Interviews

In 2022 Visions du Réel promises to explore the “wide spectrum” of documentary and non-fiction, Artistic Director Emilie Bujès tells BDE on the eve of the festival’s live 53rd edition. “We have a mission to pull strings in all directions as far as possible.” Of the 124 films in official selection, 84 are world premieres and 15 are international premieres. Films will compete in International Feature, Burning Lights, Swiss and International Medium/Short-length competitions.

When she speaks to Business Doc Europe, US filmmaker Sierra Pettengill is in Zagreb for this week’s screenings of her documentary Riotsville, USA at ZagrebDox. She has come to town straight from CPH:DOX in Copenhagen. The festival dates are racking up for the film (sold by Dogwoof) which premiered in Sundance but is also due to screen at Hot Docs, at the Seattle International FF and in New Directors New Films in New York.

Northern Irish director Kathryn Ferguson’s feature doc Nothing Compares has its subject, 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 and screened in Copenhagen last week. The director explains to BDE how and why she was drawn to the life and work of the mercurial and very brilliant Irish singer-songwriter.

British filmmaker Ben Rivers and French musician and artist Félicia Atkinson are yet to meet in person - but audiences at CPH:DOX last week enjoyed an unusual collaboration between the duo. Atkinson provided new voice-over and musical accompaniments for two of Rivers’ films, Urth (2016) and Look Then Below (2019). The soundtracks were performed ‘live.’ Rivers was too busy with other work to travel to Copenhagen but he made time to speak to Business Doc Europe.

Dutch firebrand and iconoclast Renzo Martens is taking on Jesus in his next project, which he pitched at CPH:FORUM 2022. Part fiction/part documentary, a key driver for Martens is to enable the Congolese cast and crew, led by Matthieu Kasiama (who will play Jesus), to buy back the land stolen from them over 100 years ago, using their participation fees paid to them up front.

The World Cup. 1971. Crowds numbering in excess of 100,000 in Mexico City’s iconic Azteca stadium. But you’ve never heard of it. Why? Because it was a women’s tournament, and one conveniently airbrushed out of history. Until now. “I think it's no exaggeration to say that we have actually uncovered one of the greatest secrets in sport,” Copa 71 co-director Rachel Ramsay told the professional audience at Forum 2022.

When she was preparing her documentary Fire Of Love (an international premiere in DOX:AWARD and Visions du Réel opening film), Sara Dosa took inspiration from François Truffaut’s New Wave classic Jules et Jim, she tells BDE. Her film is also about a love triangle, the passion French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft felt for each other - and their romantic obsession with volcanoes themselves.

Director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and producer Helen Hood Scheer pitched their feature doc project Body Parts, now fully financed and recently selected for an as-yet unnamed US ‘A’ fest. The film explores the making of American ‘sex’ scenes, and assesses the toll on those involved. What if women speak up, shed light, and demand an entertainment industry that takes its responsibility to heart, the filmmakers ask.

In Sportscast 2, a Swedish football match offers director Sara Sjölin the perfect vehicle to commentate on the demise of her break-up with her boyfriend. The two teams were arch and bitter rivals. This, therefore, seemed the perfect match through which she could explore her relationship with him, she tells Business Doc Europe.

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) was a towering figure in contemporary music. A genius, but one with a headstrong and flawed personality. As well as telling the story of 2019 staging of his magnum opus Licht, Dutch director Oeke Hoegendijk also offers an intimate and revealing portrait of Stockhausen himself, from the point of view of his wives, former lovers, children and collaborators. She explains more to BDE.