Interviews

What was it like following the charismatic, albeit abrasive and somewhat divisive, US politician Larry Krasner after he took over as Philadelphia District Attorney? 'Philly DA' filmmakers Ted Passon and Yoni Brook, and producer Nicole Salazar, tell all to Business Doc Europe.

It was the holy grail for fans of Billie Holiday (1915-1959): the huge archive of interviews about the legendary blues singer compiled by journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl before her untimely death in 1978. That archive now forms the backbone of Billie, James Erskine’s BAFTA-longlisted feature doc.

Celeste Bell, daughter of punk legend Poly Styrene, talks to Business Doc Europe about her great mum, and the documentary she felt compelled to make. Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché premieres at the Glasgow Film Festival this weekend.

“I was very attracted to do something about the sea, because it's so hidden and the last remaining wilderness,” says Danish docmaker Robin Petré of her debut feature From The Wild Sea that looks at the rescue and rehabilitation of marine life from the perspective of the animals themselves.

DocSalon may have joined forces with the other EFM platforms during the market’s virtual Industry Meetings, but the focus on documentary and doc professionals is as sharp as ever in 2021. Doc Salon’s Nadja Tennstedt and the EFM Diversity and Inclusion Initiative’s Themba Bhebhe run through events with Business Doc Europe.

“Sometimes we go forwards a few steps and then we take a few steps backwards,” reflects Russian filmmaker Evgeny Mitta. “With Russia, it is really hard to predict.” The Moscow-based filmmaker talks to Business Doc Europe about his latest doc Catch 2012, part of his ongoing investigations into the turbulent post-Soviet history of Russia.

UK/Italian docmaker Cosima Spender has been ruffling feathers in Italy since the international roll-out of the Netflix Original doc series SanPa: Sins of our Saviour, about a major drug rehab commune, run by the controversial Vincenzo Muccioli, whose methods were often brutal in the extreme.

After his Trump trilogy and 2020 campaigning doc Flint, filmmaker Anthony Baxter returns to Glasgow Film Fest to world premiere Eye of the Storm, his portrait of the late, great Scottish landscape artist James Morrison.

The 2021 online Glasgow Film Festival is about silver linings and certainly not gloom and doom, co-director Allan Hunter tells Business Doc Europe ahead of the 17th edition which kicks off February 24.

“All of a sudden I realised I could actually apply my music skills to something I could be really passionate about. It was 1997 and from that moment on I just made that my goal, to become part of the documentary film community.” Last week, film composer Miriam Cutler gave an IDF online masterclass in which she analysed the marriage of music and doc. BDE reports.