CPH:DOX, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, will take place between March 23 – April 3, 2022.

Science, society and art come together at CPH:DOX under the umbrella of the main theme: science films. The festival programme will include debates dedicated to science and research, as well as a special section showcasing 15 international titles parallel to the science-related films across the competitions. The films will be introduced by top researchers, a number of Denmark’s leading experts, filmmakers and members of CPH:DOX’s own Youth Team.

Opening the festival is the Danish film Into the Ice (dir. Lars Henrik Ostenfeld), a documentary that starts from a number of questions still left unanswered: How fast is the Greenland ice sheet melting? What future are we heading towards when oceans rise?

The director embarks on a dangerous journey alongside three of the world’s leading glaciologists, Alun Hubbard, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and Jason Box, to research the ice sheet and better understand the consequences of climate change. Most often, such studies are conducted with the help of drones, due to the dangers to which researchers would be exposed, but the results remain inaccurate and the vital questions unanswered.

The audience will get to watch Ostenfeld and Hubbard tied to nothing but a rope as they descend 180 meters deep into the depths of the glacier in search of answers.

This year’s Science programme explores other major topics such as rethinking the entire economic system by respecting the planet’s limited resources (Going Circular, dir. Richard Dale), global health paradigms in the light of the current pandemic (Healers, dir. Marie-Eve Hildbrand), and many others.

“Science and its role in our society constitute a central focus point for CPH:DOX,” said Niklas Engstrøm, Artistic Director at CPH:DOX, in a statement. “We have emphasized this with the choice of this year’s opening film — the Danish film Into the Ice, which at its core is a film about the importance of research. At the same time, we are proud to present a science program that speaks directly into the most important agendas in the current public debate. This includes the climate and biodiversity crisis, the management of the corona[virus] crisis, mass surveillance and the escalating use of artificial intelligence.”

CPH:DOX Competition line-up

The competition programme features a vast array of films from the best and most important documentaries of the year to emerging voices and works in the field between film and visual art.

Among the titles showcased in the competition sections are:

Navalny (dir. Daniel Roher) – The documentary follows the assassination attempt on Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, and his struggle to prove the truth.

They Made Us the Night (dir. Antonio Hernández) – Supernatural visions and indigenous folk myths intrude in an unpredictable Mexican film, where fantasy fades into reality.

The Happy Worker (dir. John Webster) – Based on a sabotage manual developed during World War II, the director demonstrates how modern work has become a monster that devours itself and everyone else around it.

Abyss (dir. Google’s Image Recognition AI, Jeppe Lange) – Video artist Jeppe Lange uses Google’s artificial intelligence to link together 10,000 still images in a mind-expanding, cosmic sensory bombardment as a catalogue of everything the world holds – according to a computer.

The Fall (dir. Andreas Koefoed) – A 11-year-old girl miraculously survives a fall from the fifth floor; the film follows the girl’s transformation and healing process over six years.

CPH:DOX Music Program

CPH:DOX’s Sound & Vision programme is dedicated to brand new documentaries that explore the magical universe of music in various ways. The selection includes 18 films such as This Much I Know To Be True (dir. Andrew Dominik), a documentary about Nick Cave, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song (dir. Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller), about the hit-song “Hallelujah”, and The Computer Accent (dir. Sebastian Pardo, Riel Roch-Decter), about the process of making an album using only artificial intelligence.

CPH:DOX Forum

CPH:DOX Forum’s selection includes 30 projects with different artistic themes and approaches, which demonstrate the diversity and richness of the documentary genre.

The projects address the major problems of the contemporary world, such as equality, colonial heritage and climate change. Participants include award-winning filmmaker Fitzroy Jeffers (Pope Machete), visual artist Renzo Martens (The White Cube) and Oscar-nominated Tia Lessin (The Janes).

The full program of the festival is available on CPH:DOX.

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.