Interviews

The doc industries of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary are in the spotlight during FIPADOC Industry Days with a full programme of workshops and panels designed to promote industry collaboration. New doc pitches from the four countries start January 20, running for two days.

As the awards momentum behind Romanian director Alexander Nanau’s Collective (sold internationally by Cinephil) gathers, one executive who can justifiably feel pride is Hanka Kastelicová, Executive Producer of Documentaries for HBO Europe. She talks to Business Doc Europe.

“I am making this film for my family, for my people, for me,” Swedish-based Iranian director Nahid Persson tells Business Doc Europe ahead of her impact documentary Be My Voice’s world premiere in Nordic Documentary Competition at Göteborg Film Festival.

Ebullient producer-distributor-sales agent Frank Mannion, boss of London-based Swipe Films, is taking the plunge into directing with Sparkling: The Story Of Champagne, a feature doc that looks into the origins of one of the world’s most favourite and fizziest of luxury tipples.

Like many other Georgian citizens, filmmaker Salomé Jashi was startled to see images of a gigantic tree floating down the Black Sea. It was on its way to the home of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire former Prime Minister of Georgia, who wanted it for his garden. Jashi branches out with BDE.

“Structurally, I wanted to make a film whose experience was akin to peeling back layers of truth, one that seems like a history documentary but becomes a psychological thriller.” UK docmaker Sam Hobkinson talks to BDE about his Sundance selection Misha And The Wolves.

Andrea Prenghyová, Project Director of dok.incubator, tells Business Doc Europe what project teams should expect during the 2021 post-production workshops, and in return what she is demanding from this year’s submissions. “The most important thing for our selection is the material and its originality,” she stresses. “We are simply looking for good films.”

In 'They Call Me Babu', set against a backdrop of WW2 and the Indonesian War of Independence, Sandra Beerends makes visible the invisible, giving voice to a generation of indigenous nannies who, while caring for the children of Dutch colonists, had their gaze fixed on freedom, suffrage and emancipation from patriarchy.

The festival component of the Biarritz doc fest may be postponed until French cinemas re-open, but the packed Industry Days programme will continue online 18-22 January. This includes the pitch of 24 new international projects, eight of which are from Visegrad countries. Festival director Christine Camdessus explains all to BDE.

The ‘So Many Stories Left Untold’ themed presentation, which runs January 14 to 20, presents 16 films across Lisbon venues, as well as talks and debates.