Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX) and European Film Promotion (EFP) have joined forces to mount online showcase EUROPE! On Demand, which aims to bolster the profile of seven European documentaries in the North American market in particular.
Running throughout the festival (March 19-30), the initiative will offer filmmakers guidance on US market strategies and help make key introductions.
Screen talks to the filmmakers behind each of the seven projects.
Black Water (Spain)
Dir. Natxo Leuza
“Bangladesh is on the frontline of climate change, as one of the most polluted and vulnerable countries in the world,” says Spanish director Natxo Leuza, about why she was inspired to make a documentary about the country. “It acts as a beacon, because what happens in Bangladesh will affect every country in the world. In Bangladesh by 2050, between 20 and 30 million people are going to be displaced. It’s going to be the largest mass migration in history.”
Black Water follows one family fleeing the rising waters in their rural southern Bangladesh village by moving to the capital of Dhaka, the fastest-growing city in the world. Leuza has previously told refugee stories in his short films, but knew that this feature could also help put a face on another of his passions: climate change. He describes the issue of climate change displacement as “something apocalyptic, like a time bomb”.
Leuza and his team underwent huge production challenges during the shoot, including flooding, torrential rains and high temperatures causing condensation in their camera equipment. They hope that the human story they have captured will resonate with audiences beyond the statistics.
“I want to offer a tool for the viewer to reflect and draw their own conclusions,” he says. “We aim to awaken the audience’s conscience and encourage deep reflection on the consequences of our actions on the environment and the future of the planet.”
Contact: CAT&Docs info@catndocs.com
The Castle (France-Italy)
Dirs. Danny Biancardi, Virginia Nardelli, Stefano La Rosa
The Castle is the debut documentary from Italian filmmaking trio Danny Biancardi, Virginia Nardelli and Stefano La Rosa, who met while studying at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia Foundation film school in Palermo, Sicily.
The film follows three children who turn an abandoned building in the heart of Palermo into a refuge from the violence of the outside world and adulthood. “We didn’t start with a set idea of what we wanted to film, capture or tell,” says La Rosa. “We just knew we wanted to talk about growing up in this Palermo neighbourhood, and explore the passage from childhood to the beginning of adolescence.”
The trio started filming the 11-year-olds in 2021, with the bulk of the shoot taking place from 2022 to 2024. In total, they amassed 70 days’ worth of footage for the film, which is produced by France’s La Societe du Sensible and Italy’s ZaLab Film.
“I had forgotten how amazing it is to get involved in children’s adventures and imagination,” says Nardelli. “If an audience comes out from the film remembering their childhood, the light moments, their first love, that will be great.”
Contact: Fandango sales@fandango.it
Flophouse America (Norway-Netherlands-US)
Dir. Monica Strømdahl
Six years ago, Norwegian photographer Monica Strømdahl met then-12-year-old Mikal living with his alcohol-addicted parents in a run-down hotel room in New York City. She initially followed the family’s daily struggles as a photographer, but soon realised the subjects were ripe for her first feature documentary. “Their movements, their voices, were part of the story,” she says.
So Strømdahl filmed Mikal for three years – he’s now 18 and fully supports the film’s release. “My intention was to make the audience truly see the human, the child behind the statistics,” explains Strømdahl. “The numbers are staggering: one in 10 children [in the US] grow up in a household where at least one parent has an alcohol-abuse disorder. I wanted to show what it feels like to be one of those children.”
Producer Beathe Hofseth notes that the filmmaker took duty of care to this vulnerable family seriously. “It’s a huge responsibility for us as filmmakers,” she says. “We have a care plan, and still have that plan for Mikal and his father.” (The filmmakers remain in weekly contact with Mikal.)
Strømdahl appreciates the film is a tough watch but believes this is a topic that should not be ignored. “It’s important to remember the vast number of children who grow up like Mikal, and we have to look at what we can do to change policies.”
Contact: Beathe Hofseth, Fri Film beathe@frifilm.no
Girls & Gods (Austria-Switzerland)
Dirs. Arash T. Riahi, Verena Soltiz
Ukrainian activist Inna Shevchenko of the country’s FEMEN collective has long studied how feminism and religion can coexist. She enlisted Austrian filmmaking team Verena Soltiz and Arash T. Riahi to bring candid conversations about the topic to life in a cinematic way, a journey that took them around the globe to meet imams, rabbis, priests and other activists.
“For me, this film is another fight, it’s another action, another political act,” says Shevchenko. “In a way, it’s not a film about religion. It’s a film about power. It’s about who gets to speak, who is being silenced, who is being pushed back. It’s about what happens when women take their space and challenge power, while also wanting to remain in those spaces and preserve them.”
In making the film, the duo did not want an academic, talking-head approach, and so collaborated with graphic artists, poets and musicians. “These are strong women, and we wanted a punkish, pop culture-connect documentary,” says co-director Riahi. “A film that is sensual and allows itself to ask uncomfortable questions.”
While confronting a challenging issue, Riahi hopes the film can help to move the conversation forward. “The biggest field of conflict in our societies are religions,” he says, “so we hope this will be a bridge-building movie.”
Contact: CAT&Docs info@catndocs.com
The Helsinki Effect (Finland)
Dir. Arthur Franck
You would be forgiven for never having heard of The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, held in Helsinki in 1975, even though it did welcome world leaders including Gerald Ford, Leonid Brezhnev, Pierre Trudeau and Nicolae Ceaușescu. But, as this film’s tagline explains, it’s “a meaningless conference that changed everything”.
As the conference’s 50th anniversary approached, Finnish director Arthur Franck wanted to look back at how a conference that was dubbed “boring” could also remind modern audiences that diplomacy is sometimes slow and careful. The Helsinki Accords, signed at the end of the conference, helped bridge the gap between East and West and set important security agreements across Europe and North America.
“This idea of boring and slow and even frustrating diplomacy – that’s what changes the world, that’s what creates better tomorrows,” says Franck. “It’s the work that’s done behind closed doors and it takes a long time. That kind of change is possible.”
The filmmaker decided to bolster the archive footage with his own subjective contemporary take as a narrator, giving the film a layer of humour. “I wanted to make a film that was more about the weirdness and banality and absurdity of this kind of conference, and the theatre of it,” he says. “Diplomacy is a lot about humour and human contacts and weird exchanges.”
Contact: Rise And Shine World Sales info@riseandshine-berlin.de
Sanatorium (Ireland-France)
Dir. Gar O’Rourke
Irish filmmaker Gar O’Rourke says he became obsessed with the Ukrainian attitude towards health and mental wellbeing when he first visited Kyiv in 2018 to research his 2019 short documentary Kachalka, about Kyiv’s eponymous gym.
He channelled that interest into Sanatorium, his debut feature documentary that takes a look at life inside the brutalist Kuyalnik Sanatorium in Odesa, Ukraine. Despite a war raging on the doorstep, guests still come and stay for treatments and healing.
O’Rourke began work on Sanatorium in 2021 but, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, wondered if he would ever get it made. “My whole production team was Ukrainian and waiting for me [when I went back] in 2023,” O’Rourke says. “I was the only Irish person going there and when I was in neighbouring Moldova, about to cross the border, one of our significant partners backed out, mainly due to legal concerns.”
O’Rourke persevered and ended up shooting for 35 days during his 45-day sojourn at the sanatorium. The film is produced by Dublin-based Venom Films as a co-production with Ukraine’s 2332 and BBC Storyville, with support from Screen Ireland and Creative Media.
“This is a film about the power of human resilience and spirit and shows ordinary Ukrainians living in extraordinary times,” says O’Rourke.
Contact: Zak Brilliant, Met Film Distribution zak.brilliant@metfilm.co.uk
See You Tomorrow On The Moon (France-US)
Dir. Thomas Balmès
French filmmaker Thomas Balmès was inspired to make See You Tomorrow On The Moon by the death of his own father from pancreatic cancer, and a story in UK newspaper The Guardian about a therapy horse called Doctor Peyo.
The documentary details the story of a woman diagnosed with cancer who navigates terminal illness and palliative care, helped by both her young family and a horse who created a calming presence. Amandine, the documentary’s main character, was 39 when she was diagnosed.
“Her story reminded me of the questions I asked myself when my father was diagnosed,” recalls Balmès, whose previous works include Happiness (2013) and Sing Me A Song (2019). “What should we do with our last days when we know we are about to die? How to prepare our loved ones for a life without us?”
Balmès filmed with the family over 18 months from October 2022 to May 2024. “It was mentally challenging and delicate to enter the intimacy of people who were about to die or lose their loved ones,” he says. “It is only a small glimpse of what medical staff experience every day. We tried to be as unobtrusive as we could, and to represent the scenes we witnessed in the least manipulative way possible.”
Contact: Universal Pictures Content Group
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