Still from the film Outside, directed by Olha Zhurba.
IMS at CPH:DOX 2022
IMS works with documentary films as a tool for change. One of our partners is the Danish-based international documentary film festival CPH:DOX.
IMS and CPH:DOX have been collaborating for the last 11 years, working to give filmmakers from countries in the Middle East and other regions IMS works in an opportunity to exchange professional knowledge and experience related to documentary film.
For the 2022 festival, CPH:DOX and IMS will present a wide range of events including film screenings, panel debates, project pitches and a project development programme focused on Eastern Europe, supported by, among others, the New Democracy Fund.
Each year, a number of IMS-supported documentaries make their way into the selection of films at CPH:DOX. We are proud to play a small part in some of these documentaries coming to life and being presented to a broader audience.
No matter the topic, documentary films have the potential to expand and, in some cases, challenge the viewers’ conception of the world. IMS uses the opportunities presented by the films to discuss the role of documentary in shaping our understanding and to share our knowledge of the areas featured in the films. Below you can find an overview of when, where and how you can meet IMS at this year’s CPH:DOX. You can also view the full CPH:DOX Programme.
DOXF:ACT Award
IMS sponsors the DOX F:ACT Award together with the Danish Union of Journalists. The award was launched in 2013 to honour films from the field between investigative journalism, activism and documentary. The winner of the award will be presented at the CPH:DOX Award Show on Friday, 1 April, with the cash prize of 5,000 EUR going to the director of the winning film. This year,10 new documentary features are nominated for the DOX F:ACT Award.
Films
Middle East and North Africa
Light Upon Light – Egypt
A philosophical journey from Cairo, along the Nile and into the desert on an anthropological field trip in search for what light means as a political and religious concept in post-revolutionary Egypt.
Christian Suhr (dir) / Hala Lotfy (producer), Egypt, Denmark / 2022 / 78 min / World Premiere / Supported by IMS.
Read more and buy tickets to the screenings: https://cphdox.dk/film/light-upon-light/
The Devil’s Drivers – Palestine
Hamouda and his cousin Ismail specialise in transporting desperate workers into Israel through a hole in the huge wall designed to isolate them in the Occupied Territories. The Devil’s Drivers offers a highly dramatic, heart-breaking and fresh insight into life in the West Bank. Spies, blockades and an impossible situation in which two cousins and their passengers risk everything for the survival of the family.
Daniel Carsenty, Mohammed Abugeth / Qatar, France, Lebanon, Germany / 2021 / 93 min
Read more and buy tickets to the screenings: https://cphdox.dk/film/the-devils-drivers/ There will be a panel debate on 30 March with Jan Mathiesen, 3F Palestine Network, and Bilal Al-Issa, moderated by Johan Wogensen Bach, IMS.
Eastern Europe
A House Made of Splinters – Ukraine
In a large ramshackle house near the frontline in war-torn eastern Ukraine, a group of Ukrainian women run an orphanage. Here, children whose homes have been shattered by poverty, violence and alcohol can stay safely for up to nine months until a decision is made on whether to return them home, foster them or move them to another orphanage.
Simon Lereng Wilmont / Denmark / 2022 / 87 min / Production supported by IMS
Read more and buy tickets to the screenings: https://cphdox.dk/film/a-house-made-of-splinters/
There will be a panel debate on 30 March at Pressen, Politikens Hus.
Outside – Ukraine
During the 2014 revolution in Ukraine, 13-year-old street boy Roma runs around the frontlines of Kyiv throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. He quickly becomes a familiar face and a mascot for the revolution. But behind the camouflage uniform, sunglasses and fearlessness hides a lonely boy from an orphanage who, five years later, turns 18 and is suddenly back on the streets with nothing in his pocket but a lighter and a knife.
Olha Zhurba / Ukraine, Denmark, Netherlands / 2022 / 79 min / World Premiere / Nominated for Dox:Award / Production supported by IMS
Read more and buy tickets to the screenings: https://cphdox.dk/film/outside/
IMS will be present at the world premiere of the film on 25 March along with representation of the Ukrainian production team.
Sunny – Georgia
Yes or no? For or against? A fast-paced tour with Georgian pollster Sunny, who bursts in and out of properties to pose her sociological questions, and perhaps keep her own loneliness at bay.
Keti Machavariani / Georgia / 2021 / 66 min
Read more and buy tickets to the screenings: https://cphdox.dk/film/sunny/
This film will be featured as part of the Georgian evening on 29 March at Charlottenborg Mezzaninen with the Georgian Embassy. IMS Head of the Global Response Department Gulnara Akhundova will give an introduction the evening.
Water has No Borders – Georgia
A giant dam on the border between Georgia and the breakaway state of Abkhazia sets the scene for an eminent tale of the people affected by the conflict in the border country.
Maradia Tsaava / Georgia, France / 2021 / 85 min
Read more and buy tickets to the screenings: https://cphdox.dk/film/water-has-no-borders/
This film will be featured as part of the Georgian evening on 29 March at Charlottenborg Mezzaninen with the Georgian Embassy. IMS Head of the Global Response Department Gulnara Akhundova will give an introduction the evening.
The Caviar Connection – Azerbaijan
Corruption, crime and caviar. Azerbaijan has plenty of all three. The Caviar Connection takes us behind the intricate corruption game known as caviar diplomacy in Central Asia.
Benoît Bringer / France / 2021 / 104 min
Read more and buy tickets to the screenings: https://cphdox.dk/film/the-caviar-connection/
On 3 April there will be a Q&A with the protagonist journalist Khadija Ismailova, moderated by IMS Head of the Global Response Department Gulnara Akhundova.
Asia
Midwives – Myanmar
A tale of the complicated relationship between Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar, told over five years through the eyes of two midwives from either side of the divide, working together against all odds.
Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing / Myanmar / 2022 / 92 min / European Premiere / Nominated for DOX:Award
Read more and buy tickets to the screenings: https://cphdox.dk/film/midwives/
On 30 March there will be a panel debate at Charlottenborg Social Cinema with Helene Maria Kyed, Senior Researcher peace and violence, DIIS; Zakaria Abdul Rahim, Rohingya refugee; Elisabeth Arnsdorf Haslund, UNHCR spokesperson; moderated by Emilie Lehmann, IMS.
Taliban Land – Afghanistan
Cavling winner Nagieb Khaja is the only international journalist to travel around Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, during which he paints a portrait of the Taliban and the transition of power.
Peter Eggert Vesterlund, Nagieb Khaja / Denmark / 2022 / 70 min / World Premiere
Read more and buy tickets to the screenings: https://cphdox.dk/film/talibanland/ On 24 March there will be a panel discussion at Bremen Teater with director Nagieb Khaja, Wahida Faizi, IMS, Mikkel Trolle, Danish Refugee Council, and Thomas Lund, moderated by Janni Pedersen, TV2.
Industry
Yangon Film School
IMS is inviting a small delegation of three teachers/filmmakers from Yangon Film School to participate in CPH:DOX. During their stay, the group will take part in the festival and IMS is organising meetings with the National Film School of Denmark, Danish producers and other film professionals.
CPH:DOX Forum
The festival’s industry forum takes place 28 March – 1 April. In addition to the projects participating in the Change Programme, the forum will include the presentations of three IMS-supported titles that are seeking further funding:
Confidential Project – Ibrahim Mohamed (dir)/Talal Derki (prod)/Syria, Egypt
A Fox Under a Pink Moon – Mehrdad Oskouei (dir)/Siavash Jamali (prod)/Iran
More information: https://cphdox.dk/forum/
CHANGE
CHANGE is a new development co-production training programme organised in collaboration between IMS, CPH:DOX and EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs), featuring projects from the European Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
During CPH:DOX, the programme will have its final workshop with 14 participants from the above countries leading up to the pitching of the selected projects at DOX:FORUM. More information: https://cphdox.dk/change/
