More than 30 international doc projects selected for hybrid CPH:FORUM

The latest projects by Janus Metz, Tonje Hessen Schei, Nathalie Grossman are among 16 Nordic projects to be pitched at Copenhagen’s hybrid doc financing and co-pro market.

After two years online, CPH:FORUM will be unspooling March 28-31 both online and on-site, alongside Copenhagen’s major documentary festival CPH:DOX (March 23-April 3).

So far more than 200 financiers, broadcasters and platforms have signed up such as Disney+, Netflix, Hulu Arte, ZDF, BBC, CNN, National Geographic, DR, Participant Media, Freemantle, as well as philanthropic foundations such as Ford Foundation, Sundance Institute, Chicken and Egg Pictures, Freedom of Speech Foundation, and Blue Ice Docs.

“The pandemic has deeply affected curation across the platforms and has further narrowed down the range of films and topics that are considered feasible to be made,” said Tereza Simikova, Head of CPH:FORUM. “It is our ongoing mission to nurture a space for originality and creativity, while making sure the projects we expose can indeed find their audiences.”

This year’s curated industry programme covers a wide range of topical issues, genres and the latest artistic contributions from international filmmakers such as the Oscar-nominated US duo Tia Lessin and Carl Deal (Trouble the Water), Dutch visual artist Renzo Martens (The White Cube) and Sweden’s Nathan Grossman (I am Greta).

According to CPH:FORUM, women will be taking centre stage, both as characters and storytellers, such as China’s Jialing Zhang (One Child Nation) due to pitch The Total Trust (WT), American Elizabeth Lo (Stray) coming with Untitled Mistress Dispeller Project, and Ilinca Calugareanu (Chuck Norris vs Communism) currently working on Celluloid Dreams, five stories showing how movies can sometimes change us or/and the world.

For the first time, seven projects from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, selected for the new training programme CHANGE, will be presented at CPH:FORUM.

NORDIC DOC PROJECTS
A total of ten Nordic documentary projects looking for co-financing or co-production partners, will be introduced at CPH:FORUM.

• Breaking Social (SE, CL) by Fredrik Gertten (Bikes vs Car).
  Breaking Social uncovers the pattern of corruption and kleptocracy erasing the social tissue, followed by social uprisings. In Chile a new turn is taken, with young women in the lead.
• Climate in Therapy (SE) by Nathan Grossman (I am Greta).
  What will happen if a group of climate scientists, who usually don’t allow themselves to express their emotions about climate change, get a chance to process their feelings in group therapy?
• Cowboy Russ (SE) by Tova Mozard (Psychic).
  20 years ago, a Hollywood extra met a budding filmmaker. She honed her directorial skills and he practised lines. Years later, a film which was never supposed to be had already been shot. Neither reality nor fiction, but both at the same time.
• Mehaheartz (Sweden) by Emily Norling (All We Own).
  Hybrid documentary about 5 women who want to start over. The film begins with an acutely real escape from a destructive boyfriend and continues in a flow of fantasies and fragments of love, pain and desire.
• Portrait of a Confused Father (NO, FR) by Gunnar Hall Jensen (Oh It Hertz!).
  A macho middle-aged control freak of a father is trying to connect with his uncontrollable wild son, but it does not go according to plan.
• The Great Art $windle - working title (DK/FR) by Andreas Dalsgaard (The Great Game).
  A Swiss art dealer and a Russian Oligarch caught in a web of secrets, lies and mad money. The inside story of an international billion-dollar game where power is the ultimate currency.
• The End of Quiet (DK) by Mikael Lypinski (Desert Coffee), Kasper Bisgaard (The Kampala Story). In a remote, isolated area, one of the largest telescopes on earth is used to unlock the mysteries of the universe, while the locals live without cell phones and WiFi, cutting themselves off from the world.
• The Human Race (DK), directed by Simon Lec.
  In his relentless attempt to build a library of the complete genetic blueprint of the human race, a famous professor gets swirled into the political, ethical and existential tangle his work creates.
• The Whale Mystery (DK/NO/IS), directed by Janus Metz (Armadillo) and Klaus Thymann.
  Why do thousands of whales commit collective suicide every year? A deep-sea diver thinks he has the answer.
• Whitewash (NO), by Andrei Nekrasov (Russian Lessons).
  Inside story of the gigantic money laundering case of Danske and other Nordic banks.

Meanwhile, six Nordic documentaries near completion, looking for gap financing, will be pitched on March 28. The selection was made in collaboration with the Nordic film institutes.

Nordic Works in Progress:

• Nasrin’s Voice (FI) by Kaisa Rastimo (Laura’s Room)
  Kurdish child bride Nasrin becomes independent in Finland against her husband’s will. The punishment is harsh. But Nasrin doesn’t give up. She wants to win the battle for her rights.
• Resorts (DK) by Mette Carla Albrechtsen (Venus)
  At the south tip of Gran Canaria Island, the sun is always shining. Resorts warmly captures the easy and complicated lives, of 6 tourists that never left their holiday.
• Stayers (NO/US), directed by Hannah Jayanti, Julia Dahr, Julie Lunde Lillesæter.
  A tight-knit crabbing community in the U.S. fights to rescue their island from the sea. Despite not believing in man-made climate change, they engage in conversations with three climate activist filmmakers. Can they traverse the oceans between them?
• The End - Allies for Arnageddon (/NO/DE/SE/FI), directed by Tonje Hessen Schei (iHuman). Political thriller that reveals the race to bring about the Armageddon prophecy.
• The Fake Will (DK), directed by Christian Sønderby Jensen - information to follow.
• Vintersaga (SE), directed by Carl Olsson (Patrimonium).
  Song-structured tribute to the Swedish melancholia. Through 24 stanzas, the film observes a mosaic of situations and individuals, each with their own doubts, memories and dreams, shaping a picture of a land tinged by the bitter cold wind.

The best project pitched, intended for co-production, will be eligible for the coveted €20,000 Eurimages Co-Production Development Award.

See the full list of CPH:FORUM projects here: https://cphdox.dk/forum/

Meanwhile the hybrid CPH:DOX festival is due to open March 21 with Lars Henrik Ostenfeld’s Into the Ice, produced by Malene Flindt Pedersen (Hansen & Pedersen).

The full festival programme will be unveiled March 1^st.