AJB DOC 23

After a change in Latvian law, Una tries to trace her sister who went missing decades ago during their adoption process. But then Una discovers that she has not one but four sisters, all scattered across the world. Her dramatic story is told in the new doc My Mother, The State by Ieva Ozolina. “Our goal is to deliver to the audience a moving human story which turns into a personal investigative journey,” says producer Madara Melberga.

Filmmaker Irina Maldea tells a timely story in her documentary project, selected for AJB DOC Industry. The ‘New Thinking’ of Mikhail Gorbachev was dismissed as Utopian fantasy, the director stresses, but nevertheless a chance for long-term peace was lost forever in the pursuit of short-term gain, and the war currently raging in Ukraine is, arguably, a direct consequence of the short-sightedness of over 30 years ago.

Business Doc Europe spoke to Ali Ben Mohamed, producer at UK-based outfit BM Entertainment Ltd. who is producing Finding the Way Home, one of the documentary projects being presented in the Main Pitch section of this year’s AJB DOC Industry, running in Sarajevo until 11 September. In the film, a Somali journalist walks back down 'the road of death' in search of his memories, and visits his hometown for the first time in 15 years.

‘A person who dies without a name is like a story without an ending,’ reads the logline for Pure Unknown, screening in AJB DOC Competition. The objective of Italian forensic pathologist Cristina Cattaneo, profiled in the film, is to make sure as many stories as possible do find an ending. “I completely fell in love with…her mission and her ethical approach to her work, to her life and to the lives of others,” co-director Mattia Colombo tells BDE.

Business Doc Europe caught up with Tamara Babun, producer at Zagreb-based outfit Wolfgang&Dolly LLC. Babun is producing Another Film About the War, Father and Home by Damir Markovina, one of the documentary projects being presented in the Balkan Stars section of this year’s AJB DOC Industry, unspooling in Sarajevo until September 11.

Does the subject or ‘star’ of a documentary really know what they are signing up for before agreeing to have their story told? Will the experience be cathartic or will ongoing public exposure determine that the trauma they have hitherto suffered will continue, or even intensify. Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall’s new film, five years in the making, talks to the subjects of some the most celebrated documentaries of recent years who reflect on their experiences of being in front of the camera.

Intrepid 52-year-old Bosnian athlete and filmmaker Tomislav Cvitanušić, a basketball star in Sarajevo as a youngster, recently made climbing Everest, the world’s highest mountain, his goal. His ascent is chronicled in new documentary, The Deepest Summit, screening this weekend at AJB Doc. Was there an ulterior motive? “To steal some of the media space from the everyday politics that is always quite pessimistic in the Balkans,” he tells BDE.

Parma-based filmmaker Matteo Ferrarini explains that Spring in Mariupol (screening in Competition in AJB Doc) is intended to give a very different perspective on the Ukrainian war than that provided by most of the western mainstream media. Many western journalists visited Mariupol during the siege but most left after a couple of days. Maurizio stayed put for the whole of the spring, he tells BDE, trying to understand what the city’s residents were enduring. The siege lasted until late May.

The sixth edition of the Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC) will kick off September 8 in Sarajevo with the screening of the film Game: Second Level by Sajid Khan Nasiri, Eefje Blankevoort and Els Van Driel. The festival runs from September 8 to 12 and presents 24 films whose common theme is human rights. The second edition of Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days @ AJB DOC will run Sept 9 to 11.

The second Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days @ AJB DOC will be presented September 9 - 11 2023. “The initiative will not only support aspiring documentary filmmakers within the Arab world, it will also give them the opportunity to connect and network with decision-makers and leading professionals from around the world, which will reflect on the quality of doc films in the region,” says Ahmed Mahfouz Nouh, Aljazeera Documentary Channel MD.