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Sitting on a potential goldmine of approximately 25% of the world's hydrocarbon reserves, the third-largest uranium reserves, and 20% of rare earths, Greenland is an icy Eldorado that today sparks all sorts of ambitions. “It's not the beauty of the landscapes which interests Donald Trump,” Jean-Yves Cauchard, co-director of Greenland, told the SSD professional audience of his latest project.

Mathare Fathers spotlights the lives of three single fathers from the vast Mathare slum (Nairobi, Kenya) who have left behind a life of crime to start a new one as single fathers. “Today, masculinity is at the crossroads,” says co-director Mattias Grosin says. “But these guys, they're building something so strong and beautiful together with the kids in one of the world's most harsh places. Love has become a lifeline.”

Leading documentary associations from the UK, Canada and the US announced this week in Sheffield the formation of a new international alliance to coordinate support for independent documentary film. IDA Director of Programs Abby Sun said: “We can all see the present and coming challenges to the sector on a political, financial and technological level. I know that together we are stronger, both in the US and internationally. Doc makers are some of the most resourceful, committed and agile people in the industry and right now we all need to pull together.”

“Are you sure about this, who’s going to want to watch a film about leftovers and creepy crawlies? It’s gross!” Producers Julien Adam (Capa Presse) and Sally Blake (Films a Cinq) invited the professional audience at Sunny Side into the loamy world of the compost bin during the pitch for their new doc project, Compost, The Hidden Treasure of our Waste, directed by Guilhem Touzery.

One of the Seven Wonders of the World is revisited using latest technology, with a promise to unravel the final secrets of the iconic Lighthouse of Alexandria. Gedeon Programmes’ The Lighthouse of Alexandria Decoded, directed by Laurence Thiriat, will be, producer Coraline Roch suggests, “a cinematic journey that will captivate global audiences and let them witness the reverse of the Wonder thought lost forever.”

Today kicks off two days of major archive activity at Sunny Side, with a showcase of six core archive companies, and panels on the decolonisation of First Nations archives and the preservation, restoration and promotion of African archives. In a June 26 keynote, Dawn Porter will share her experiences working with archives and present her latest film about Nelson Mandela. In addition, 18 archive companies are exhibiting this year in the Main Hall of SSD. Archive supremo Elizabeth Klinck tells BDE what to expect.

Nathalie Bourdon, Director of Distribution & Market Development at NFB, tells Business Doc Europe about her busy slate of Sunny Side films, prominent among which is Christopher Auchter’s The Stand, in which a small group of Haida people demand that the government work with Indigenous people to find a way to protect the land and their future. The film received a Special Mention of the Youth Jury at Sheffield Doc Fest.

Exiled Gazan filmmaker Wafa Jamil delivered an impassioned pitch for her highly personal documentary that explores the themes of displacement, resilience and identity. “I'm carrying on not just as a filmmaker, but as a mom, as a daughter and a sister having a family surviving a genocide,” she told the professional audience in La Rochelle.

18-year-old Abhilesh's uncle wants him to succeed in the wrestling academy so as to further his political career, but the boy just isn’t cut out for fighting, torn between duty and an unspoken yearning for something more. “In today's world, when wars are being waged by hyper-masculine men, our film quietly explores how masculinity isn't about following rigid ideas of social expectations but can be found in vulnerability, empathy and the courage to express yourself beyond your assigned roles,” Jadhav told the La Rochelle audience.

The Finnish Film Foundation has invested €660,000 in nine documentary projects during its latest round of funding. These include two majority and four minority doc feature projects, two series and a short doc. A major beneficiary is The Pitcher series, about Finnish baseball player Konsta Kurikka making it big in the US, which received 216,873 euros in FFF support.