Film Festival
CPH:DOX Review: 70/30
When it comes to environmental issues, Scandinavia is often the most fertile breeding ground for new ideas and movements. This was personified by Greta Thundberg’s ‘school strike for climate’ campaign. Indeed, Denmark, Sweden and Norway have always been three of the more progressive countries when it comes to fighting climate change, but is it enough? …
Visions du Réel Review: The Last Forest
The Amazon Rainforest is a vital carbon sink and plays a key role in slowing down climate change across the world. According to the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), over 43 million hectares of forest cover has been lost between 2004 and 2017. This rate has accelerated since the Jair Bolsonaro came to power in Brazil …
Visions du Réel Review: Flee
Throughout the current ‘refugee crisis’, which has seemingly been classed as such because it impacts on Europe, the narrative has tended to focus on generalisations. There’s an obvious reason for this, but it’s easy to forget that behind every story is a human being. A person with their own set of unique circumstances and family …
Visions du Réel Review: Operation Wolf Patrol
According to the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) there are roughly 15 million people taking part in hunting in America. Whilst its popularity is on the wane, this differs markedly between urban and rural areas. The US is a nation who love their guns and their right to wave them around in public. With …
Visions du Réel Review: Cane Fire
For many, Kauaʻi is like paradise on Earth. The Hawaiian island is often referred to as the ‘Garden Isle’ due to the lush tropical rainforest which covers much of its surface. Its breathtaking beauty has made it a popular destination for the rich and famous. Not to mention the many Hollywood films which have been …
Visions du Réel Review: Many Chickens, Lots of Luck
When you mention the word ‘documentary’ to most people their first response is often to think you’re talking about some investigative TV programme. As a genre, evidenced by the fact it’s actually categorised as such, it’s much maligned and misunderstood. What many fail to understand is the wide range and breadth of what falls within …
Visions du Réel Review: Lobster Soup
Until relatively recently, life in the small coastal town of Grindavík on the southern peninsula of Iceland solely revolved around the fishing industry. To a large extent, this remains the same, but the introduction of quotas and its proximity to the major tourist attractions of Blue Lagoon and the Bridge Between Continents have slowly changed …
Visions du Réel Review: Ostrov – Lost Island
The Soviet Union spanned a vast area of Northern Eurasia, comprised of a number of nominal ‘republics’ and comprising countless different races, ethnicities and religions. Its dissolution sent much of the remaining Russia into chaos. Whilst order was (eventually) restored to almost all the country, inevitably some places fell between the cracks. That is the …
Visions du Réel Review: Courage
Despite campaigning on an independent platform, Alexander Lukashenko soon showed his true colours after his became the first democratically elected president of Belarus. One of his first major actions was to cement ties with Russia and twenty-six years later he’s often referred to as the last dictator in Europe. As you can probably imagine, his …
Visions du Réel Review: The Bubble
Largely thanks to an unusually long period of peace and decades of medical and scientific advancements, most, if not all, of the Western world has rapidly aging populations. Whilst standards of living and life expectancy are undoubtedly improving, birth rates are increasingly falling; with many now choosing not to have children. As societies, we’re not …