A curated selection of films from the Doc Alliance festival CPH:DOX that can help us navigate the current world and the threats to democracy it’s facing.

The theme of this year’s CPH:DOX, Right Here, Right Now focuses on the present day in which the existing rights – human, civil, international – are being renegotiated. This program, made up of films which were shown at the Danish festival in recent years, echoes those ideas, and includes documentaries that analyse the challenges to democracy, such as aggressive right-wing politics, corruption, or populism.

The films in this program value defiance of all generations against the uber-rich (A Guide to Love and Fighting Capitalism), whose acts of power can end up being as bizarre as trying to privatise nature (Taming the Garden). They show the global nature of both misuse of power and of the importance of civic engagement, covering vast issues and territories such as violence against civil leaders and women in Mexico (Dark Suns), dictatorships in Argentina (Second Time Around), or the tragicomedy of Brexit (Brexitannia).