The CPH:DOX documentary film festival, which formerly took place in November, reveals the line-up for its 2017 edition, running in March for the first time. In addition to its four existing competition programmes, the festival will be introducing a new competitive section, NEXT:WAVE, for young film talents that dare to explore the boundaries of the documentary narrative.
Feras Fayyad's Sundance winner "Last Men in Aleppo" about the White Helmets organisation is the opening film of this first spring edition of CPH:DOX, which runs 16-16 March. The film is also nominated for the main DOX:AWARD.
About
CPH:DOX in Copenhagen was founded in 2003. The festival grew from 14,000 admissions in its first year to a total of 91,400 admissions in 2015.
During the festival, CPH:DOX also presents concerts, art exhibitions, professional seminars, a screening market and the international financing and co-production event CPH:FORUM as well as the film production programme CPH:LAB.
Jeppe Rønde's "The John Dalli Mystery," in DOX:AWARD, follows journalists Mads Brügger and Mikael Bertelsen.
Danish films in Competition
In addition to Last Men in Aleppo, directed by Feras Fayyad and co-directed by Steen Johannessen, the Danish-produced films in competition include newcomers as well as seasoned documentarians.
The main DOX:AWARD competition features Phie Ambo's ... When You Look Away about human consciousness, a film in the vein of the director's previous works exploring dimensions of humanity. Jeppe Rønde, whose most recent feat was the warmly received fiction film "Bridgend," premieres with The John Dalli Mystery, a dark-humoured film featuring the two journalists Mads Brügger ("The Ambassador") and Mikael Bertelsen on the scent of a EU-related conspiracy.
Eva Mulvad explores the man behind the perfectionist in "A Modern Man."
The F:ACT AWARD competition for investigative documentaries includes Lotte Mik-Meyer's Return of a President about Madagascar's overthrown president Marc Ravalomanana and Lars Feldballe-Petersen's Finnish-Danish co-production The Unforgiven about a man trying to come to terms with his past as a war criminal.
Danish films in the NORDIC:DOX line-up make up seven of the thirteen titles. A Modern Man by Eva Mulvad,best known for her award-winning films "The Good Life" and "Enemies of Happines," follows model cum violinist Charlie Siem. Waiting for the Sun by Kaspar Astrup Schröder, who explored Japanese life in "The Invention of Dr. Nakamats" and "Rent a Family Inc.," takes us to a Chinese orphanage, while Anna Eborn is bringing Lida, the story of a true "babushka" in a Swedish colony in eastern Ukraine.
The other Danish films in the Nordic competition are Land of the Free by Camilla Magid, My Mother is Pink by Cecilie Debell, On the Edge of Freedom by Anita Mathal Hopland and Jens Lengerke and Stay Behind – My Grandfather's Secret War by Ida Grøn.
Anna Eborn mixes 8mm and video in her portrayal of 81-year-old "Lida."
Selected for the NEW:VISION programme dedicated to experimental filmmaking are Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing by conceptual artist Joachim Koester and The Mærsk Opera by artist group Superflex. Finally, nominated for the inaugural NEXT:WAVE Award for emerging young talents are Alexander Lind's Next Summer and Esther Wellejus' You Are Still Somebody's Someone.
Below is a full list of all competition titles.
The winners of CPH:DOX 2017 will be announced Friday, 24 March, during the closing ceremony at Kunsthal Charlottenborg.
Find the latest stories about films, curated programmes, conferences and other events at cphdox.dk/en.
Full list of all competition titles
DOX:AWARD / Main competition for best international documentary
…When You Look Away / dir. Phie Ambo (Denmark)
City of Ghosts / dir. Matthew Heineman (USA)
Craigslist Allstars / Samira Elagoz (Finland, Netherlands)
Do Donkeys Act? / dir. David Redmon, Ashley Sabin (UK, Canada, Ireland, USA)
DRIB / dir. Kristoffer Borgli (Norway)
Gray House / dir. Austin Lynch, Matthew Booth (USA)
Last Men in Aleppo / dir. Feras Fayyad (Denmark, Syria, Germany)
Obscure / dir. Soudade Kaadan (Syria, Lebanon)
Rage / dir. Dominique Lohlé, Guy-Marc Hinant (Belgium France)
Stranger in Paradise / dir. Guido Hendrikx (Netherlands)
The John Dalli Mystery / dir. Jeppe Rønde (Denmark, Norway)
The Third Option / dir. Thomas Fürhapter (Austria)
What Young Men Do / dir. Jon Haukeland (Norway)
See DOX:AWARD films at cphdox.dk
F:ACT Award / Competition for investigative documentaries
Accidental Anarchist / dir. John Archer, Clara Glynn (UK)
Cause of Death: Unknown / dir. Anniken Hoel (Norway)
Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas / dir. Joakim Demmer (Sweden, Finland, Germany)
Radio Kobanï / dir. Reber Dosky (Netherlands)
Return Of A President / dir. Lotte Mik-Meyer (Denmark)
The Devil's Trap / dir. Mitchell Stafiej (Canada)
The Force / dir. Pete Nicks (USA)
The New Radical / dir. Adam Bhala Lough (USA)
The Unforgiven / dir. Lars Feldballe-Petersen (Finland, Denmark)
Trophy / dir. Shaul Scwarz (USA)
Vape Wave / dir. Jan Kounen (Switzerland)
See F:ACT Award films at cphdox.dk
NORDIC:DOX Award / Competition for Nordic documentaries
69 Minutes Of 86 Days / dir. Egil Håskjold Larsen (Norway)
A Modern Man / dir. Eva Mulvad (Denmark)
Childhood / dir. Margreth Olin (Norway)
Land Of The Free / dir. Camilla Magid (Denmark, Finland)
Lida / dir. Anna Eborn (Denmark, Sweden)
My Mother Is Pink / dir. Cecilie Debell (Denmark)
On the Edge of Freedom / dir. Anita Mathal Hopland, Jens Lengerke (Denmark)
Shapeshifters / dir. Sophie Vukovic (Sweden)
Stay Behind – My Grandfather's Secret War / dir. Ida Grøn (Denmark)
Thank You for the Rain / dir. Julia Dahr (Norway, UK)
The Hotel / dir. Kristian Petri (Sweden)
The Strangest Stranger / dir. Magnus Bärtås (Sweden, Japan)
Waiting For The Sun / dir. Kaspar Astrup Schröder (Denmark)
See NORDIC:DOX films at cphdox.dk
NEW:VISION Award / Competition for films between documentary and art
Common Carrier / dir. James Kienitz Wilkins (USA)
Desert of the Real / dir. Christian von Borries (Germany)
Life Imitation / dir. Zhou Chen (China)
Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing / dir. Joachim Koester (Denmark, Belgium, UK)
No Trace of Accelerator / dir. Emily Wardill (Portugal, Norway)
Nosferatu / dir. John Skoog (Sweden)
Purge This Land / dir. Lee Anne Schmitt (USA)
The Flying Proletarian / dir. Phillip Warnell (UK)
The Haunted / dir. Saodat Ismailova (Norway / Uzbekistan)
The Lost Dreams of Naoki Hayakawa / dir. Ane Hjort Guttu, Daisuke Kosugi (Norway)
The Mærsk Opera / dir. SUPERFLEX (Denmark)
Urth / dir. Ben Rivers (UK)
Xenoi / dir. Deborah Stratman (USA, Greece)
See NEW:VISION films at cphdox.dk
NEXT:WAVE Award / NEW Competition for documentaries by daring talents
1996 Lucy and the Corpses in the Pool / dir. Marcos Migliavacca, Nahuel Lahora (Argentina)
A Variety of Shows for Various Events, Part I / dir. Daniela Delgado Viteri (Ecuador, France)
I Promise You Never to Come Back / dir. Pepe Gutiérrez (Mexico)
Janbal / dir. Mina Bozorgmehr, Hadi Kamali Moghadam (Iran)
Next Summer / dir. Alexander Lind (Denmark)
Phantom of Illumination / dir. Wattanapume Laisuwanchai (Thailand)
Spin / dir. Ginan Seidl (Germany)
Tarrafal / dir. Pedro Neves (Portugal)
You Are Still Somebody's Someone / dir. Esther Wellejus (Denmark)
See NEXT:WAVE films at cphdox.dk
Last Men in Aleppo
After five years of war in Syria, the remaining citizens of Aleppo are getting ready for a siege. Through the volunteers from the White Helmets we experience the daily life, death and struggle in the streets, where they are fighting for sanity in a city where war has become the norm. Khalid, Subhi and Mahmoud are among the first to enter the destroyed buildings, scouring through the rubble in search of bodies and signs of life.