The 36th edition of Cinéma du Reél, Paris’ premier nonfiction event, kicks off tomorrow, Thursday, March 20, and continues through Sunday, March 30. The festival, focused on visual anthropology and social documentary, annually presents about forty new or recent feature documentaries as well as scores of shorts, retrospective programming, installations, and panel programming. The following spotlights new work that has piqued my interest appearing in the event’s three feature competition sections:
National nonfiction takes the spotlight in the French Competition, with nine feature-length works in contention, including: Jeanne Delafosse and Camille Plagnet’s EUGÈNE GABANA LE PÉTROLIER, a profile of a ingratiating Ouagadougou conman; Marie-Pierre Brêtas’ SKIES AND LANDS (pictured), following the consequences of new land ownership in a formerly landless Brazilian community; Denis Gheerbrant’s STRIKING, about the first labor strike held by hotel chambermaids; Jérémie Reichenbach’s BLOOD OF MY BLOOD, a day in the life of Argentinean butchers; and Olivier Dury and Marie-Violaine Brincard’s MGI (SI J’EXISTE, JE NE SUIS PAS UN AUTRE), on marginalized high school students.
Eleven features face off in the International Competition, representing countries as diverse as Turkey, Congo, Japan, and Belgium, among others. Among these are: Dieudo Hamadi’s NATIONAL DIPLOMA (pictured), about Kisangani students who work together to prepare for exams; Kazim Öz’s ONCE UPON A TIME, a portrait of a family of Kurdish seasonal laborers; Nicolás Echevarría’s ECHO OF THE MOUNTAIN, which follows a Mexican artist on a pilgrimage to seek divine permission for his new work; Denis Côté’s JOY OF MAN’S DESIRING, a hybrid exploring the connection between man and machine; and Harun Farocki’s SAUERBRUCH HUTTON ARCHITECTS, an indepth look at a Berlin architecture firm.
Finally, the festival celebrates emerging filmmakers with its First Films International Competition. Among the nine features here are: Miguel Hilari’s THE CORRAL AND THE WIND, documenting the filmmaker’s return to his father’s Andean village; Kasim Abid’s WHISPERS OF THE CITIES, a Middle Eastern city symphony; cyop&kaf’s THE SECRET, following the efforts of Neapolitan kids as they mysteriously gather Christmas trees; Shengze Zhu’s OUT OF FOCUS (pictured), a portrait of a young immigrant girl in China; and Ognjen Glavonić’s ŽIVAN MAKES A PUNK FESTIVAL, about the solo efforts of a Serbian villager to organize a music festival.
what (not) to doc 