Interviews

Jason Loftus’ Eternal Spring (長春): The Heist of China’s Airwaves is vying for Academy Award nominations in three categories; Doc Feature, Animated Feature and International Feature (Canada). Since its world-premiere at the Thessaloniki Doc Fest in 2022 the film has picked up a hatful of awards, including the two top audience prizes at Hot Docs. Earlier in 2022, Loftus discussed his film with BDE.

US filmmakers Cynthia Wade and Sharon Liese go inside the country’s largest manufacturer of American flags to tell the story of some of the company’s employees, the majority of whom are refugees and immigrants. The resulting award-winning short launched on National Geographic December 8 and hits Disney Plus on Dec 21. What’s more, Wade and Liese tell BDE, the story has been optioned for Broadway musical treatment…

Swedish Magnus Gertten’s documentary Nelly & Nadine has now been selected for more than 100 film festivals and has received more than 20 international awards. It is also among the documentaries that have qualified for submission in the Best Documentary Feature category. The director spoke to Business Doc Europe before its world premiere at Berlinale 2022, where it won the Teddy Jury Award.

It has been a while but two years after its premiere in Venice, Luca Guadagnino’s feature documentary Salvatore: Shoemaker Of Dreams has finally been released in US cinemas by Sony Pictures Classics. The film, about the legendary Italian shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo, is being tipped by some as a potential Oscar contender. Writer Dana Thomas and Ferragamo’s daughter Giovanna tell BDE about their involvement on the film.

Kathryn Ferguson’s multi award-winning Nothing Compares has its subject, the brilliant Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor, as its narrator. ‘Powerful’ and ‘heartrending’ are among the terms that reviewers have used to describe the film, which premiered at Sundance 2022. After its European premiere at CPH:DOX earlier this year, Ferguson explained to BDE why she was drawn to the life and work of the mercurial artist.

Simon Lereng Wilmont’s heart-rending (and Sundance-winning) film charts the experiences of kids temporarily removed from their parents in an orphanage in eastern Ukraine. During a recent screening in Kyiv the ombudswoman for children’s rights was in attendance. “She saw it and came over afterwards. She was in tears and asked if she was allowed to show it at a closed screening to [President] Zelenskyy,” the director tells BDE.

The momentum behind Myanmar Diaries, which Dutch-based outfit Zindoc co-produced on behalf of the anonymous Myanmar Film Collective, continues to grow. The film deals with life following the brutal military coup of February 2021. “We are a super underdog effort, but it still feels that if this film could get a proper spotlight, we could move mountains when it comes to policy,” says Zindoc’s Petr Lom, partner of producer Corinne van Egeraat.

They seem to come from different sides of the filmmaking universe. Robert Downey Sr (1936-2021) was one of the high priests of US underground movies, famous for his anarchic and satirical humour. His son, Robert Downey Jr, 57, is one of the highest paid mainstream movie stars in history. Their relationship is the subject of Chris Smith’s Netflix doc “Sr” which has just launched on Netflix. The director explains all to BDE.

Margaret Brown’s new documentary looks at the legacy of suffering and injustice left by The Clotilda, the last ship to carry African captives to the US – even though legislation prohibiting the importation of slaves had been written and passed over 50 years before. Brown and co-producer, co-writer and folklorist, Dr. Kern Jackson spoke to Business Doc Europe about their film during the recent IDFA.

Family Affair Films producer Floor Onrust talks to Business Doc Europe about the remarkable feature documentary, directed by Bianca Stigter, which analyses, re-analyses and then analyses again three minutes of pre-WW2 home footage showing the Jewish inhabitants of the Polish town of Nasielsk. The archive is unbearably poignant as only a few years later most of the town’s inhabitants would be massacred by the Nazis.