Documentary Round Up: March 2023
A busy March ends with the latest edition of Modern Times Review available. MTR issues 14 includes films, essays, interviews, and more from all our partner festivals across the month - several of which still go on through the early days of April.
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NEWS
Submit your documentary projects to the Ex Oriente Film 2023
IDF reveals full film selections for East Silver Market at the East Doc Platform 2023
Sunny Side of the Doc to highlight XR, immersive content, and innovation
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2023: the complete winners
First titles for 2023 Krakow Film Festival have been announced
The WHY Foundation to curate over 50 fact-based documentaries to Russian speakers across the globe
FILMS
20 Days in Mairupol
CPH:DOX
Director: Mstyslav Chernov
While the Russian invasion commences, a group of Ukrainian journalists who are stuck in the besieged city of Mariupol strive to carry out their duty of documenting the war's brutalities.
A Lost Heart and Other Dreams of Beirut
Cinema du reel
Director: Maya Abdul-Malak
Short doc crafts a visceral portrait of post-war Beirut.
After Work
CPH:DOX
Director: Erik Gandini
Why being irrelevant could be worse than being exploited in the new world of automation and Artificial Intelligence.
AI: African Intelligence
Director: Manthia Diawara
The impact of AI for future civilization in regards to hermetic knowledge.
Aurora’s Sunrise
Movies that Matter
Director: Inna Sahakyan
A harrowing, engrossing story of Aurora Mardiganian who finds herself in the throes of the Armenian genocide.
Breaking Social
CPH:DOX
Director: Fredrik Gertten
A look at the global patterns of modern kleptocracy and extractivism, reimagining the building blocks of our societies along the way.
De Humani Corporis Fabrica
CPH:DOX
Director: Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel
Five centuries ago, anatomist André Vésale opened up the human body to science. Today, De Humani Corporis Fabrica opens the human body to the cinema.
I Like it Here
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
Director: Ralph Arlyck
A nostalgic love letter for the irreversible passing of time by one of the key figures in American independent documentary.
Meeting Point
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
Director: Roberto Baeza
In Roberto Baeza's documentary, the producers – Paulina Costa and Alfredo García – literally play out the past in order to find a way to heal the present.
Motherland
CPH:DOX, FIFDH, One World IHRFF
Director: Alexander Mihalkovich, Hanna Badziaka
An insight into the militarisation of Belarusian society.
Onlookers
Cinema du reel
Director: Kimi Takesue
In the age of over-tourism, Onlookers asks what it is we seek when we travel?
Phantom Parrot
CPH:DOX
Director: Kate Stonehill
The blunt force of the UK's terrorism laws.
Praying for Armageddon
CPH:DOX
Director: Tonje Hessen Schei, Michael Rowley
Power, money, and religion intertwine as the influential US Christian fundamentalist movement fights for the end of the world.
Sānsūr
One World IHRFF
Director: Mostafa Heravi
Six women seek to increase awareness of the multiple forms of discrimination against them and others through candid testimonies that advocate for liberation.
Slaughterhouses of Modernity
Cinema du reel
Director: Heinz Emigholz
Exploring the dual character of architectural modernism through the tension between the avant-garde and political propaganda.
Songs of Earth
CPH:DOX
Director: Margreth Olin
Life, death, nature, and presence amidst the primordial forces of the earth.
The Journalist and Her Jailers
One World IHRFF
Director: Adithya Sambamurthy
How a German trial of two Syrian refugees put the crimes of Bashar al-Assad's regime under the international spotlight
The Oil Machine
CPH:DOX, One World IHRFF
Director: Emma Davie
How we got into this oily mess?
Total Trust
CPH:DOX
Director: Jialing Zhang
The Chinese surveillance state in a tale of technology, censorship and abuse of power in the 21st century.
Up the River With Acid
Cinema du reel
Director: Harald Hutter
How to capture an ending life in two days?
INTERVIEWS
Nikolaus Geyrhalter: «I don’t like humans as a species.»
The 25th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival paid a tribute to the Austrian filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter (51), with a masterclass and screening of 10 films.
ESSAYS
By: Truls Lie
What is an observational style really – an old fashion or giving films something they lost?
Prevent the abuse of human rights in social media
by: Melita Zajc
Two films from One World IHRFF prompt us to think about what kind of social media we want in the future.
by: Dieter Wieczorek
The Berlinale again goes straight into harsh and provoking subjects.
by: Viktor Strimska
Through authenticity and intimacy, how can we understand the nature of humour in non-fiction works?
BOOKS
At the border of art and anthropology
On a new, participatory, inclusive artistic anthropology.
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Ex Oriente Film 2023 - 14 April
Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival (Industry Days) - 31 May
Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival - 31 May
