Shaping Change in the Documentary "Golden Age": CPH:CONFERENCE 2022

Unfolding over three informative afternoons at the 2022 hybrid CPH:DOX (March 23-April 3), CPH:CONFERENCE’s “Business as Unusual” was the catchily titled, The Catalysts-curated program, moderated by friend-of-the-fest AC Coppens — who also founded the aforementioned consultancy “for innovative and creative players working at the crossing of Digital Tech and Film/XR, Music/Sound, Design & Culture, to turn conferences into sites of knowledge exchange and co-creation". “Follow the Money!” was the equally catchy theme of the day that featured longtime change-maker Derren Lawford, founder and CEO of DARE Pictures, a “transnational content studio dedicated to premium programming with purpose.” (DARE, Lawford was quick to explain, stands for “Diversity, Allyship, Representation and Empowerment”; the acronym could likewise apply to the veteran producer’s fearless approach to the industry.)

To read all about the two insightful keynote addresses I (virtually) attended visit Documentary magazine.

“The Law Can Be Used Simultaneously to Harm and to Help…”: Shameela Seedat on Her Hot Docs-Premiering African Moot

Arican Moot marks the Hot Docs return of human rights law specialist/award-winning filmmaker Shameela Seedat, who last took the Special Jury Prize at the fest back in 2018 with Whispering Truth to Power. That doc trailed her nation’s brave anti-corruption crusader Thuli Madonsela, South Africa’s first female Public Protector. And now with this latest Seedat turns her lens to an international topic even closer to home. Created under the auspices of Generation Africa, African Moot refers to the African Human Rights Moot Competition, the largest mock court tournament on the continent. (Generation Africa itself is a project of South Africa’s STEPS – which has yet to produce a film that didn’t rock my world. See Akuol de Mabior’s Berlinale-debuting No Simple Way Home, likewise having its Canadian premiere April 30 at the fest.) And battling it out for top prize are Africa’s best (and most idealistic and cutthroat) aspiring lawyers, four teams of which Seedat follows from their respective universities in Cape Town, Cairo, Kampala and Nairobi all the way to Botswana. It’s here that the skilled orators will have to argue before rounds of intimidating judges (both for the prosecution and defense) in a far-too-real, fictional human rights court case dealing with the perpetual question of refugee rights. And ultimately, if they make it to the final smackdown, have the painful pleasure of appearing before the even more intimidating international judges at Botswana’s highest court. A week prior to the film’s April 30 world premiere in the World Showcase program, Filmmaker reached out to Seedat to learn all about her nail-biting legal adventure across a vast continent in which around 30 million are considered internally displaced persons, refugees or asylum-seekers. (In other words, one-third of the world’s refugee population. Which shamefully gives the lie to our US border “crisis” to boot.)

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

“The Tragedy of Martha is That Her Story Had Been Hijacked So Thoroughly by the White Men Around Her”: Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy on The Martha Mitchell Effect

Per Wikipedia, “The Martha Mitchell effect refers to the process by which a psychiatrist, psychologist, mental health clinician, or other medical professional labels a patient’s accurate perception of real events as delusional, resulting in misdiagnosis.” Per Sundance, Full Frame, Hot Docs, and ultimately Netflix, The Martha Mitchell Effect is one must-see doc. Running at just under a brisk 40 minutes, Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy’s all-archival short – which recently screened at the virtual Full Frame in the NEW DOCS section and is set to play in the Persister Shorts: Mother’s Day program at the hybrid Hot Docs – spotlights the titular figure, once only known to the public as the outspoken (read “out of bounds” when it came to the women of her day) wife of President Nixon’s attorney general (read criminally convicted henchman). The Arkansas-born, paparazzi-loving socialite was also a heck of a brave soul, whose inability to ignore her moral compass may have brought down the entire Nixon administration. (At least Tricky Dick thought so. Then again his many failed efforts to silence her – including drugging and kidnapping – may have played a role in that vitriol.) Her rectitude did, however, most assuredly bring down Martha Mitchell herself. It’s a tragic tale made all the more poignant by the filmmakers’ deft mixing of Mitchell’s many controlled interviews and television appearances with her off-the-cuff phone calls. (The UPI’s Helen Thomas was both a trusted confidant Mitchell could dial up at all hours and one of the few journalists to actually take her seriously.) With a face that belied an emotional truth deeper than words, Mitchell was equal parts media savvy and heartbreakingly honest. Someone whose trauma had always been hiding in plain painful sight. Fortunately for history, we now have a doc-making duo that bothered to look. The Martha Mitchell Effect debuts online April 28 at Hot Docs (geo-blocked to Canada, unfortunately) before heading to Netflix.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

“People Are Not ‘the Trauma They’ve Experienced'”: Trauma-Informed Storytelling at CPH:CONFERENCE 2022

For a film journo who closely followed last year’s he said (filmmakers)/she said (ISIS “sex slave” subjects) controversy that entangled Hogir Hirori’s Sundance-premiering (followed by film-festival-shunned) Sabaya, the recent CPH:DOX panel “Beyond Courage: Trauma-Informed Storytelling” was simply a must-see. The discussion, expertly moderated by Gavin Rees, Executive Director of Dart Center Europe (a satellite of Columbia Journalism School’s Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma), was part of the “Claim Your Story!” program, one of three engaging afternoons under CPH:CONFERENCE’s “Business As Unusual” banner. (“Follow the Money!” and “Shaping Success.” were likewise smartly curated by The Catalysts, a multimedia agency that “turns conferences into sites of knowledge exchange and co-creation,” and its founder/enthusiastic host AC Coppens.) To read all about it visit Filmmaker magazine.

“La Mami Represented an Embrace, a Feminine Alliance, the Resistance”: Laura Herrero Garvín on Her Mexico City-Set Doc, La Mami

"Men are only good for two things: for nothing, and for money.” So sayeth the titular, straight-talking matriarch at the heart of Laura Herrero Garvín’s La Mami, a gloriously female-centered portrait of the hardworking dancers of Mexico City’s Cabaret Barba Azul. Told entirely from a female POV – with no men in sight to hijack the narrative – the film takes place almost exclusively in the cloakroom/bathroom/dressing room of the legendary nightclub, where Doña Olga (aka “La Mami”) presides. It’s in this safe space that the cabaret world vet, who in the past 45 years has transitioned from party girl to seasoned caretaker (most notably of newbies like Priscila, a Tijuana resident just trying to earn enough money to pay her son’s medical bills), dispenses advice on everything from always using a pseudonym to staying sober under pressure. (Because the ladies make a living providing a “girlfriend experience” of sorts – both drinking and dancing with the customers who pay for their time – getting drunk on a nightly basis is just one hazard of the job.) Luckily, Filmmaker was able to catch up with the Barcelona-residing Spanish director (2016’s The Swirl) – and co-founder of Sandia Digital, which has produced around 20 shorts – just prior to her (IDFA, MoMA Doc Fortnight, SXSW, etc.-selected) latest’s theatrical debut at NYC’s Maysles Cinema. (One screening remains on April 27th.)

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

From Analog to TikTok: Female Directors Sweep CPH:DOX 2022

In keeping with its 50/50 gender balance pledge, this year’s DOX:AWARD program — CPH:DOX’s international main competition showcasing an all-premiere lineup — featured six male and six female-directed films from a range of countries. And, as in years past, I agreed to watch and rate them all on a scale of one (not my cup of tea) to four (brilliant!) stars for the Danish film magazine Ekko’s international film critics’ jury grid. It’s an annual duty I’ve come to grudgingly love. On the one hand, I have to watch a dozen films that weren’t necessarily on my must-see list (that I’d carefully whittled down from the “200 new films, 76 world premieres, 59 competition titles in six international competitions” boasted in the press release). On the other hand, doing so forces me out of my cinematic comfort zone – exposing me to new names and undiscovered gems I’d otherwise surely have missed.

To read all about my finds visit Filmmaker magazine.

Soviet 2.0: Novorossiya

UKRAINE: A brand new film from the grey zone of war in Donetsk, on Ukraine's eastern front, where war has been raging for years. World-premiering in the Special Premieres program at this year’s hybrid CPH:DOX, Luca Gennari and Enrico Parenti’s Novorossiya is one tragically timely doc – a snapshot of life on the ground in the Donetsk People’s Republic. It’s a borderland region in which both citizens and soldiers have experienced the Donbass-Ukraine conflict up close and personal; intimately and viscerally bearing witness for the more than 13,000 people who’ve died since the DPR was first established back in 2014 (as onscreen titles tell us from the start).

To read the rest of my essay visit Modern Times Review.