Interviews

John Alexander’s new documentary, which world-premiered at Thessaloniki, tells the highly moving story of a woman rendered invisible for decades by a secret that had to be maintained by all parties. She was the love child of the legendary jazzman Louis Armstrong. Director Alexander explains more to Business Doc Europe.

Filmmakers Raphaël Dubach and Mateo Ybarra were on hand to record the full mobilization of the Swiss army (conscripted) during a simulated attack on Geneva and its environs. Their resulting film world-premiered this week at the leading Greek doc fest. The pair report to BDE.

It’s just over a month since Richard Ray Perez took over as executive director of International Documentary Association. An experienced docmaker himself, and former Director, Creative Partnerships of the Doc Film Programme at the Sundance Institute, Perez tells BDE of his desire to create more opportunities for more filmmakers, and the need for more documentary voices to be heard.

“Our mission is to use the power of storytelling to galvanise environmental justice and regeneration,” Jill Tidman, Executive-Director of the San Francisco-based Redford Center, tells BDE during Sunny Side, of the non-profit set up in 2005 by Robert Redford and his son James Redford, which has become a powerful force in the doc world.

Julia Fuhr Mann’s British Pathé Archive Award-winning project sets out to explore the utopian potential within the Olympic discipline of running, and sketches a world of sport beyond rigid gender images. Producer Melissa Byrne explains more to BDE.

The Ultimate Joker is Polish, former Communist era spin-meister Jerzy Urban who, according to director Krzysztof Dzięciołowski and producer Agata Jujeczka, “gave us political spin, fake news and polarising politics long before Donald Trump, Andrzej Duda and Jair Bolsonaro were an itch in their daddies’ pants.”

Kārlis Lesiņš gets aboard with Business Doc Europe to explain his latest doc project Nord Express, about the Rail Baltica project, the new (and increasingly complex) high speed rail line that is supposed to link the Baltic states with central and northern Europe.

When Armenian filmmaker Inna Sahakyan discovered the story of the extraordinary Aurora Mardiganian, a star of Hollywood’s silent era, when going through the Zoryan Institute archives, she finally found a way to tell her story of the Armenian genocide.

Jayson McNamara’s new doc tells the story of Nora Cortiñas, Argentina’s “godmother of democracy,” who was transformed from conservative “housewife” into trailblazing activist after the kidnap and disappearance of her son Gustavo in 1977, presumed murdered by the dictatorship. Nora’s inspirational activism has continued undiminished, McNamara tells BDE.

Latvian director Dāvis Sīmanis discusses his cinematic quest to understand immortality with Business Doc Europe. “Whenever you are making a film about immortality, it means you are making a film about death,” he maintains.