News

The programme offers up 300 films including a unique retrospective of American Oscar-winning avant-gardist Shirley Clarke and the largest ever retrospective of Filipino cinema outside of Asia. The programme will also feature a reflection on the Russian aggression in Ukraine and a conference dedicated to ethics in documentary filmmaking. The 26th Ji.hlava IDFF will take place October 25–30.

The Norwegian Mirage festival, which showcases “highly creative and visual films with reality as their starting point” returns for its second edition Oct 12-16. The programme comprises 27 films, a Tonje Bøe Birkeland exhibition and masterclasses by Nataša Urban and Sir Roger Deakins on Cinematography vs Photography. And much besides. Founders Racha Helen Larsen and Egil Håskjold Larsen explain more to BDE.

For Marco Spagnoli, the enormous emphasis placed on documentary within this so-called “golden age,” both by public and professionals alike, is long overdue, and is one that he is eager to reflect in his programme during the Rome event, running 11-15 October both in-person and online. He explains more to Business Doc Europe.

The London-based sales division of MetFilm has acquired worldwide rights (excluding the UK) to filmmaker Margy Kinmonth’s feature documentary currently on theatrical release in the UK. The critically received film, which tells the true story of one of Britain’s greatest landscape artists, has so far grossed over £275k at the box office.

The Flemish CONNEXT showcase, running 10-25 October, offers up 26 new and upcoming Flemish and Brussels-initiated documentary features and works-in-progress (both feature projects and series, including VR) which will be presented to the international sales, distribution, finance and festival professionals in attendance both in Antwerp and online.

A survivor of the 1915 Armenian genocide, the story of Aurora Mardiganin is the harrowing true story of a teenager who, after seeing her family murdered, embarked on a remarkable journey that involved incarceration within a Turkish harem and escape to the US. Her story was eventually re-told in a silent Hollywood film. That she re-lived that story as star of the film makes it all the more chilling. Armenian Academy Award Int'l Feature submission.

Nebulae, the 6-day industry programme of Doclisboa, will lift off Tuesday October 11. “Nebulae shapes itself as a welcoming and informal space that encourages new collaborations and offers training, networking, access to market circuits for new projects, tools and knowledge about innovative tendencies and alternative production models in the domain of non-fiction cinema,” says programme chief Glenda Balucani.

The sense of laid-back cool that infuses the music of the band Cymande is very much reflected in this engagingly straight-forward documentary that traces the history of the band and details the influence their work had on musicians who came after them, especially in the world of hip-hop where tracks often 20 years old were sampled by major players.

A playfully provocative delve into work of performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña and his dance/art troupe La Pocha Nostra, Amber Bemak’s engagingly breezy and busy documentary manages to offer plenty of insight into culture and politics while also playfully blurring the line between filmmaker and subject.

Featuring one world, 2 European, 5 UK and 9 Scottish premieres, the festival runs 3-7 November 2022 in Stirling, birthplace of the ‘father of documentary’ John Grierson. “The 23 films in the programme will transport audiences across the world with deeply personal stories on series of urgent and important issues,” say festival organisers.