Interviews

Director Chai Vasarhelyi is fulsome in her praise for courageous and “diligent” conflict photographer Lynsey Addario, the subject of the new National Geographic feature doc Love+War. Wherever she is, Addario has “the discipline to do the work to an excellent, uncompromising level…and what is so special about her work is the heart, humanity and emotion she brings to it,” she says. Addario joins Vasarhelyi in conversation with BDE.

“We need to care for the people that bring the films here, and we need to care for the people that come to watch the films - it's like a mantra,” director Helder Beja tells BDE on the eve of Doclisboa 2025. The Portuguese docfest (Oct 16 to 26) presents 211 films from 54 countries, which include 93 feature films and 118 shorts. Thirty-nine of the films play as world premieres, while 31 films are made by Portuguese filmmakers. The 23rd edition of Doclisboa opens October 16 with Palestinian Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan in Gaza.

Filmmaker Antonio Palumbo and co-writer Mariangela Barbanente talk to BDE about their urgent new project which demands justice for a horrific murder committed over 40 years ago. “We do not want to merely recount a crime story,” the creative team tells BDE. “We want to honour Palmina’s life, showcasing her dreams and aspirations as a young girl against the backdrop of poverty in Puglia during the 1970s and 1980s.”

In his paean to the wonders of nature, feature debutant Ed Sayers turns to old tech, in the form of Super 8, to offer us a new way of seeing. For Super Nature, which world-premieres October 12 at BFI London FF, 40 collaborators from around the world filmed their natural habitat using this wonderfully imperfect format, replete with its scratches, graininess and oversaturation, and submitted their efforts to Sayers. “If anyone who sees this film has any change in their attitude towards the natural world that we live in, and that we are a part of, then great,” he tells BDE.

Belgium-based Moldovan filmmaker Olga Lucovnicova talks to Business Doc Europe about her dramatic new documentary, which previewed at Flanders Film Days. In the film Olga investigates her family legacy of suicide in Russia, starting with her grandma Antonina, whose letters to her son Slava (Olga’s father) set the whole filmic odyssey in motion. “I hoped that with this film, I would reunite the family and then it will be a happy ending,” Olga tells BDE. “But everything changed when the war in Ukraine started…”

Two-time Oscar-winner Ben Proudfoot makes his feature debut with The Eyes of Ghana, produced by Oscar-nominated Moses Bwayo and exec-produced by Barack and Michelle Obama. It is a film about a remarkable political legacy, a love for cinema, and the discovery of a rich cinematic archive far away in a London vault. And at its core is Ghanaian filmmaker Chris Hesse, who has one final mission to undertake before his days come to an end. Proudfoot and Bwayo talk to BDE before the film’s international premiere October 9 at BFI London Film Festival.

The presence of outsiders - whether missionaries, doctors or illegal gold prospectors - leaves a deep impression on the lives of indigenous Wayana folk living on the border of Surinam and French Guyana. These Invasive encounters continue to reshape their daily lives. The film is shot in black and white to echo the films of earlier missionaries. Another reason was to introduce nuance. “There is no good and bad - but a lot of grey,” co-director Zaïde Bil tells BDE of life in the region.

In Volkan Üce’s new feature doc Two Square Metres, presented at Flemish Film Days, Tayfun is the go-to undertaker for the Belgian Turkish community, many of whom want to send their deceased loved ones back to their former homeland to be buried. If you are expecting a grim and depressing film about death, then think again. Üce’s film is a loving and funny portrait of a good dad and sassy businessman whose natural tendency towards compassion is matched only by his considerable money-making acumen. The director talks to BDE.

Cassette for timescapes producer Emmy Oost discusses Belgian-Turkish director Volkan Üce’s new project, a work-in-progress at Flanders Film Days. It is a film very much about men and masculinity. “Through the lens of the military service, [Volkan] will be looking at the patriarchy, but the conclusion is the same - that men and women are equally victims of patriarchal structures,” she tells Business Doc Europe.

“Initially a small, obnoxious collective of like-minded film students,” is how Brussels-based production outfit Visualantics describes itself. At the inaugural Flanders Film Days, the company is presenting four diverse works-in-progress. “For most of these projects, it is the very first time they have been shared with such a large audience of film professionals. It’s a good opportunity to see how they are received and what feedback we get from the room. Anything else is a nice extra, already a plus,” producer Steven Dhoedt tells BDE.