Tine Fischer and Niklas Engstrøm on CPH:DOX's Past, Present and Future

An unapologetically progressive fest since its 2003 inception, CPH:DOX has never been content to merely showcase films. From the start, it set out to push the parameters of the documentary format, to redefine the festival ecosystem itself (while always questioning and challenging its own role in the process). Perhaps reflecting founder Tine Fischer’s own interest in contemporary art (Fischer is a partner at Copenhagen’s Andersen’s Contemporary), CPH:DOX was the first fest to take heat for thoroughly embracing artistic experimentation, for coloring outside the accepted lines between fiction and “reality.” Back at a time when most festivals, particularly here in the US, were still focused on “issues” docs (jam-packed with “serious” talking heads), the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival was unabashedly championing what would later be trendily referred to as “hybrid” films (and long before that became cinematic geek chic). Indeed, 2009’s CPH:DOX Award went to none other than Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers — a project that many critics contended wasn’t even a film, let alone a documentary. And now a dozen years (and one pioneering, pandemic-driven pivot to digital) later, CPH:DOX is undergoing yet another radical transformation. Tine Fischer, about to make her mark on the next generation of Danish filmmakers as the new director of the National Film School of Denmark, is handing the reins over to longtime colleague Niklas Engstrøm, the fest’s head of programming since 2015. Which is why Documentary thought this a fine time to, in accordance with the 2021 edition’s theme of “Reset!”, look back, look forward and reassess with the daring duo.

To read all about them visit Documentary magazine.