Interviews

A Black Jesus, directed by Luca Lucchesi and produced by Wim Wenders, poses a poignant and pertinent question. How can the residents of a Sicilian village worship a black Jesus but disregard the refugees who pray in the same church?

“Cinema needs to defend itself like never before,” the IDFA Creative Director tells BDE. “A thousand persons watching the film at home over a week are not equal to 1000 persons in a cinema watching the same film.”

35% budget cut means fewer films in overall selection but doc levels same as 2019 with 8 films each in Italian/international programmes. At Cannes, Torino FF presents 4 docs-in-progress, together with Festival dei Popoli and the Piemonte/Toscana Film Commissions.

Leading Berlin-based doc sales specialist Rise and Shine presents a slate of recent festival successes, as well as Scars, the new film by Agnieszka Zwiefka, featuring in German Films Previews.

Leading Russian outfit Metrafilms is getting back into the documentary groove with an espionage thriller as embroiled and complex as anything found in dramatised spy movies.

The ‘fest’ has been taken out of the festival and all the hard work isn’t bringing the expected dividends. “Our real merchandise are emotions, and these are best shared,” First Hand Films boss Esther van Messel tells BDE.

Tel Aviv-based doc sales outfit Cinephil is partnering with French production giant Gedeon Media Group and ARTE on major new TV project, The Ark Of The Covenant (working title). Cannes label Flee also on the company's Cannes slate.

Vienna-based documentary powerhouse Autlook is tweaking its strategy in response to the challenges presented by the Covid pandemic. (Photo by Andre Csillag/REX/Shutterstock)

One of the first docs made during the pandemic, London-based Sasha Joelle Achilli was not prepared for what she witnessed when she returned to Italy to shoot Italy’s Frontline: A Doctor’s Diary for PBS/BBC in early 2020.

This was set to be the first Cannes outing for Ukrainian Docudays UA and promo body Ukrainian Institute. Instead, the showcase of new Ukrainian doc projects in post-production goes ahead online during Cannes Docs 2020.