CPH:CONFERENCE 2024 RE:BUILDING NARRATIVES - ACCESSIBILITY AND EQUITY IN DOCUMENTARY

To open the CPH:CONFERENCE , the DISCO Network (Ambulante, AFLAMUNA, DocsMX, Doc Society, DocSP, Docubox, In-Docs, and India Docs) will be sharing findings and workshopping next steps from the first phase of the Independence Project – a field wide articulation of the unique importance of independent documentary to culture, society and democracy. Join us in this co-creation effort to help all of us advocate for the resources and platforms the field deserves.

The mornings at CPH:CONFERENCE 2024 will be dedicated to storytelling, craft, and creative dilemmas of documentary filmmaking at the intersection of art, science and society. Each morning (March 19-21) will feature thought-provoking conversations of filmmakers: A MORNING WITH and FILM:MAKERS IN DIALOGUE.

A MORNING WITH

Filmmakers: Alex Gibney (Tue), Johan Grimonprez (Wed), Asmae El Moudir (Thu)

Moderator: Thom Powers, Host Pure Nonfiction

FILM:MAKERS IN DIALOGUE

Bálint Révész, Dávid Mikulán ("KIX", 2024) & Sissel Dargis Morell ("Balomania", 2023) (Mon)

Moderator: Charlotte Cook, Festival Programmer, Co-Founder and Executive Producer, Field of Vision

Alina Simone ("Black Snow", 2024) & Shiori Ito ("Black Box Diaries", 2024) (Tue)

Brett Story, Stephen Maing ("Union") & Yance Ford ("Power")

Max Kestner ("Life and Other Problems", 2024) & Peter Mettler ("While the Green Grass Grows", 2024)

Moderator: Wendy Mitchell, Festival Consultant, Moderator and Journalist

Over the course of one afternoon the SOCIETY day will explore narratives. How do we tell stories and why? At what moment do we tell them and what’s their meaning at a specific date in time?

Curated by Derren Lawford, Founder & CEO, Dare Pictures, UK

14:00 Opening of CPH:CONFERENCE by Katrine Kiilgard and Donata von Perfall

14:10-14:50 Keynote Viva Independent Feature Docs by Lizzie Gillett and Sigrid Dyekjær

How do we successful finance, produce and distribute independent feature documentaries in the age of streaming? Can we set up films so that they benefit the people who make them, the communities featured and society more broadly? Two successful feature doc producers share their experiences making films like THE TERRITORY, THE CAVE, MERKEL, and SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY and their thoughts on how to preserve the success of independent feature docs.

14:50-15:50 A Conflict of Interest or an Interest in Conflict?

How do you maintain perspective while creating and curating content that emerges from the conflicts between nations and communities? From Northern Ireland to the Balkans, from Armenia to Syria, what insights have storytellers and platforms learned from documenting such tumultuous times? And how can these lessons aid our comprehension of societal upheavals, now and in the future?

Speakers: Marie Nelson, Mary McKeagney, Clara Vuillermoz, Lise Lense-Møller

Moderator: Louise Rosen, Managing Director and Producer, Louise Rosen Ltd

16:00-17:30 Diversity in Action vs. Diversity Inaction

Panel 1. "But it is a classic..." - black stories, white money

The collective awakening around diversity and inclusion since 2020 is a metaphoric breath of fresh air for storytellers from the global south and its diaspora. But is the surge in interest and the intentional focus on telling diverse stories empowering these communities to be equally heard or are we sleep walking into a cultural colonialism.

Speakers: Jigar Ganatra, Tiny Mungwe, Mette Hoffmann Meyer

Moderator: Victoria Thomas, Filmmaker & Researcher, Cues, Queen Margaret University, South Bank University, London Film School

Panel 2. LGBTQIA

Speakers: Lindsey Dryden, Cherish Oteka, Bisi Alimi, Daniel Karslake

Moderator:  Emma Hindley, Strand Editor, BBC Storyville

This afternoon, we look at how filmmakers and artists use moving images to transcend and transform the immediately visible, and give form to what is beyond human perception.

Curated by Nanna Rebekka, Independent Filmmaker and Producer at Louisiana Channel, DK

14:00 - Introduction to the Day

14:10-14:30 Keynote:  Is there still ´no such thing as documentary? by Erika Balsom

In 1990, Trinh T. Minh-ha declared, “There is no such thing as documentary.” In the thirty years that have passed, this prophecy and its suspicion of the genre have found prominence in the forefront of documentary theory and practice. Yet today, the documentary tradition is more visible than ever. What we can make of this apparent contradiction?

14:30-15:15 Disobedient Images: the Persistence and Irreverence of Post-colonial Cinema

How can film challenge and subvert the colonized gaze? Historically, post-colonial cinema has been a means to set up new structures of identity and new political initiatives that could not be adequately addressed by mainstream cinema. Are the revolutionary ideas of past cinematic movements still present, as contemporary postcolonial non-fiction cinema continues to explore and expand on new frontiers of the cinematic medium?

Speakers: Inadelso Cossa, Jesse Cummings, Laura Huertas Millan

Moderator: Nicola Marzano, Film Curator and Producer, Frames of Representation, Italy/UK

15:15-16:00 The Poetic Turn:Depicting Crisis through Means of Fiction

Speakers: Gali Gold, Larissa Sansour, Birgitte Stærmose

Moderator: Maj Bjørn Ørskov, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University

16:15-17:00 Materializing the Immaterial: Film as Seeing and Sensing

Speakers: Beny Wagner, Sasha Litvintseva, Valentine Umansky, Yuyan Wang

Moderator: Nanna Rebekka

Documentarians and scientists use optical lenses to focus ways of seeing. Telescopes, microscopes, and now, the algorithmic lens. These lenses all augment and manipulate our vision of the world. With the hottest year ever, escalating violence, and rising authoritarianism, new (and ancient) ways of knowing have never been more urgent. This afternoon, we gather to widen lenses in science and cinema for the advancement of justice and equity — from earth to sky.

Curated by Kat Cizek, Research Scientist & Artistic Director, MIT Co-Creation Studio, Canada

14:00 Introduction to the Day

14:10-14:30 Keynote Stars: Indigenous Ways of Knowing by Lisa Jackson 

In this opening keynote, we look up to the stars to reorient our ways of knowing. Renowned Anishinaabe documentarian Lisa Jackson will share her extraordinary co-creative approach to documentary and meaning-making, through an Indigenous lens, in her new film (DOX:AWARD) about Wilfred Buck Cree author and star stories expert.

14:30-15:15 Sky: Widening the scopes of science docs

In our first panel, SKY, we continue looking up. How can we slow down to see what we’ve been missing? How can we widen our view? These are meditative and philosophical reflections on clouds, space, climate and how to reinvent the art of science documentaries, from independents, producers to commissioner perspectives.

Speakers: Jessica Harrop, Marius Lena, Axel Villard-Faure

Moderator: Kat Cizek

15:15-16:00 Earth: Microscopic Entanglement

In the second panel, EARTH, we come closer to the ground to engage in the stories and science of complex — and microscopic — entanglements of species and the interdependence of life. How has science and documentary evolved to understand these webs of connectedness?

Speakers: Ondřej Vavrečka, Anirban Dutta, Anupama Srinivasan, Rob Liddell

Moderator: Kat Cizek

16:15-17:00 Action: Legacies of science, cinematic justice

In our closing panel, we meet projects that challenge the colonial legacies of science, and cry out in fierce calls to action to harness science and cinema and all their lenses for the advancement of justice, access and equity — from earth to sky.In our first panel, SKY, we continue looking up. How can we slow down to see what we’ve been missing? How can we widen our view? These are meditative and philosophical reflections on clouds, space, climate and how to reinvent the art of science documentaries, from independents, producers to commissioner perspectives.

Speakers: Mila Aung-Thwin, Arwa Aburawa, Julia de Guzman

Moderator: Kat Cizek

Climate documentaries are a primary way through which people access climate information. But climate storytelling is much more than the science of climate change.

At CPH:CONFERENCE, The Climate Story Lab Nordic will curate a day of conversations about climate storytelling and strategic audience engagement. The event is the culmination of the inaugural Climate Story Lab Nordic that brought together climate experts, activists and creatives from the Nordic countries to develop effective stories and engagement strategies to inspire meaningful action. Centering climate justice, the panel discussions will explore the multifaceted nature of climate storytelling across biophysical, social, and spiritual dimensions.

10:05 Introduction to the Day

10:10 -10:40 The Frontier of Climate Storytelling

10:45 -11:25  Worlds in between - Crafting diverse climate stories

Speakers: Vasna Ramasar, Phie Ambo

Moderator: Emma Blake Morsi, Multi-disciplinary producer & production manager, Enviral

11:25 -11:30 Climate Storytelling as a policy strategy

Speaker: Per Grankvist

11:40 -12:15 Panel Mobilizing Nordic communities in and through climate stories

Speakers: Hazel Falk, Thomas Ostbye, Emile Hertling Peronard

Moderator: Emma Blake Morsi

12:15 - 12:30 Break

12:35 - 13:15 Dispelling industry myths in climate storytelling

Speakers: Shanida Scotland, Kat Cizek, Anna Ljungmark, Charlotte Gry Madsen

Moderator: Cecilia Lidin, Head of Documentary Department, Danish Film School