Interviews

Miguel Moras Cabral’s Lisbon doc pitch is intriguing, that of an ostensibly normal kid by day whose tears at night will create floods, disasters and miracles. The project is part of the Arché project development lab dedicated to directors and producers from Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ibero-American countries.

German filmmaker Annegret Sachse refers to her self-produced documentary essay Russia today as “an act of personal, cultural resistance against political alienation”. The feature doc is selected for 2020 East Silver Market.

“We want to derail our participants a bit,” says Ji.hlava Head of Industry Jarmila Outratová, ahead of the doc fest’s October 30 presentation of its Emerging Producers programme, “by going back to their early days… what was their motivation then, and checking if it is still out there.”

When a class that Todd Chandler was teaching in NY showed no surprise at news of yet another mass shooting, his interest was piqued, and he began to dig deeper into the industry of military-style safety provision in US schools. His subsequent Bulletproof is selected for Ji.hlava Constellations and Leipzig Audience Award.

The rain is filling the gutters. The streets are empty of humans, but stray cats and dogs are scavenging for food. So are flocks of pigeons. This is the St Petersburg during lockdown shown in Russian director Tatiana Chistova’s Bless You!, world premiering at DOK Leipzig.

For the DocLisboa opener, director José Barahona took to the waters Fitzcarraldo-like on an odyssey into the Amazonian rain forest in search of the hybrid Nheengatu language, originally the language of the conquerors, now the language of resistance.

As Sheffield prepares to pump up the volume ahead of the Oct 31 European prem of 'Sisters with Transistors', first time feature director Lisa Rovner plugs in with Business Doc Europe.

Have you heard the one about the two London cabbies? According to popular cliché, taxi drivers in the UK capital are garrulous, colourful characters who love a good natter with their customers. Max Colson's short doc shows them in a different light.

Hannah Jayanti describes her 'Truth or Consequences' as a “speculative documentary.” That’s to say, a film set in the near future in a world subtly different to the one we know. In the America Jayanti shows, citizens are beginning to leave earth as commercial space travel takes off.

When we speak about war, we seldom think about the women left behind on the battlefield. Cláudia Alves seeks to address this in her new project, pitched at Nebulae Arché section of DocLisboa 2020.