All posts tagged: CPH:DOX

‘Homesick’ Doc Film Director Interview on South Korea Adoptee: CPH:DOX

‘Homesick’ Doc Film Director Interview on South Korea Adoptee: CPH:DOX

Published by Daniella Wilson

What is family? What are home and belonging? Who gets to decide about how those concepts apply to us? And what makes a good and a bad family or home? Those are some of the questions you will find yourself thinking about and struggling with when you watch director Taekyung Tanja Inwol’s (A Colombian Family) second feature documentary, Homesick (Hjemsøgt). Described as “a raw family chronicle” that travels between Western Denmark and South Korea, the film about the director’s family and story about being adopted from South Korea world premiered in the NORDIC:DOX competition of the 23rd edition of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival. “In Taekyung’s family in Denmark, everything was meant to look perfect on the surface, but behind the façade, there was domestic violence, breakups, divorce, suicide attempts, death, loneliness, and much more,” highlights a synopsis for the film. “When one’s origins have been erased in Korea, where does one turn when the family one has been placed in begins to crack?” Homesick dives into all that, plus the news from June 2025 that the filmmaker’s …

Joe Bini on ‘Burden of Other People’s Dreams: Chapter One – Ganymede’

Joe Bini on ‘Burden of Other People’s Dreams: Chapter One – Ganymede’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Imagine sitting down in a room with an iPad, a screen and loudspeakers. After a brief introduction to the set-up, you are in there, alone, for what is described as an 80- to 90-minute “live cinema experience.” Its title: Burden of Other People’s Dreams: Chapter One – Ganymede. After you look around the room a bit, you pick up the iPad. And off you are on a surreal journey. If you are now wondering what the heck I am talking about, the creator of the experience, Joe Bini, is likely smiling. Yeah, THAT Joe Bini! The creative, who in his work as an editor has collaborated with the likes of Werner Herzog, Andrea Arnold and many others. While that work is all about helping someone else’s creative vision become reality, Bini has now created something very, very different. Is it a book? Is it a movie? Well, it doesn’t really matter what you call it. What it is for sure is a sold-out offering that is part of the Inter:Active Exhibition at the 23rd edition of CPH:DOX, …

Palestinian Documentary Films Center Stage at CPH:DOX Copenhagen

Palestinian Documentary Films Center Stage at CPH:DOX Copenhagen

Published by Daniella Wilson

The eyes and ears of attendees of the industry conference of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, were on Palestinian filmmakers with documentary projects in development on Thursday afternoon. The latest edition of CPH:Conference during the 23rd edition of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival looked to help people understand “how their different approaches to historic Palestine and its people can create impact and empathy both for Palestinian viewers and other audiences.” The featured speakers were Muallem Ashtar, described as “a Jerusalemite multidisciplinary artist, performer and creator whose work combines circus, dance, and theater, is the director of the short film Land of Denied Rituals 2025; Dalia Al Kury, whose work navigates cross-genre storytelling; Kinda Kurdi, whose K² Visual Media is a U.K.-based production company specializing in long- and short-form documentary and animated content; and Tanya Marar, a Jordanian-Palestinian-Bulgarian filmmaker living in the U.K. whose work focuses on political struggles and “the narratives of oppression.” The session, entitled “Updated Reflections on Contemporary Palestinian Documentary Filmmaking,” was moderated by Mohamed Jabaly (Life Is Beautiful), a …

‘A Sweetness From Nowhere’ CPH:DOX Film Trailer: Transphobia, Healing

‘A Sweetness From Nowhere’ CPH:DOX Film Trailer: Transphobia, Healing

Published by Daniella Wilson

A Sweetness From Nowhere. That is the title of the new film by Swedish artist Ester Bergsmark (Something Must Break), which just world premiering at the 23rd edition of the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival (CPH:DOX). And as always, she merges art forms in what is described “a contemporary hybrid of forms and strategies.” So, get ready for an unusual experience that takes on the themes of assault and transphobia. “The material is existential, lived experience rests in the body, and the political struggles are personal,” highlights a synopsis. “When there’s no other way out, we play dead – a tactic we share with jellyfish. In 2011 in Berlin, a haunting shout triggers a journey of survival. At the heart of the film is a story of lust, of finding your way back to life after being stuck in a frozen state. Through fantasy, the body, and unexpected connections between time, nature, and healing, A Sweetness From Nowhere unfolds into a joyful exploration and curious search. A pure hybrid film about transformation and healing, woven with …

‘Hypervigilance,’ CPH:DOX’s InterActive Showcase Interview: AI, Racism

‘Hypervigilance,’ CPH:DOX’s InterActive Showcase Interview: AI, Racism

Published by Daniella Wilson

For those ready to explore and experience creativity at its intersection with technology, the 23rd edition of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, is offering a space full of curiosity: its Inter:Active Exhibition at the Danish capital’s Kunsthal Charlottenborg. It features a curated selection of immersive experiences, educational games, VR offerings, and anything else that doesn’t neatly fit into our traditional understanding of film or TV. This year’s title, “Hypervigilance,” feels extra timely and fitting for an age of digital saturation, global unrest, and the rise of authoritarianism, oligarchs and surveillance. Or as Mark Atkin, the curator of CPH:DOX Inter:Active and head of studies at talent development program CPH:LAB, put it when unveiling this year’s program: “The works expose the collective anxiety of a society on high alert, where we struggle to retain agency over our image, body, and voice. For queer, disabled, and displaced communities, this state of watchfulness is deeply ingrained, a survival instinct in a world built on scrutiny and exclusion. For others, it has become the new norm shaped by 24-hour news cycles, …

“Death-by-Algorithm,” AI, Big Tech in CPH:DOX Copenhagen Spotlight

“Death-by-Algorithm,” AI, Big Tech in CPH:DOX Copenhagen Spotlight

Published by Daniella Wilson

“Rekindling the Machine: Documentary in the Age of AI” was the topic for a panel at the CPH:Conference industry event of the 23rd edition of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, on Wednesday afternoon. Moderated by artist and cultural strategist Kamal Sinclair, the panel brought together experts who focus on the dark sides of technology. The speakers included Marc Silver, director of the documentary Molly vs the Machines, which tells the story of a heartbroken father’s quest to uncover the truth behind his daughter’s “death-by-algorithm” and his battle against how some of the most powerful corporations of our age operate, and Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard, Denmark’s tech ambassador, who spearheads Techplomacy, an initiative “elevating technology and digitalization to a cross-cutting foreign and security policy priority of the Danish government.” Silver discussed Molly, a synopsis for which reads: “Molly was a perfectly ordinary 14-year-old English girl. One day, like any other, she came home from school, did her homework, said goodnight to her parents, and went to her room. A few hours later, she had taken her own life. No one saw …

Sinéad O’Shea on Jessie Buckley, Doc, ‘All About the Money’: CPH:DOX

Sinéad O’Shea on Jessie Buckley, Doc, ‘All About the Money’: CPH:DOX

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX) put the spotlight on Irish documentary director Sinéad O’Shea and her latest doc, All About the Money, which world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, on Wednesday morning. She was the featured speaker on the day’s “A Morning With” event at the industry conference of the 23rd edition of the festival in a session hosted by veteran documentary programmer Thom Powers of TUFF and Pure Nonfiction. All About the Money follows the journey of “activist” and “Communist revolutionary” James Cox Chambers, who goes by Fergie Chambers, the great-grandson of James M. Cox, the ex-governor of Ohio and Democratic presidential nominee in 1920. The member of the 0.01% serves as a lens for a broader exploration of money, power and revolution. Other parts of the story are Chambers’ Palestine and anti-Israel activism, which have drawn criticism, and the political comeback of Donald Trump. O’Shea has taken on topics that cause debate in her work. A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot focused on a woman in Northern Ireland bringing her son to a punishment shooting by a paramilitary group. Pray for Our Sinners addressed …

Poh Si Teng Talks ‘American Doctor’ and “Gaza Genocide” at CPH:DOX

Poh Si Teng Talks ‘American Doctor’ and “Gaza Genocide” at CPH:DOX

Published by Daniella Wilson

Poh Si Teng and her documentary American Doctor, her feature directorial debut about doctors working amid the war in Gaza, which world premiered at Sundance, were in focus Tuesday morning at the industry conference of the 23rd edition of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX).  She shared the arduous journey behind the film during a session entitled “A Morning With Poh Si Teng,” hosted by veteran documentary programmer Thom Powers of TUFF and Pure Nonfiction. Why did the journalist-turned-filmmaker concentrate on producing docs (Patrice: The Movie) for the longest time? “I just didn’t feel the field needed another director for a long time,” instead focusing on “helping other directors to push and achieve their vision,” she said. She added that her skills were best suited for that work. Discussing her growing up in Malaysia and then moving to the U.S. to work as a journalist, as well as the high and low points of her career, she shared: “Low points define who you will be.” Throughout her career, which also took her to India, she saw a whole spectrum of human …

Mexican Rodeo Film ‘Jaripeo’ Shows Queer Subconscious, Hidden Desire

Mexican Rodeo Film ‘Jaripeo’ Shows Queer Subconscious, Hidden Desire

Published by Daniella Wilson

Cowboy hats, jeans, a lot of alcohol and bull riding combine into a special mix of hypermasculine rituals at Mexican rodeo shows. But underneath also lies hidden queer desire, as we find out in Jaripeo, a film that world premiered at Sundance and now screens at the 23rd edition of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, CPH:DOX. Co-directors Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig mix cinema vérité, Super 8 footage, and stylized scenes into a cocktail where machismo and queerness come together. “We meet macho cowboys who have come out of the closet and a flamboyant diva who effortlessly takes the bull by the horns,” notes the CPH:DOX website, calling Jaripeo “a sensual exploration of performative masculinity, secret desires, and the longings that breathe beneath the surface of a rodeo show.” Cinematography for the film was handled by Josué Eber Morales and Gerardo Guerra, editing by Analía Goethals, and the sound by Maria Rojas. Music is courtesy of Emilia Ezeta and Marton Radics. The co-directors and producer Sarah Strunin spoke to an appreciative Copenhagen audience after a screening early this week. …

Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Carrier Bag Theory” Inspired CPH:DOX Films

Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Carrier Bag Theory” Inspired CPH:DOX Films

Published by Daniella Wilson

U.S. science-fiction and speculative fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin‘s 1986 essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction famously took on the traditional ideas of the hero’s journey and destruction in storytelling, arguing that the earliest human tool was not a weapon, but a container, such as a bag, a basket, or even a net, designed for gathering and storing food. As such, it reframed tools and technology as focused on collecting and storing energy rather than as tools for battle and domination. The ideas of the author, who died in 2018, are back in focus and on big screens right now, thanks to the program of the 23rd edition of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, or CPH:DOX, which runs through Sunday, March 22. The lineup features at least two films inspirred by Le Guin and her ideas. The Mother Age, directed by Irene Kaltenborn, is one of these films. “Inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin and other female thinkers, a Norwegian filmmaker invites us on a sensual and richly philosophical journey of (re)discovery in the deep Finnish …