Interviews

“The anniversary encouraged us to reflect not only on what Ji.hlava has achieved, but also on our responsibilities towards the future of documentary filmmaking,” the Ji.hlava Head of Industry tells BDE before doors open on the festival’s 30th edition. “At a time when artistic freedom, cultural institutions and public funding are increasingly under pressure, I believe festivals have a responsibility to support independent filmmaking and the communities around it.”

New director Ola Staszel talks to Business Doc Europe before the 69th roll-out of world’s oldest docfest. “As a very young person, I was really touched and moved by Kieślowski and by Łoziński,” the Polish Staszel underlines her credentials. “In my early age, I realised what it means to create films about people telling universal stories. That's why I think it's crucial to show, to create, to discuss documentaries, because they’re really life-changing. You see small slides or pieces of reality and you realise, okay, life’s so big.”

Marek Hovorka reflects on 30 years of Ji.hlava IDFF, one of the key staging posts for the international doc community, and arguably the loudest advocate for the export of great docs out of the CEE region. “Things have changed dramatically over those three decades,” he tells Business Doc Europe. “In the beginning, filmmakers submitted their films by sending us VHS tapes [and] one of the first big upgrades to our office was buying a fax machine. On the other hand, we already had our first website in 1999! So yes, thirty years is a long time.”

Noli me Tangere (a world premiere in Lisbon) is one of the many essay films that renowned Lebanese auteur, Ghassan Salhab, has made over the years. He began working on it in the spring of this year, just before the new conflict with Israel flared up, at which point Salhab was stopped in his tracks for three or four weeks. But he eventually resumed work, shooting material until July of this year. “I decided that if the war entered into my life, not for the first time unfortunately, let it enter into the film,” he tells BDE.

In her feature documentary, world-premiering in Lisbon, Inês Oliveira profiles the prolific stills photographer Mariana Viegas who worked on the sets of some of Portugal’s most revered filmmakers, such as Šarūnas Bartas, Pedro Costa and Manoel de Oliveira. “These were films that marked me, they are still important films for me,” Oliveira observes to BDE, and describes Viegas’ photos as “somehow like a time machine,” giving viewers new perspectives on the important work of these major auteurs.

“I’ve always been fascinated by - and have often wondered about - the extent to which the places we live, and the cycles of nature that surround us, influence who we are and who we become,” Ribeiro tells Business Doc Europe of the circumstances which have now led her to make Vent du matin (a world premiere in Portuguese competition at Doclisboa), a film that unfolds over a year within the vineyards of Beaujolais.

Rayna Teneva grew up in Kazanluk, a Bulgarian town famous for its arms factory, Arsenal AD, and for its rose oil, made from flowers picked in Bulgaria’s “rose valley.” The artist and filmmaker, who is now based in Vienna, isn’t therefore surprised that her feature Geography Is Destiny (an international premiere in Doclisboa’s International Competition) is so often described as being about “guns and roses.” Nonetheless, as she tells BDE, she hopes audiences will see beyond such an obvious cliché.

Doclisboa’s Marina Thomé discusses this year’s offer to international professionals attending Nebulae, the festival’s industry programme that kicks off October 16. “Success, for us, is creating an environment where filmmakers can develop author-driven projects that challenge cinematic form and language, while creating spaces for reflection through roundtables, conversations with festival programmers, training activities, labs and live cinema performances,” she underlines to BDE.

Doclisboa (15-25 October) is one of the first events in a packed autumn season for documentary markets and festivals that also includes Ji.hlava, DOK Leipzig and, a few weeks later, IDFA. Festival director Hélder Beja argues, however, that the Lisbon footprint is very different to those of the other events. “We truly defend and believe in film above all,” Beja tells BDE. “We have gone a little bit away from the term ‘documentary’ these days, even if we have it in the name of our festival. ‘Documentary’ is a word that very rarely appears in everything that we write.”

Fourteen Dutch documentary projects, twelve of which are at advanced stage, will be presented during the second edition of NLWave (September 30 to October 2), an initiative of the Netherlands Film Fund and presented in co-operation with SEE NL. The 2026 showcase comprises a who’s who of top Dutch creative and business talent, and presents a wealth of fascinating stories that span the globe. Simone van den Broek, Head of Documentary and Fiction at the Netherlands Film Fund, guides Business Doc Europe through this year’s selection.