Record number of Nordic documentaries competing at CPH:DOX

On top of the seven Nordic docs selected for the main DOX:Award, announced earlier, (see our separate story: CLICK HERE) the festival’s other four competition strands New Vision, F:ACT, Nordic:Dox and Next:Wave are also packed with anticipated new films by seasoned Nordic directors such as Tonje Hessen Schei, Mia Engberg, Göran Hugo Olsson, Fredrik Gertten, Anne Regitze Wivel, and many newcomers.

A total of 200 new films - including 61 in competition - will be screening at CPH:DOX (March 15-26), set under the overarching theme ‘Predicting the past, rewriting the future’.

“At this year’s festival, we examine how history has become a weapon used in the great contemporary social debates about post-colonialism, identity politics and other important agendas. On the other hand, we look at scenarios – utopian as well as dystopian – and explore how our ideas about the future are shaping the way we organise society right now,” said artistic director Niklas Engstrøm.

As part of the festival’s 20^th anniversary, an impressive list of celebrities will be on hand, from Wim Wenders, Joan Baez, Asif Kapadia, Susan Matthews to Chai Vasarhelyi.

Here under is the full list of Nordic feature-length documentaries competing in the New: Vision, F:ACT, Nordic:Dox, and Next:Wave strands.

NEW:VISION

• Drifting Woods (Denmark/Sweden WP) directed and produced by Pia Rönicke.
  Branching and cinematic installation capturing the forest’s own time, life and decay.
• The Society of the Spectacle (Sweden, WP). Co-directed by artist Roxy Farhat & director Göran Hugo Olsson. Produced byMelissa Lindgren and Tobias Janson (Story AB, SE). Satirical and self-critical film adaptation of Guy Debord's theoretical masterpiece.

F:ACT

• Baghdad on Fire (Iraq/Norway, WP) by Karrar Al-Azzawi, produced by Nefise Lorentzen and Jørgen Lorentzen (Integral Film, NO). Insider account of the hopes and dreams of Iraqi youth, through the eyes of Tiba (19).
• Breaking Social (Sweden, WP) by Fredrik Gertten, produced by Margarete Jangård (WG Film). Global investigation into the social contract and cohesion by veteran filmmaker Gertten, with best-selling author Rutger Bregman as sympathetic expert witness.
• Praying for Armageddon (Norway, WP) by Tonje Hessen Schei, produced by Upnorth Film. Docu-thriller and insider’s report from the closed world of Christian fundamentalists in the US, who are fighting for the end of the world.
• The Hostage Takers (Denmark, WP) by Puk Damsgaard and Søren Klovborg, produced by Søren Klovborg for DR. Eery accounts from two imprisoned ISIS members involved in the killing of war correspondent James Foley, interviewed by Foley’s friend, journalist Sean Langan.

NORDIC:DOX

• Fighters (Norway, Int’l premiere) by Jon Haukeland, produced by Ingrid Giske (Medieoperatørene). Honest depiction of growing up in Oslo through the eyes of youth worker Berat, given the task of helping the young boy Mamo.
• Heartist (Faroe Islands, WP) by Marianna Mørkøre and Beinta á Torkilsheyggi, produced by Jón Hammer and Rógvi Rasmussen(Kykpictures, Rógviper). Creative portrait of Faroese artist Sigrun Gunnarsdóttir.
• Hypermoon (Sweden, Int’l premiere) by Mia Engberg, produced by Tobias Janson (STORY AB). Third part in Engberg’s Belleville trilogy after Belleville Baby and Lucky One.
• Just Before Death (Denmark, WP) by Anne Regitze Wivel, produced by Vibeke Vogel (Bullit Film). Life-affirming film about the staff at Bispebjerg Hospital, and about the last moments of the director’s life with her husband Svend.
• Labor (Sweden, Int’l premiere) by Tove Pils, produced by Melissa Lindgren (Story AB). Diary of a Swedish woman-Hanna who becomes a sex worker in San Francisco’s underground scene.
• Lynx Man (Finland, WP) by Juha Suonpää, produced by Wacky Tie Films. Film about pensioner Hannu’s entrancing journey towards finding a connection with the Eurasian lynx hiding in the forests.
• Mrs Hansen & the Bad Companions (Denmark, WP) by Jella Bethmann, produced by Sara Stockmann (Sonntag Pictures). Portrait of the 80-year-old Inger who provides a home for society’s outsiders, in her enormous villa.
• A Silent Story (Denmark, WP) by Anders Skovbjerg Jepsen, produced by Anne Köhncke (Final Cut for Real). A film director seeks out his childhood friend who molested him when they were both children.

• Soviet Bus Stops (Canada/Denmark, WP), by Kristoffer Hegnsvad, produced by 291 Film Company. Canadian photographer Christopher Herwig travels across the former Soviet Union, capturing bus stops and their creators.
• The Gamer (Finland, WP) by Petri Luukkainen and Jesse Jokinen, produced by Liisa Karpo and Marianne Mäkelä (Napafilms). Portrait of Finnish gamer Bona who wants to be number one with the help of an e-sports psychologist.
• Voice (Norway, WP) by Ane Hjort Guttu, produced by Elisabeth Kleppe. Hybrid doc about the right to represent and about who is allowed to tell what stories.

NEXT:WAVE

• Megaheartz (Sweden/Norway, WP) by Emily Norling, produced by Twentyone Pictures. Portrait of four women exploring love without filter.
• Silent Sun of Russia (Denmark, WP) by Sybilla Tuxen, produced by Rikke Tambo Andersen and Maria Møller Christoffersen (Tambo Film). Portrait of three young Russian women who dream of love, friendship and most of all leaving Putin’s Russia.
• The Group Crit (Norway, Int’l premiere) directed and produced by Sille Storihl. Humorous examination of group criticism as a form of teaching at an art school in Oslo.
• The Mountains (Denmark/Norway, WP) by Christian Einshøj, produced by Mathilde Hvid Lippman (Made in Copenhagen). Two decades after the tragic death of his baby brother Christian Einshøj's family is falling apart. The director goes back home in a final desperate attempt to assemble his family and recover what is lost.
• Twice Colonized (Denmark/Greenland/Canada, European premiere) by Lin Alluna, produced by Ánorâk Film in co-production with Red Marrow Media and EyeSteelFilm. Portrait of renowned Greenlandic lawyer and activist Aaju Peter. The film which world premiered at Sundance, is also CPH:DOX’s opening film.