Interviews

Festival boss Marek Hovorka talks to Business Doc Europe on the eve of the 26th Ji.hlava IDFF, which kicks off October 25, running through to October 30. Hovorka describes the leading Czech festival as “a documentary Woodstock.” It may now be 26-years-old but it still has the same freewheeling idealism that characterised the event when it was launched in 1997, he points out.

The three-way 90-minute co-pro The Jacket (Belgium, France, The Netherlands) places a fictional tale (that of a search for the titular theatre prop in the streets of Beirut) into a documentary setting, at the same time exploring the broader topic of living in exile. “In this quest, situations and encounters will be set up, but it is not my task to direct what Jamal or the other characters have to say,” says director Poppe.

Making one film is a challenge. Doing six at once is something that could easily drive even hardened and experienced producers to the verge of breakdown. Nonetheless, showrunners Vincent Coen and Guillaume Vandenberghe, together with producer Hanne Phlypo of Belgian outfit, Clin d’oeil films, are in the final stages of completing their epic series Draw For Change, which they discuss with BDE.

Gereon Wetzel and Melanie Liebheit’s kitchen-based documentary is satisfyingly unusual in its choice of subject. Whereas filmmakers generally focus on the head chef in a restaurant, theirs follows the apprentice chef Agnes, highly talented but very much at the bottom of the food chain. Wetzel and Liebheit serve up answers to Business Doc Europe.

Pepe Danquart discusses his new documentary, about the international acclaimed German artist Daniel Richte. “He has a great knowledge about painting, about the history of art. He knows a lot about politics. He reads regularly the newspapers. He has a certain approach to reality,” the director tells BDE of his subject’s intelligence and very wide frame of reference.

On 14 October, the Rome-based MIA market shone the spotlight on one of the most successful non-fiction hits of the year, the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler. The one-hour discussion, moderated by Joel Zimmer, President of AGC Unwritten at AGC Studios, saw the participation of director Felicity Morris.

The feature doc BOYZ, fully financed and ready for delivery at the beginning 2023, concerns three male friends on the cusp of adulthood reflecting on matters such as sexuality and masculinity. “When my little brother [a subject in the film] moved in with me, I saw how differently and how progressively they were tackling these questions, how they were able to openly talk about them,” director Cruiziat tells BDE.

Take three brilliant young female photographers living and working in the GDR in the 1980s. All are desperate for artistic freedom but all are running up against a brutal political system. And the Stasi secret police are harassing them and monitoring their every move. The artists in question are the subjects of Rebels, the world-premiering feature documentary of Pamela Meyer-Arndt, who talks to Business Doc Europe.

As British Pathé’s Simon Witter explains to Business Doc Europe on the eve of DOK Leipzig’s inaugural Archive Market, the sector continues to enjoy a boom time. “The year that just closed was the busiest we’ve ever had…We’re on a high at the moment,” he says.

In Corpus A Quest for Eternity, a collection of contemporary, internationally known artists take us on a journey into the world of medical art to reflect upon death and the beauty of the mortal body. “We use art - and the fragile human body as a metaphor - to ask existential questions, and investigate the subject of mortality through a poetic visual language,” write the filmmakers.