Cinepolitical: a monthly brief on documentary
November's October's Essential Docs & Dialogues
November saw Modern Times Review criss-crossing Verzió, Porto/Post/Doc, Majordocs, and Moldox, chasing films and debates that never stay politely outside the cinema. At Verzió, we also ran the young critics workshop, working with emerging writers to sharpen their arguments and stay attentive to power, form, and context. This monthly newsletter rounds up what we’ve published across the month: book reviews, film reviews, industry news, and interviews, including a conversation with the founder of the Gaza International Festival for Women’s Cinema.
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News
Books
Hostage
Author: Eli Sharabi
Eli Sharabi’s testimony traces war’s exhaustion and a hard truth that everyone is trapped.
Commentary
Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime
by Francesca Borri
On Francesca Albanese’ fifth report to the UN Human Rights Council.
Interviews
«Through cinema and films, she can talk more about her problems and about everything women face»
In Gaza, Dr Ezzalden Shlah stages cinema under a broken truce, where rubble replaces venues and women’s stories refuse to stay buried.
«We are ten years old, but we are still young»
At ten years old, MOLDOX meets Moldova’s EU horizon and the war’s shadow with «Chaos. Reinventing Reality,» testing whether documentary can fortify a fragile public sphere.
Films
Amílcar
Director: Miguel Eek
Built from original letters, poems, and political writings, Amílcar offers a subjective, meditative portrait of Amílcar Cabral and the fight for Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde’s independence.
Conbody vs Everybody
Director: Debra Granik
Street skills meet entrepreneurship as a fitness venture builds community, educates clients about life inside, and pushes back against cycles of stigma.
Death of Death
Director: Davis Simanis
An unsentimental tour through longevity gurus, robotic promises, and icy vaults, challenging who benefits when death becomes monetizable by technology.
In the Opinion of the Censor
Director: Andrew Gallimore, Lydia Monin
An eye-opening glimpse into Ireland’s history of cinema censorship, where a 1923 law allowing films to be cut, renamed, and banned according to «the opinion of the censor» remains, with amendments, on the Statute Book.
Melt
Director: Nikolaus Geyrhalter
Geyrhalter’s latest observes global snowscapes and people amid tourism and research, documenting vanishing ice, extreme weather, and urgent climate-policy questions.
Peacemaker
Director: Ivan Ramljak
Witness accounts, banned interviews and shocking street scenes reveal how hatred was engineered and a peace chief silenced as Yugoslavia fractured.
Real
Director: Adele Tulli
A global portrait of digital natives switching personas across Zoom, gaming, and influencer culture, where online connection can feel more lived than offline life.
The Kartli Kingdom
Director: Tamar Kalandadze, Julien Pebrel
Three generations endure postwar exile in a fractured building above Tbilisi.
The Thing to be Done
Director: Srđan Kovačević
A frontline portrait of cross-border exploitation and quiet solidarity.
We Will Dance Again
Director: Yariv Mozer
A tense mosaic of 7 October at Nova told by those who filmed it.