Interviews

US docmaker KD Davison talks to Business Doc Europe about her new film, screening in Venice Classics, about the legendary Jonas Mekas, the Lithuanian-born poet who, after arriving in New York in the later 1940s with nothing, established himself as a leading filmmaker, curator, critic and guru. “Don’t go to film school. Just make films,” Mekas advised Davison early in her career.

It’s the question everyone asks. Just how did filmmakers Chris Grubb and Luke Mellows prise England’s most celebrated cricketer, Ben Stokes, out of his shell for their film Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes (produced through Whisper Films and premiering on Amazon Prime on August 26). They explain how to Business Doc Europe.

“Dùthchas” is a word in Gaelic which evokes every strong feelings. It means heredity or the place of one’s birth and it provides the title for the new, archive-based documentary premiering at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and across Scotland on August 20. Directors MacKinnon and MacDonald talk to Business Doc Europe.

Veteran Scottish filmmaker Don Coutts tells Business Doc Europe of the circumstances which first led him to start filming the “acid croft” band some time nearly three decades ago. “There was huge tension within the band but the anger made them really fantastic,” he recalls. “It really gave them an edge.” Coutts' documentary world premieres this weekend in Edinburgh’s Night Moves strand.

For their debut documentary world-premiering at Edinburgh, intrepid filmmakers Cat and Hannah set off on a 3000-kilometre odyssey along Central Asia's Pamir Highway, which runs from Uzbekistan, through Tajikistan and into Kyrgyzstan. With women “both behind the wheel and behind the camera,” the pair wanted to use the journey to examine the lives of women in the region. Cat and Hannah explain more to Business Doc Europe.

Oscar-nominated Danish documentary producer Sigrid Dyekjær, who set up her new company Real Lava in 2021, is spending the next few months in LA where she is overseeing the US launch of Alex Pritz’s The Territory in more than 100 cities. As well as discussing the film she opines on current funding policies within Danish documentary, and discusses her upcoming slate of films, which include the Venice pick Innocence and the upcoming Merkel.

In Husband, world-premiering at Edinburgh, successful academic Devorah has accepted an invitation to go to New York and give a series of talks on ‘feelings’, and to promote her new book on the same subject. Husband Josh, an equally successful but somewhat self-obsessed filmmaker, has agreed to look after the kids and offer loving support. And while he’s at it, why not make a film about the whole process? What could possibly go wrong? The loving couple tell Business Doc Europe.

For four years director Dvořáková has followed Marie Tomanova, the Czech-born darling of the New York photography scene, and her partner (both in life and work) Thomas Beachdel, an academic and curator. Produced by Prague-based Evolution Films, the film has HBO Europe on board as a co-producer. Dvořáková talks to Business Doc Europe ahead of the presentation of her project in Sarajevo.

Olha Tsybulska’s debut documentary couldn't be more poignant, comprising a collective portrait of Ukrainians at war. In the film, the director engages in conversation with friends and family, with each interviewee (and the director herself) seeking ways to navigate the new reality of life during wartime. On the eve of Sarajevo 2022 Tsybulska discussed the work with Business Doc Europe.

Slovak filmmaker Diana Fabiánová’s latest feature doc project ventures into the taboo area of infidelity within a marriage, albeit consensual and designed to shore up the union rather than dismantle it. The film is described as “an intimate probe into society, partnerships, their dark places, and our innermost selves.” The director explains to Business Doc Europe the background to the documentary.