Interviews

Before doors closed on the 23rd edition of FIFDH, co-director Laura Longobardi reflected to BDE on how both the festival and Impact Days are changing the narrative in terms of doc and advocacy. “In a way we've been ‘teaching’ the NGOs through the seven years of Impact Days,” she tells BDE. “This is a film that you can use for your campaign. This is a film that you can use with your stakeholders. This is a film that you can bring to the political institutions to show what's really happening, and at the same [use] for a change of law, a change of structure.”

In Colombia, a nation which suffers profound racial and socio-economic disparities, a Black woman (Francia Márquez) from a rural background challenges the status quo by launching a presidential campaign. “The impact campaign inspired by Igualada aims to create a paradigm shift, ensuring that many more 'igualadas' continue breaking barriers,” producer Juan Yepes tells Business Doc Europe.

Ventura Durall’s latest documentary Supernatural, premiering in the International Competition of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, delves into the complex relationship between science and magic through the lens of a father-son dynamic. A co-production between Spain, France, and Belgium, Supernatural is being sold by Taskovski Films.

In Front of Us paints a deeply moving portrait of two women’s fight for accountability in a conflict the world has chosen to ignore, revealing both the strength and limits of international law. That war is between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region has been raging since 2020. “While the film highlights Armenian cases, its broader message is clear: Accountability for war crimes is a global imperative that transcends borders and politics,” Armenian producer Mariam Davtyan (Bars Media) tells BDE.

Nora Philippe spent over a decade working on Girls for Tomorrow, which had its world premiere at this year’s festival. The film follows four young women studying at New York’s Barnard College as they navigate questions of feminism, patriarchy and capitalism. Philippe reflects on her own journey making the documentary, the challenges she faced, and her approach to storytelling. “For them, this space was also therapeutic to some extent, and that was the same for me. I was looking for answers—about motherhood, freedom, feminism—answers I couldn’t find in any other way,” she tells BDE.

Pushpa Rawat’s Docedge project Sita’s Awakening provides an intimate look at the lives of two sisters fighting against both domestic abuse and an inaccessible legal system. "Right now, this film is about the transformative journey of two sisters — who go from being victims of abuse to becoming women who not only recover but who also seek to hold positions of power, ensuring an end to this kind of injustice for all,” explains producer and editor Niharika Popli, who is joined in conversation by director Rawat.

How Love Moves by director Pallavi Paul and producer Aman Mann (All That Breathes) explores the story of 40-year-old grave-keeper Shameem, who has played a paramount role in the burial of over 1000 bodies at the Delhi Gate Cemetery ever since the pandemic reshaped the city. “The graveyard is not a place where any kind of hectic, dramatic activity happens, and yet the richness of life here lends itself to really compelling dramatic moments,” producer Mann tells BDE.

Over the past fifty years, the Greek island of Mykonos has undergone radical transformation. Once an affordable, off-the-beaten-track paradise, it has become an exclusive, high-end destination. What was once a beacon of inclusivity is now a symbol of luxury tourism. How did this small Aegean getaway become a melting pot for such divergent experiences? Was it a paradise? Is it still? Director Steve Krikris discusses his feature doc, world-premiering in Thessaloniki, with BDE.

The feature doc concerns the agency formed in 1949 by the UN General Assembly to prevent starvation and distress among Palestinian refugees. But UNWRA has been heavily attacked in recent months over its alleged links to Palestinian militant groups. “It is obvious that among all the [30,000] UNWRA employees, some of them are connected or belonging or in touch with Hamas,” director Wadimoff tells BDE. “The problem is not this. The problem is the fact that UNWRA is doing the job that nobody else wants to do.”

Produced by Esther van Messel of First Hand Films and fellow Swiss outfit Spirited Heroine, Kalari (90/52’) tells of the eponymous Indian martial art that is taking on greater significance for women within a society where gender-based violence is commonplace. “Kalari is a film about new heroines in a country where violence against women is both historically ingrained and a daily reality,” First Hand Films’ Daniel Schneider tells BDE.