Documentary Round Up: March 2023

Modern Times Review in March 2023

Mar 31, 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

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.