DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival has announced its programme and started the ticket sales. More than 80 documentary films from all around the world will be screened at various cinemas and other venues in Helsinki. One of the festival’s most acclaimed films is All the Beauty and the Bloodshed by the Oscar-winner Laura Poitras (Citizenfour). The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival last year. The most awarded documentary film at this year’s festival is All That Breathes by Shaunak Sen. The film ponders the question, whether we humans have the right to value ourselves more than other breathing creatures. Seven feature-length documentary films are competing in the National Competition while twelve feature-length documentary films are competing in the International Competition. This year’s Aho & Soldan Award goes to John Webster. He has selected four films from his career for the retrospective and will also give a MasterClass.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed dives into the life of photographer and activist Nan Goldin with a ferocity. Rich archival footage carries the story from Goldin’s childhood to the present day, and also to the battle she wages against the Sackler family and the opioid crisis. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is part of the festival’s Ruthless World theme. Another pick from the same theme, The Killing of Journalist, focuses on the investigation and trial of the brutal murder of Slovak journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírova. All That Breathes tells the story of two brothers who are trying to save black kites amidst Delhi’s pollution haze. The film is part of the Human Nature theme and it won the Best Documentary Prize in both Cannes and Sundance Film Festival. Loving Humans theme includes Ahsen Nadeem’s heartfelt documentary Crows Are White, which focuses on the surprising friendship between the director and a Buddhist monk. The most shocking film at the festival will most likely be Angie Vinchito’s Manifesto, presented under the theme Seize the Power. The film consists of social media video clips from Russian children and young people. It starts with innocent everyday scenes, which then at a steadily accelerating pace turn into more disturbing material, all the way to school shootings.
The traditional screenings will be accompanied by various side events, such as the DocFokus discussion events in the Bio Rex lobby and the Cine concerts Burial X Timo Kaukolampi and In Spring for Ukraine at the Savoy Theatre. CineLive evenings at Suvilahti Tiivistämö combine films with live music. As part of the Gaze at Gender theme, Tiivistämö will also host Queer Day. Film screenings with PopUp Kino Helsinki will kick off the event and the highlight of the night will be the Queer Night with Fado Bicha, which will include a screening of the short documentary It’s Not Fado, It’s Faggot Fado and a concert by Fado Bicha, a band coming to Finland straight from the clubs of Lisbon. DocPoint has been keen to highlight Portuguese documentary film this year. SevenPortuguese documentaries are featured in the programme, including the eccentric Amor Fati, which takes a unique look at the issue of sameness, and Périphérique Nord, about migrant men who are obsessed with car tuning.
The DocPoint FINEST Market returns for its second edition! The market brings together the newest Finnish and Estonian films with documentary film professionals worldwide, from festival programmers to sales agents and broadcasters. This year 10 completed films and 5 works-in-progress take part. The market runs online from January 31 through February 12. Nebulae, the industry and networking space at Doclisboa – International Film Festival (Portugal), will award a prize that will give the opportunity to one Finnish project to participate in the public Pitching session, to be held onsite during Doclisboa 2023 (October 19 – 29.)
A press screening of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed will take place on Wednesday January 18 at 2 pm at Kino Engel. There is no preview link available for the film.
Press accreditation is open January 12 – 25, 2023. For more information click here.
DocPoint ticket sales start today, Thursday at 12 pm on the festival website.