Interviews

We may live in an era of fake news and rapidly declining trust in media sources but Writing With Fire (sold internationally by Autlook and in the US by Submarine) reminds us of just how vital journalism can be in protecting democracy and human rights. Co-directors Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh talk to BDE.

When filmmakers Jeremy Ungar and Ivaylo Getov’s journeyed to Cuba to see the all-female a cappella group Vocal Vidas after a tip-off by their producer, they freely admit that they “lucked out.” The filmmakers’ rousing musical doc Soy Cubana had its international premiere this week at Sheffield. The pair tell all to BDE.

Five new Swiss docs-in-progress were presented this week during Visions du Réel Industry on subjects ranging from brilliant novelist Patricia Highsmith, to holding down a relationship during lockdown, to peacetime military manoeuvres by the Swiss army. Business Doc Europe reports.

For a man living in exile, who has spent several years in prison and who is on the wrong side of Vladimir Putin, former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky cuts a surprisingly cheerful figure.

Laura Herrero Garvin’s impromptu visit to the Cabaret Barba Azul in Mexico City led to her new documentary, La Mami (sold by Dogwoof and a world premiere at IDFA ).

Hier, the title of Wendelien van Oldenborgh’s short film selected for FID Marseille International Competition, means ‘here’ in Dutch but ‘yesterday’ in French, which adds potency to a work that in large part deals both with The Netherlands’ colonial past and its implications for the Dutch sense of ‘here and now.’ The director explains more.

Spanish director Alejandro Vázquez San Miguel profiles his beloved grandparents, who hail from a background steeped in cinema. “It is incredible the life they have had, it fills me with pride and admiration. For me they are undoubtedly a mirror in which to look at myself every day, but not only for their past, but for how they carry that past in the present,” he 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.

Alexander Nanau discusses his shocking documentary Collective, nominated for two Academy Awards, which lifts the lid on both ministerial-level corruption and gross abuse of power in his home country of Romania.

“The world was quite different when we selected the film just a couple of months ago,” Artistic Director Niklas Engstrøm cites CPH:DOX opening film Facing War, about Jens Stoltenberg’s tumultuous final years at the helm of NATO, on the eve of the festival’s 23rd roll-out. “Developments have been so fast that the film looks different today than when we selected it…in some ways, it almost feels like a document from another time period.” CPH:DOX 2025 runs March 19-30.