Cinepolitical: A Monthly Brief on Documentary Film
Awards, industry change, political cinema and a new generation of African film critics defined our June coverage.
In June, Modern Times Review travelled from the cinemas and industry meetings of Kraków to the final La Rochelle edition of Sunny Side of the Doc. It was a month shaped by institutional change: established markets faced uncertain futures, new festivals and funding initiatives emerged, and filmmakers continued to work under conditions of political repression and financial strain.
Our film criticism returned repeatedly to war, authoritarian power, labour and historical memory. A major collaboration with DFM Talent Press also brought a new body of writing from the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, foregrounding critical perspectives from across the African continent.
News
Awards and industry support in Kraków
The month began at the 66th Krakow Film Festival, where Tristan Forever won the Golden Horn and Tickling the Devil received the Golden Hobby-Horse.
The KFF Industry Awards offered a different view of the festival ecosystem. Its 23 prizes and distinctions included post-production services, archive access, equipment, promotional support and invitations to international markets—the less visible forms of assistance upon which independent films often depend.
Sunny Side prepares to leave La Rochelle
By late June, our attention had moved to La Rochelle for an edition of Sunny Side of the Doc overshadowed by questions about the market’s future.
After two decades in the city, the event brought its La Rochelle period to a close, with preparations underway for a new documentary market in Strasbourg in 2027.
The relocation framed much of our reporting from the event. We also covered the China Pavilion’s selection of 30 projects, while conversations throughout the market returned to falling production budgets, commissioning pressures and the continuing purpose of meeting in person.
New festivals, retrospectives and funding
Portugal announced DOC[iN], a new international documentary festival due to launch in Viana do Castelo in 2027.
Doc Edge presented its 2026 programme, while Doclisboa and Cinemateca Portuguesa announced an extensive retrospective devoted to Filipino filmmaker Lino Brocka.
The Climate Story Fund also opened its latest global call, supporting nonfiction projects that connect storytelling with practical forms of climate engagement.
Supporting new projects
Several initiatives announced their latest selections in June.
Slano Film Days chose seven projects led by women filmmakers from Southeast Europe. CIRCLE selected ten projects by women and gender-expansive filmmakers for its 2026–2027 accelerator, while Baltic Sea Docs unveiled 26 projects for its 30th edition.
Such announcements point towards the infrastructure still being built around documentary production. The month also supplied a harsher reminder of the conditions under which some directors work: an Iranian appeals court upheld Jafar Panahi’s one-year prison sentence and two-year travel ban.
Films
Many of June’s reviews concerned people living not simply in the aftermath of violence, but within its prolonged and unfinished consequences.
From Kraków, Silent Flood observed how Russia’s invasion enters the life of a secluded religious community in Ukraine. Steps in Silence followed women deminers as they worked methodically across the contested terrain of Karabakh.
Tickling the Devil examined the career of war photographer Christopher Morris and the psychological cost of sustained exposure to conflict.
Our Colors Never Fade documented LGBTQIA+ Ukrainians contending with Russian aggression while also challenging discrimination within their own society.
Authoritarianism appeared from a more oblique angle in How to Feed a Dictator, which approached five former rulers through the testimony of their personal chefs. Domestic routine, proximity, and fear serve as a means of examining how power is maintained.
Detention confronted the institutional degradation of the French prison system. Nick Holdsworth’s critical review of Eyes of the Machine, meanwhile, argued that its account of the repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang was undermined by insufficient context and overly familiar visual strategies.
Interviews
At Sunny Side, Managing Editor Steve Rickinson spoke with Managing Director Aurélie Reman as the market approached the end of its long association with La Rochelle.
The interview addressed the shortage of documentary financing, the value of physical markets and the practical uncertainties surrounding the move to Strasbourg.
Documentary Campus Managing Director Donata von Perfall discussed another set of pressures: digital-first production, artificial intelligence, brand partnerships, and the ethical responsibilities associated with technological change.
Her call to “reframe innovation” rejected the assumption that new tools possess value in themselves. The more important question is what forms of storytelling they enable—and whose interests they ultimately serve.
DFM Talent Press × Encounters
One of our largest editorial projects in June came through Talent Press, an initiative of Talents Durban developed with the Durban FilmMart Institute and FIPRESCI.
Writing from the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, emerging African critics considered films in relation to memory, labour, place, artistic practice and political inheritance.
The Eyes of Ghana examined Chris Hesse’s endangered photographic and film archive of post-independence Ghana. Truck Mama entered the working life of a Kenyan woman truck driver, while My Father and Qaddafi followed a daughter’s search for the truth behind her father’s disappearance.
Kikuyu Land addressed colonial land theft and its unresolved consequences. Marxism and Period Pains connected menstrual pain with labour, education and unequal access to healthcare.
In Notes from the Underground, Cape hip-hop became both a cultural history and an archive of forced removal, racialised geography and survival.
Four comparative essays drew connections across the festival’s short-film programme. They considered ordinary forms of resistance, the representation of marginalised neighbourhoods, the risks and possibilities of artistic vulnerability, and the cinematic expression of social and psychological instability.
Taken together, the series showed the value of criticism grounded in the histories, languages and political realities from which films emerge.
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