Interviews

The Turkish/Norwegian director talks to Business Doc Europe about the force of nature that is Seyran Ateş, lawyer, author, feminist, female imam and social campaigner and now the subject of a feature doc competing in Nordic:Dox Award Competition, Seyran Ateş: Sex, Revolution & Islam.

In advance of his 2021 VdR masterclass, Pietro Marcello spoke to Business Doc Europe about why, after his success with the Jack London adaptation Martin Eden, he returned to documentary with his new film, Per Lucio (For Lucio), about the maverick Italian musician and singer-songwriter, Lucio Dalla.

Belgian filmmaker Volkan Üce talks to Business Doc Europe about his feature doc that places centre stage the staff of a vast, all-inclusive hotel complex on the Turkish Riviera, in particular the brooding philosopher Hakan and the shy, young Ismael.

The little girl is at the kitchen table looking with longing at her mother on a cellphone screen. The mother is far, far away and can’t come home. This is the situation shown in Russian director Anna Artemyeva’s poignant and intimate short, screening this week at Visions Du Réel and also selected for Hot Docs. BDE talks to the director.

Award-winning Danish director Pernille Rose Grønkjær is promising that her new feature doc Solutions will “spike debate.” The film is based around a rendezvous in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at which leading scientists, philosophers and entrepreneurs came together to discuss no less than the survival of the planet. Grønkjær explains more to BDE.

Ask CEO Mario Adamson, who co-runs Swedish doc production company Sisyfos, just why the company has established its new Scottish outpost, and he explains it is not just because of the heather and the whisky. The producer points to “shared sensibilities” between the Scots and the Swedes. He shares even more with BDE.

Co-director Lietje Bauwens calls herself and colleague Wouter De Raeve “artists with an activist motivation.” In their experimental and thought-provoking WTC,A Love Story they examine exactly where the balance of power lies between political and commercial interests as a major urban redevelopment project is undertaken in Brussels.

Five new Swiss docs-in-progress were presented this week during Visions du Réel Industry on subjects ranging from brilliant novelist Patricia Highsmith, to holding down a relationship during lockdown, to peacetime military manoeuvres by the Swiss army. Business Doc Europe reports.

When Swedish filmmaker Engeli Broberg met an eight-year-old named Gabi nearly seven years ago, she thought she might make an interesting short film subject. But quickly she decided, “I wanted to stay with her for longer.” Now Gabi is the fascinating young protagonist of Broberg’s first feature-length doc. The director explains why to BDE.

Raising a School Shooter is the final film in Frida and Lasse Barkfors’ trilogy about social stigma which included Pervert Park (2014), about convicted sex offenders, and Death of a Child (2017) where they meet parents responsible for their child’s death in a hot car. The filmmakers explain their new film, selected for Nordic:Dox Competition, to BDE.