Pavel Koutecky and Miroslav Janek's Citizen Havel and Danish filmmaker Mikala Krogh's Everything Is Relative are among five creative theatrical documentaries to be showcased by a new venture called Doc Alliance created by five leading European documentary film festivals.

Doc Alliance's first lineup is:
Citizen Havel by Pavel Koutecky and Miroslav Janek (Czech Republic) Comeback by Maximilian Plettau (Germany)
Everything Is Relative by Mikala Krogh (Denmark)
The Existence by Marcin Koszalka (Poland)
The Mother by Antoine Cattin and Pavel Kostomarov (Switzerland/Russia/France)

The films were selected by CPH: Dox Copenhagen, DOK Leipzig, Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, Planete Doc Review Warsaw, and Vision du Reel Nyon to be presented at their respective festivals from this week's launch in Nyon through to the Jihlava and Leipzig events in the autumn.

According to the Alliance's architects, the goal is 'to convince audiences that reality surpasses fiction and cinema du reel can be spectacular, fascinating, moving and instructive. New initiatives are needed to promote remarkable films in a general market that is less permeable to their circulation and commercialisation.'

Jihlava's Marek Hovorka picked the portrait of the former President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel for this new distribution platform, while DOK Leipzig's Claas Danielsen chose the Swiss-Russian film The Mother about a Russian mother raising her children under difficult circumstances, which had won the MDR Award for Best Film from Central and Eastern Europe in Leipzig last year.

Meanwhile, Visions du Reel's director Jean Perret selected the German film Comeback about a boxing pro wanting to make his international comeback. Tine Fischer of CPH: DOX decided on local Danish filmmaker Mikala Krogh's Everything Is Relative about the diversity and relativity of human emotions, and Artur Liebhart of Planete Doc Review chose Marcin Koszalka's The Existence about the veteran Polish actor Jerzy Nowak's decision to donate his body to science after his death.

According to the Doc Alliance's manifesto, the five partners will do their utmost to promote these films at their festivals, and in their theatrical, television and DVD distribution, and in a future European online portal. Moreover, another stage of the Doc Alliance initiative could see the partners inviting festivals from Asia, South or North America as well as other parts of the world as 'special guests'.

At Nyon this week, The Existence and Everything Is Relative both screened in the International Competition, while The Mother and Comeback were presented in the Regards Neufs sidebar and Citizen Havel in the Tendances section.

International sales on The Existence is being handled by the Krakow Film Foundation, while Citizen Havel is being sold by Deckert Distribution.

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