – though some more directly than others,” said the jury.

In telling the story of ex-soldier and PTSD sufferer Kenny and his partner Kerry, who was sexually abused when she was a small girl, Scottish director Amy Hardie’s new documentary illustrates the power of therapy in overcoming severe trauma. “For me, it was very moving when Kerry said ‘I realise that suffering is not a given. I realise that anxiety doesn't have to be a lifelong condition. I realise that you can change feelings with thought,’” Hardie tells BDE.

Dokumentale (10-20 October) is described as “a festival for documentary formats dedicated to the promotion of film, new media, non-fiction and podcasts.” The new festival provides a forum for exchange between filmmakers, journalists, authors, artists, academics and the public and will take place annually in Berlin. The festival also offers an extensive professional programme in the form of D'Hub, which takes place from 14 to 16 October.

Dutch visual artist Barbara Visser discusses her hybrid documentary that questions Marcel Duchamp’s authorship over what some claim to be the 20th Century’s most important piece of modern art. Instead, the artwork ‘Fountain’ may well have been the work of a maverick Dadaist baroness. “The art world needs turmoil and criticism and rearrangement, and so that was really the trigger,” says the director of her subject.