Interviews

At Cinekid 2020, Youtuber Quinty Misiedjan premiered her documentary Marked for Life, made in collaboration with the NGO War Child for whom she is an ambassador. The film explores the lives of refugee children, and seeks to find out how they can retain any sense of joy, resolve or passion against a backdrop of uncertainty, fear and violence.

Marc Isaacs’ feature The Filmmaker’s House, which world premieres October 17 at Sheffield Doc Fest, is labelled as “documentary.” Some doc purists, though, may be startled by the director’s freewheeling approach toward a project which was indeed shot in his own house. Business Doc Europe spoke to the director back in June 2020.

Producer Maarten Schmidt may not have a project at the Flemish showcase this year, but is nevertheless a very active participant within the Belgian doc scene (and in European with DAE), specialising in films for youth. He talks to Business Doc Europe.

Maarten Bernaerts of Flemish production house Diplodokus talks to Business Doc Europe about his current doc slate, which includes the delicate and lyrical What Makes Us Boys, which received a jury commendation at Connext 2019.

Hanne Phlypo’s Clin d’Oeil films is handling no fewer than five documentary projects at the Flemish forum for new audiovisual works, including an ambitious new series entitled Draw for Change!, which goes next to IDFA Forum, directed by six leading international female docmakers.

“Today more than ever it is important that we cannot just see documentary film as entertainment any more. It costs too much money and there are too many crises on this planet, so for me it is very important that the films add something to change our situation,” says Flemish producer Emmy Oost.

'Dark Rider' may be about bikes and speed and men breaking records, but it also the stories of both a mother and a wife, as told by self-confessed petrol-head director Eva Küpper and produced by not so petrol-head Flemish producer Ellen de Waele.

Millennium Docs Against Gravity’s Artur Liebhart reflects on the success of his hybrid festival, held across seven cities in Poland September 4-18 and online September 19-October 4.

Giedrė Žickytė’s The Jump, about a Lithuanian sailor’s audacious bid for freedom during the Cold War and the resulting diplomatic furore, world-premieres October 9 at the 36th Warsaw Film Festival. The director talks to Business Doc Europe about boats, intrigue…and Henry Kissinger.

Flemish producer Bart Van Langendonck of Savage Film talks about two of his doc projects at RE>CONNEXT 2020; Four Brothers, about lives of of four Ukrainian brothers torn apart by war, and Parked Life, which examines the acute sense of isolation felt by a long distance lorry driver.