At first glance, the 2023 CPH:INDUSTRY programme seems daunting in terms of its scope, ambition and sheer volume of elements, but once you’ve regained your breath it should make for a fascinating watch, whether experienced in its entirety (yes, there are folk who watch every masterclass and listen in on every panel) or merely in part.
Core to proceedings are CPH:FORUM and CPH:CONFERENCE. Industry chief Tereza Simikova takes BDE on an annotated tour through events.
CPH:FORUM
This year’s FORUM presentation of 33 new projects includes some of the most successful and highly lauded documentarians of recent years, such as Ljubomir Stefanov (Honeyland), Jessica Kingdon (Ascension), Finlay Pretsell (Time Trial), Ousmane Samassekou (The Last Shelter), Mila Turajlić (The Labudovic Reels), Tonislav Hristov (The Good Postman), Iryna Tsilyk (The Earth Is Blue as an Orange) and Brett Story (The Hottest August), among many others.
Additionally CPH:WIP (Work-in-Progress) titles include eight projects from established filmmakers such as Yrsa Roca Fannberg, Camilla Magid, Håvard Bustnes, Zippy Kimundu among others, while a further 8 projects developed over the past 6 months in the CHANGE co-pro training programme, that targets filmmakers from the the European Eastern Partnership countries of Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
So when it comes to Forum selection, what are the key criteria? At the end of the day is it solely down to the quality of the projects? “I think quality is a very tricky term to use as everyone pictures it differently, and for projects in development, we are all guessing on a potential, not a concluded work,” answers Simikova.
“In a way we don’t know the film until it’s made, and there is a number of ways how a pitch, a proposal, or a trailer can look, and that all plays in what we end up calling quality,” she continues. “To avoid a system that would prioritize compromises, or easily marketable works, we take a liberty of approaching the selection in a quite personal way…We see as our mission to bring people together and create a conversation and momentum around the films we select – and we find that mission easy if we can really pitch those projects ourselves. [Projects will be considered for selection] if we understand why the world cannot exist without these specific films to be made in order to move forward the conversation on the larger matters they represent, and to move forward the documentary genre itself.”
But there are other factors too. “CPH:FORUM is as an international platform with a strong focus on Europe, but open to the world, so that is reflected in the territorial spread of the participants and projects. We aim to present a mix of established and high-profile filmmakers and fresh talents, stressing gender parity and diversity, and presenting a wide variety of genres. Our core mission is to document the richness and variety of non-fiction genres and approaches.”
There are already 100 more guests coming through FORUM’s “very physical” doors in 2023, Simikova point out, which marks a further 65% increase on pre-pandemic numbers in 2019. And these figures don’t even include guests who are part of the INTRO:DOX initiative which looks to benefit emerging directors whose development was arrested over the past three years.
“The total of this year’s online delegates is around 3%. We are very happy that Forum can be again a kind of “agora” for real, personal encounters of the community, but we see lots of work to be done in terms of harvesting the possibilities of a transformation and power redistribution, in both the documentary landscape and on a global scale, that the pandemic has so clearly pointed out to,” Simikova underlines (see below).
CPH:CONFERENCE
In 2023 the CPH:CONFERENCE morning sessions will feature top doccers talking about the art, the craft and their creative dilemmas, while the afternoons will present community discussions about pressing issues and visions for the future of the industry. On Friday 24 March artists and audiences will discuss the role of cinema in the struggle for democracy.
“Each strand has its own highlights, but at the same time, they work together, as a larger dramaturgy that resembles a family gathering at a holiday kitchen table,” says Simikova. “We are particularly proud that prominent filmmakers such as Asif Kapadia, Jessica Kingdon, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Talal Derki and Maite Alberdi are joining the morning talks, in two different formats. Personally, I really enjoy Dialogues on Craft, a format that brings together two filmmakers who watch and choose clips from each other’s film, and then discuss on stage the values, approaches and creative achievements, as well as the challenges they recognise in their work.”
“The afternoon sessions promise lots of inspirational and potentially heated discussions about the sustainability of production, editorial freedom, inclusivity, as well as mental health in the industry,” Simikova continues of the Conference programme. “What makes me happy is that the Conference will contribute also to practical, hands-on work on the issues we will discuss and provide a platform to a series of research focus groups on mental health, as well as a think-tank of fair co-production models.”
“The Friday programme features prominent activists, civil society leaders, visionaries, and thinkers among filmmakers – and their fellow citizens. I am proud we will introduce The Ukrainian War Archive project of our fellow festival colleagues from DocuDays UA in collaboration with the Nobel Peace-awarded Centre for Civil Liberties which organises and gathers [information/data for] the world’s biggest platform of citizen journalism for future war crimes investigation, but also scientific research of life under the war conditions.”
Online access
How will CPH:INDUSTRY accommodate professionals who wish to limit their travel, whether for environmental or post-Covid reasons? In the main, online access is available, but for Forum – no, says Simikova.
“I am actually grateful for the pandemic to have posed us in front of the urgent question of what is – and what is not – essential for our community to work,” she says. “Do we need, after all, to gather personally, considering the toll it takes on the climate, public finances and people’s work-life balance? But we were wondering about the impact of the swift collective transformation to online efficiency on our culture at large, and it was concerning to see all kind of social bubbles being solidified and moments of surprise becoming rare in the formatted digital space, making it hard for projects and people to meet people they didn’t even know of.”
“So for all these reasons, we decided to discontinue the online version of our Forum. It needs to be a place of surprise, unexpected connections and an inclusive place that opens doors to newcomers,” Simikova continues. “Having said that, we realise there is a value in sharing knowledge that isn’t dependent on travel. We are making accessible all the events that don’t consist primarily in networking. So the whole line-up of this year CPH:CONFERENCE, as well as our INTER:ACTIVE SYMPOSIUM and the INTRO:DOX programme will be available to accredited guests, alongside most of the films selected for the CPH:DOX program, remotely. This on-demand videoteque will be available for the whole duration of the festival and 30 days afterwards, until 25 April.”
Festival/Industry synergy
“In catering to the film community, CPH:INDUSTRY is reflecting a deep connection with the festival side of CPH:DOX,” Simikova comments of the obvious dovetailing of approaches, ideas and raisons d’être evident across the public and industry-facing sides of CPH:DOX and, from a logistical point of view, the modus operandi of using films and guests most productively to further increase the value of the Copenhagen experience. “All what we do embodies the same philosophy, the same values and a deep interest in non-fiction art, science and the society. The Industry, as well as the Programme selection prioritize risk-taking, innovative works and very often, the Forum discovers projects for our future film programme, while the programme discovers filmmakers to follow, for the Industry.”
“Besides the values and profile, we also naturally share people coming to the festival – the Conference programme features talks of filmmakers who are showing their films to the CPH:DOX audiences to make their trip worth it, and to further the impact of their films towards the industry,” Simikova continues. “Forum often invites executives coming to premiere major films at the festival to meet new projects pitched there. And the festival of course benefits from the presence of distributors and buyers that can make it more possible for films to travel after their Copenhagen premiere, and therefore make it easier for the programme team to secure high-profile, ambitious films for the festival.”
“I am sure no one single event is the one and only place to meet each other, pitch projects and share films with the audiences,” Simikova adds, referencing the wider non-fiction industry climate and general feeling camaradarie across the sector.
“It is precisely the richness of the documentary festival space, the variety of profiles and approaches that make this community resilient, and we are grateful for our festival colleagues who do the same work in a different way so every film can find its path to funding and audiences. Having said all that, we are of course proud to be one of the places people entrust with their fantastic projects and films and travel to from across the world to meet and talk to their fellow documentary professionals.”
