Hot Docs 2021

Finnish director Suvi West didn’t just want to tell the story of the mistreatment of Sámi people in Finland - she felt the need to tell it, she explains to Business Doc Europe. “I felt like I didn’t have any other choice,” she underlines of her film selected for the Hot Docs/EFP Changing Face of Europe programme.

When Israeli director Michal Weits showed her father her new doc Blue Box (a world premiere in World Showcase and concerning her great-grandfather, an important figure in the creation of modern-day Israel), he had to sit alone in his car to gather his thoughts after seeing it, the director tells Business Doc Europe.

Best International Feature Documentary Award given to Ostrov - Lost Island, Special Jury Prize -International Feature Documentary to School of Hope. Emerging International Filmmaker Award to Annabel Verbeke for Four Seasons in a Day.

Like its main characters, Faith and Branko is a documentary as much British as it is Serbian. It not only fluctuates between cultures, but also between the professional and the personal through the portrait of muso couple Faith Elliott and Branko Ristic, as well as between the positions of outsider and insider. The filmmaker tells all to BDE.

Like many other Georgian citizens, Salomé Jashi was startled to see images of a gigantic tree floating down the Black Sea. It was on its way to the home of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire former Prime Minister of Georgia, who wanted it for his garden. Director Jashi branches out with BDE.

Greek director Angelos Tsaousis’ obsession with documentary began during his childhood when he used to watch National Geographic films on battered old VHS tapes. “I was fascinated by this form of storytelling,” he tells BDE. “I was fascinated by the fact of travelling, meeting new cultures in those remote areas and exploring our world.”

There is an old brothel in Seville close by one of the city’s busiest highways. Now, the building has been turned into a refugee centre. This is where the subjects of Juan Antonio Moreno Amador’s effervescent new documentary Welcome To Spain have come to build themselves new lives. The director explains more…

“After enduring the extraordinary difficulties of this past year, the upcoming conference seeks to embrace the opportunities that lie within and inspire the community to re-imagine documentary’s role in our quickly evolving world, based on principles of social justice and equity,” say event organisers.

Kluijfhout’s meditative film serves up both stunning visuals and gentle lyric in telling the story of six very different people all motivated by their affection for, and connection to, the oyster.

It's a marriage made on two continents and a film put together across multiple time zones. A Marriage: Love In The Time Of The Internet (a world premiere in Hot Docs) is the new documentary by Czech director Kateřina Hager, made in collaboration with Emmy award winning Pakistani director Asad Faruqi. Hager bonds with BDE.