September closes with a full slate of releases, and October opens as one of the year’s busiest months: DOK Leipzig, Doclisboa, Ji.hlava IDFF, and other forums will shape the immediate conversation. This newsletter offers an overview of the month’s new film reviews, nonfiction books, commentaries and reports, and a round-up of industry news. We also publish an interview with Ex Oriente Film, outlining current priorities in development, financing, and regional collaboration.
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News
DOK Leipzig unveils full 2025 DOK Industry programme with focus on risk-exposed filmmakers
MIA 2025 unveils industry-heavy program with 100+ projects and a spotlight on documentary innovation
Doclibsoa announces new «Heart Beat» and «From the Earth to the Moon» 2025 titles
Israeli documentarians confront Gaza genocide in open letter
DOK Leipzig 2025 unveils US-focused Retrospective and twin Homages
Doclisboa 2025 announces opening/closing films and first program highlights
IDFA invites Portuguese filmmaker Susana de Sousa Dias as 2025 Guest of Honour
29th Baltic Sea Docs wraps in Riga with eight industry awards
Porto/Post/Doc unveils 2025 theme and dual filmmaker spotlights
Interview
East of convention: Ex Oriente Film’s human-centred method
Ex Oriente Film challenges industry habits with early-stage support, rigorous feedback, and space for author-driven experimentation.
«We look for documentaries which make a difference»
Nordic/Docs Festival Director Paul René Roestad speaks with Modern Times Review on the 2025 edition of the Fredrikstad, Norway documentary festival.
Commentary
Baltic Sea Docs 2025: Cats on the Rooftops, Docs in the Villa
From war testimonies to playful experiments, BSD 2025 showed why Riga’s compact forum punches above its weight in Europe’s doc market landscape.
At Dokufest, a panel discussion posed this epic question: What does it mean to watch?
Books
Foundations of Black Epistemology: Knowledge Discourse in Africana Philosophy
by: Adebayo Oluwayomi
Adebayo Oluwayomi’s Foundations of Black Epistemology reframes Fanon, Biko, and others, arguing for truth-seeking Black knowledge beyond Western foundations.
Films
Ghost Elephants
Director: Werner Herzog
With Ghost Elephants, Werner Herzog creates another work within his transgressive anthropology.
Fighter
Director: Sunniva Sundby, Mari Bakke Riise
After a dockside dive leaves MMA fighter Geir Kåre Cemsoylu Nyland facing paralysis, Fighter tracks his two-year recovery and a candid reckoning with toxic masculinity.
Henden – Requiem for a Photographer
Director: Rune Denstad Langlo
Norwegian war photographer Harald Henden spent his life documenting the stories of others – usually at their hardest moments. Now, he is the story…
Rijeka or Death! Fiume o Morte!
Director: Igor Bezinović
A crowd-sourced, carnivalesque reconstruction of Rijeka 1919–20, Rijeka or Death! dismantles D’Annunzio’s cult and exposes the roots and afterlives of fascism.
The Dialogue Police
Director: Susanna Edwards
An experiment in protecting democracy and free speech, while maintaining public order, Sweden's Dialogue Police mediate between protestors and regular police to reduce tension in public gatherings.
The Gardener, the Buddhist & the Spy
Director: Håvard Bustnes
A corporate spy embeds with environmental activists, flips (sort of), and drags an asbestos empire into view. What follows isn’t a clean exposé but a knot of moral grey zones.
The Long Road to the Director’s Chair
Director: Vibeke Løkkeberg
Restored 1973 footage from Berlin’s Women’s Film Seminar amplifies women’s voices on authorship abortion rights and power still urgent in today’s media.
The Tale of Silyan
Director: Tamara Kotevska
The Oscar-nominated Macedonian filmmaker Tamara Kotevska returns with a luminous documentary fable that extends her ongoing meditation on a pressing homeland concern: the ecological and economic troubles that drive migration.
Toni, My Father
Director: Anna Negri
From prison rituals to 1970s utopias, Anna Negri’s film reframes Toni Negri beyond labels, tracing conatus, family conflict, and the power of happy passions.
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