Interviews

Ever since domiciles within Lisbon’s 'bairros' started to be let for Airbnb rental, neighbourhood cohesion has suffered. So when, in 2020, the pandemic put the brakes on tourism, large parts of the Portuguese capital were turned into a ghost town. “That’s what this is, a film about ghosts,” explains the director to Business Doc Europe.

Leipzig’s five-day DOK Industry event kicks off 25 October with a programme designed to support filmmakers and their projects/films from inception to festival roll-out and eventual release, and everything in-between. New programme head Nadja Tennstedt tells Business Doc Europe what to expect.

DOK Leipzig director Christoph Terhechte is pretty much delighted that docs are back in cinemas and on the big screen where they belong, away from all the distractions of the living room, such as texts that have to be read, coffee that has to be made, knocks on the front door that have to be answered. “I don't think cinema and multitasking are compatible,” he confides to Business Doc Europe.

“It’s a joy,” says Doclisboa co-director Miguel Ribeiro about his festival’s return to its 11-day late October slot. “A collective joy…there's really a feeling of beautiful anticipation of a big collective celebration.” Between 21 and 31 October the festival will present 249 films, including 51 world premieres and 28 international premieres. Nebulae, Doclisboa’s industry networking “space,” is returning in a hybrid format, running October 21-25.

Acclaimed producer/director R.J. Cutler (The War Room, American High, Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry) came to MIA to assess the current state of the documentary landscape and to look forward to what the non-fiction filmmaking community has in store, all the time referring back to his ground-breaking body of work. “Neo-verité is the future and the future is now,” he maintained.

In Luca Manes’ feature documentary project, a concave object being used as a flower pot turns out to be part of a US bomber that crashed and sank in the Mediterranean during the crucial 2WW Battle of Anzio in 1944. The discovery of the object’s provenance changes irrevocably the lives of three men who previously had no idea of each other’s existence. Producer Leonardo Baraldi explains more.

“Slavery is despicable, yet the objective is to offer a multifaceted view,” write the directors of the Belgian project Slave Island, pitched at MIA. “A film that reflects on the universal mechanisms in which there are rulers and victims, in which religion is both a danger and a solution whilst our own moral judgement is an endless project under construction.” Producer Kristian Van der Heyden of Harald House explains more to BDE.

Co-director Åsa Ekman talks to Business Doc Europe about Live Till I Die, set in a Swedish elderly home and telling of the deep and emotional relationship that develops between Monica, an activity coach still grieving for her grandmother, and Ella, a 99-year-old resident who is facing her final days.

Why do Italians love the causes that the country’s Radical Party espouses, but pointedly refuse to vote for them during general elections. Massimo Brega’s new doc ponders this question as he assesses the history of political protest, centering on party leader Marco Pannella, considered by some a genius and a prophet, by others an impostor and a buffoon. Producer Matteo Pecorara gets radical with Business Doc Europe.

Just a few months ago, filmmakers Simone Spampinato and Elisa Faccioni came across a story of an unbreakable friendship between two women that developed out of the most tragic of circumstances. The son of one murdered the husband of the other. “We're fascinated by stories of people who even in the most tragic situations are able to find beauty in life.” Faccioni tells Business Doc Europe.