The Tempo Dokumentärfestival is a festival dedicated to, as you might imagine, documentaries. Covering the gamut from film to radio and everything in between, it’s gone from strength to strength since it first arrived on the scene in 1998, and this year it’s running one of its biggest, most varied programmes ever. We caught up with festival chief Agneta Mogren to talk about this year’s proceedings.

This year’s theme is power – why did you pick that? What is it about ideas of power that makes it such an interesting topic for filmmakers?

Different power structures are very interesting to look into, both for aspects of class, race and gender. We wanted to investigate and dig into it in a way. The film industry poorly represents people from minority backgrounds, so this is an attempt to explore that and to discuss it, and also how to change power structures, to get more people involved. I think this is important because film is such an important media, so powerful emotionally, that it can have quite an impact on people’s views and opinions.

The festival opens up with Sara Jordenös’ documentary Kiki. What was the idea behind kicking off with that film? What makes it a good opening statement?

First, it’s an amazing film. I also think that it very much reflects power and not having power, because I think that this scene, the Kiki scene, is very much a scene for young people from minority backgrounds, who don’t have access to power in society. So they create their own scene, where they can explore things and really take control of their own bodies, express themselves and gain power in many ways.

Outside of showing documentaries, what other exhibitions, activities and other events are happening at the festival this year?

It’s not just about film documentaries. We also have radio and audio. So we’re going to have different audio walks, one at Hornstull and one on the T-Bana, where you can walk around and hear the installed audio on the sound walk. So it’s like a documentary in your ears as you walk about. We have a lot of music and dance events, and we have a special ‘Night With Beyonce’, where we will screen a film about the fans of Beyonce called Waiting For B, and then we will have a Beyonce danceoke at Debaser Strand. We will also have a lot of talks with directors and photo exhibitions.

You’re also running a ‘Hi-Tempo’ workshop in collaboration with Hyper Island, just before the festival. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

It’s the third year we have this collaboration with Hyper Island, where we will have a transmedia workshop. This year we will have a lot people from different backgrounds, programmers and other figures. They will create a work on the theme of power in 48 hours and will present it at the festival on March 8.

The Tempo Dokumentärfestival, various locations, Mar 7-13.

TEMPO HIGHLIGHTS

Sonita

An incredibly strong portrayal of 18-year old Sonita, who wants to become a rapper even though she’s an illegal Afghan refugee in Iran. She shows an enormous courage when she goes against her family who wants to sell her into marriage. She’s a great role model for young women and an inspiration to everyone in fighting for her right to live the life she wants.

Imagine Waking Up Tomorrow and All Music Has Disappeared

This is about a crazy choir project by Bill Drummond, the mastermind behind the successful early 90s music project KLF. Drummond travels all across Britain and records construction workers, nuns, pub-goers and all manner of others each singing a certain note, that he then compiles into a musical composition that is played only once. A very entertaining film about a fascinating project by a fascinating man.

Mr. Gaga

A visually very striking film about possibly the world’s best dance company – The Batsheva Dance Company – and their charismatic leader Ohad Naharin. You get to follow the artistic process resulting in magical performances, and you also get to see some of the most exciting developments within contemporary dance.