Interviews

Dutch director Johan Kramer discusses his doc that examines the inseparable bond between pets and their owners. The director acknowledges that it would have been easy to portray his human protagonists as eccentric oddballs. He was determined, though, to treat them with respect. After all, as the owner of a whippet called Paco that he dotes over, he often finds himself talking to the dog as if it’s a human being…

The new film, commissioned by the festival and put together by curator Jo Reid, is a celebration of women and bicycles…and emancipation. “That was my brief, to make an archive film about women and cycling,” Reid explains her remit to Business Doc Europe. “It’s nice and broad which meant I could make it my own.”

Between March 12-14, Impact Days, the industry programme of FIFDH (International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights) will look to facilitate strategic collaborations between filmmakers and NGOs/governmental organisations, all of whom believe in the power of doc to effect radical change, whether in terms of policy or across society in general. Impact Days chief Laura Longobardi explains her programme’s mission to BDE.

“Have you ever imagined Pippi Longstocking being old? Well, that’s Maomi,” said director Judit Oláh during the presentation of her doc feature Maomi – Larger Than Life, currently in late development and produced by Inez Matis for Pi Productions (Hungary), Annika Mayer for Majmun Films (Germany) and Anna Stylińska and Katarzyna Slesicka for My Way Studio (Poland).

20-year-old Constantina is the protagonist of Holy Human Angel, a new creative documentary feature directed by Athens-born Angeliki Aristomenopoulou (Citizen Europe) and presented at this year’s Thessaloniki Pitching Forum. The project, currently in development, is produced by Yuri Averof and Rea Apostolides for Anemon Productions (Greece), Vicky Miha for Asterisk* (Greece) and Heather Millard for Compass Films (Iceland).

Focusing on the years 1959 to 1964, the feature doc Cassius X: Becoming Ali, screening at the Glasgow Film Festival this week, offers insights into the ‘Greatest’ that many viewers will not have heard before. Director Muta'Ali Muhammad and writer/broadcaster Stuart Cosgrove, on whose book the documentary is based, go the distance with Business Doc Europe.

Maurice O’Brien’s feature debut, about one man’s desire both to build and conquer a Wall of Death, is a madcap story of derring-do, obsession and pain, both physical and emotional, with a large dose of artistic ego thrown in for good measure. But the end result, as much in cinematic as in real-life terms, is quite magical. Director O’Brien and producer Grant Keir talk to BDE.

Formula One may not be to everybody’s taste, but it sure makes for compelling documentary. Torquil Jones’ latest film tells a high octane story of speed, rivalry and obsession, but this time from the perspective of the loved ones who are left behind to pick up the pieces after tragedy and mayhem ensue. “You have these two men [Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi]…to be in the moment with them, the sensation is incredible…but the negative side of it is, you get collateral damage,” the director tells BDE.

Prolific documentary director Mark Cousins talks to Business Doc Europe about his latest work, about another highly productive filmmaker, the late and very great Alfred Hitchcock. From the outset Cousins realised that his approach to a subject whom we all are familiar with would have to be unique and distinctive. “I wanted to take the road less travelled,” Cousins says of the route he embarked on through the Hitchcock oeuvre.

As Allison Gardner points out to Business Doc Europe, documentary looms large in the programme of the 19th Glasgow Film Festival, running 1-12 March. “I think Scotland punches above its weight in terms of the documentaries it produces,” she says. “There has been great support for that genre, and so we have featured a lot over the years.”