Interviews

‘What we are trying to depict is this volcano as a mirror of the world… we cannot control it, so we have to be in contact with nature, and somehow co-exist together,” says Jasmina Sijercic, producer of a new documentary about the island of Stromboli, where the active volcano is a perpetual presence. Business Doc Europe caught up with her ahead of the ParisDOC Work-in-Progress screening of The Island, directed by Sara Rastegar and Simone Pozzi, on 25th March.

Chilean René Ballesteros’ feature documentary, world-premiering in Paris, follows the stories of two Mapuche men, Juan and Daniel, who were taken from their Chilean homeland as children and adopted by European families in dubious circumstances. A trained psychologist, the film has a personal undertow for the director. “Once I met Albert Maysles…and he told me that the link between being a psychologist and making documentaries is listening,” he tells BDE. “With both Juan and Daniel there was a connection, because I was trying to listen to myself, too.”

Dutch Bart van den Aardweg discusses his dynamic new documentary, shot in both Belgium and The Netherlands, which addresses alienation and how youths may resort either to criminality or radicalisation as an outlet. “I wanted to explore the mind of somebody on the so-called wrong path further and deeper, and to create an interior monologue, to connect their thoughts to the physical shape I had used before. And I knew that I had to live amongst my characters to catch the real story, make them talk to me.”

The Netherlands-based Italian filmmaker discusses his new feature documentary, selected for Movies That Matter, about the ongoing febrile political situation in Armenia. “The moment I got interested in Shahen was when I realised the pressure this young guy was under,” recalls director Marco De Stefanis. “He was keeping up the fight while his father was in prison. I felt really sorry for a guy that age that doesn’t have the same youth I had.”

Dutch filmmaker Kasper Verkaik’s new film tells the story of US journalist Alec Shimkin who went missing in action in Vietnam just as he was threatening to lift the lid on the US Operation Speedy Express atrocity of 1968/69, which had an estimated body count of over 30,000, many thousands of them unarmed Vietnamese civilians. In researching Shimkin, Verkaik realised “there was so much more to find out about the Speedy Express story,” and that the journalist’s scoop “was way bigger” than even the journalist himself had known.

Director Eva Strating discusses her new documentary, co-directed with Roxanne Herder, both about Dutch women who are coerced into forced marriages by their own families, and the human rights activist Shirin Musa who is tirelessly working in their interests. The directors had, of course, heard about arranged marriages, “but we never knew that it's still actually something that takes place here, among girls born and raised in The Netherlands,” stresses Strating.

The 48th edition of the Paris-based festival and market kicks off March 21. "It is interesting how ParisDOC now covers the full spectrum of documentary filmmaking, from early writing stages to near-completion, and through to questions of circulation and heritage,” enthuses Anaïs Desrieux of the festival’s professional component. “This creates a coherent ecosystem and reinforces our role in supporting the valorisation of documentary cinema in all its forms.”

In Oscar-nominated Sara Dosa’s new feature doc, produced by National Geographic, renowned Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his film archives into a time capsule to hold onto the memory both of his country’s diminishing glaciers and his beloved grandparents. “I think for me, both as a person and a filmmaker, I'm endlessly inspired by the power of nature, and how humans can co-create story and meaning with nature,” Dosa tells Business Doc Europe.

Movies That Matter, the Hague-based festival for works exploring human rights and social issues, opens March 20 with American Doctor by Poh Si Teng, which world-premiered at Sundance. MTM has its share of world premieres, but Artistic Director Margje de Koning is less worried about having films first than other festivals. “For Movies That Matter, it’s nice to have premieres but it’s not our main requirement. Our philosophy is very much about the impact of the film.”

When thousands of dead and dying crabs and lobsters were washed up on beaches in the North East of England, director Jeanie Finlay quickly realised she had stumbled on an extraordinary but very grim story about the wanton destruction of marine life and the knock-on effect on fishing communities. Her new documentary, world-premiering at CPH:DOX, investigates the event. What’s more, it will be released by Glimmerama, the recently announced distribution arm of Glimmer Films, the production company owned by Finlay, who explains more to BDE.