As major film festivals struggle with tackling complex political issues at a time of great global unrest, CPH:DOX is pushing forward with prodding at the root of sensitive conversations surrounding politics, censorship and how fast-evolving technologies such as AI are changing our notions of truth.
Last year, the prestigious Danish festival expanded its industry offering to include CPH:DOX SUMMIT, a program of talks inviting global thinkers, politicians, decision-makers, researchers and doc professionals to discuss the issues of the future. This year, the event is doubling down on that proposition, with the Summit taking place on the first day of CPH:CONFERENCE and titled “Sovereignty: Rethink, Envision, Redefine.” ARTE France president Bruno Patino will give this year’s opening speech.
Speaking ahead of the upcoming edition of CPH:INDUSTRY — running between March 16-19 — head of industry and training at CPH:DOX Mara Gourd-Mercado says having a wider pool of experts at the festival last year “added a lot of value.”
“Documentary is having a really hard time at the moment — and so is independent media at large,” she adds. “If you look at the Summit program, we are looking at people who have gone through something similar before the documentary industry, which is mainly journalism, where sources of funding and support from the state and public media have either dwindled or completely disappeared. What can we learn from what they went through so we can build structures that allow us to continue to exist?”
To Gourd-Mercado, threading that connection between documentary filmmaking and journalism was “natural,” especially given that the link has always been part of the festival’s DNA. “We understand there is a huge difference between reportage and documentary, but they feed into each other. When you look at the film program, we have a lot of documentaries that are collaborations between journalists and filmmakers.”
Over the last two years, prominent documentary festivals have hosted several conversations around the industry’s overreliance on streamers and the importance of nurturing the public broadcaster ecosystem that has allowed European documentaries to flourish. When asked about how the connection between major American streamers and established traditional media — such as Jeff Bezos’s stakes in both Prime Video and The Washington Post — might feed into the debates happening at this year’s festival, Gourd-Mercado brings up the ever-changing notion of “safe spaces.”
“Sameer Padania, who is a journalist and researcher who works very closely with the BBC, says it is important for us to look at what algorithms and AI are doing to the accessibility of documentaries and independent media,” she goes on. “What structures will be needed for us to continue to have access? This is the safe havens we talk about, and they can exist both physically and digitally. What does it mean to have spaces that are not necessarily controlled by a government or a Jeff Bezos?”
Speaking about safe spaces, Gourd-Mercado praises the “very specific and special” context of holding a festival in Denmark. “Denmark has a long history of supporting democratic debate. There’s a tradition of calling things by their names, but also having spaces for debate and dialogue where you might not agree with each other, but are willing to come into a space and discuss,” she goes on. “I think that context allows CPH:DOX to be as bold and as transparent, and to be political.”
Asked in what sense she feels the industry activities at the festival are political, Gourd-Mercado says: “We don’t shy away from talking about political situations in different countries and spaces.” “That’s a privilege to be able to do so when we are seeing our colleagues in Georgia, Hungary, the U.S. and India, for example, having to carve out a space to have these conversations. We are really privileged and lucky.”
Courtesy of CPH:DOX
Recently, Head of IFFR Pro Marten Rabarts told Variety he is seeing more and more American filmmakers come to European festivals to search for support they can no longer find in their home country due to the current political situation. Speaking to that, Gourd-Mercado says it is also a trend with CPH:DOX. “I think that a lot of the U.S. industry is looking at how to concretely collaborate with Europe and how to co-produce. We’ve always had this reputation of bridging the gap between Europe and the U.S. or North America in general, but now, it is truer than ever.”
“It’s not always easy because we are talking about two systems that have been used to working in parallel, and now they need to figure out how to combine the two financing systems,” she adds. “But we will see more and more of it.”
With the world facing growing instability and documentary filmmakers dealing with increasingly timely subjects, how does Gourd-Mercado and the CPH:FORUM team decide which projects to include at the festival’s pitching platform? With over 900 submissions, a steep increase from around 800 last year, the task is not an easy one.
“I think it’s interesting to find projects that have a geographical breadth and footprint, but that also talk to each other,” says the industry head. “The other thing we keep in mind when we look at the Forum is the viability of the projects. We are mindful of only bringing in projects we think we can do something for. Even if we love a project, it doesn’t mean that we are the right platform for it.”
At the end of the day, every arm of CPH:INDUSTRY contributes to serving “the industry and the community,” Gourd-Mercado notes. “Activities need to be linked to each other. They need to make sense and be a pathway where we can be a space for people at the beginning of their careers, to seasoned producers and filmmakers. We also have DOX:ACADEMY starting to spark that interest in filmmaking and the craft of documentary, which is super important. Hopefully, we’ll see some of those participants coming back through activities like Forum and, ultimately, be programmed in our main film program. That is the goal.”
