The grandfather of all film events, the Venice International Film Festival, enters its eighth decade as its 71st edition begins tonight, Wednesday, August 27. Running through Saturday, September 6, the Biennale will present over 100 features between its official selection and two autonomous simultaneously presented events, offering attending industry a sneak peek at a number of titles that will almost certainly generate awards attention by the end of the year. Among these are just over 20 new documentaries, many of which I’ll highlight below:
Four nonfiction works appear in the main sections of the Official Selection. The single doc in Competition is Joshua Oppenheimer’s follow up to THE ACT OF KILLING, THE LOOK OF SILENCE, focusing this time on the survivors of genocide rather than on the perpetrators; Orizzonti, the fest’s discovery section, offers Antonio Augugliaro, Gabriele Del Grande, and Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry’s IO STO CON LA SPOSA, following the efforts two smuggle five Middle Eastern refugees to Sweden by means of an elaborate fake wedding; while three docs claim spots in the Out of Competition section – Ulrich Seidl’s tableaux of everyday people’s avocations, IN THE BASEMENT; Davide Ferrario’s archive-based history of Italian technological progress LA ZUPPA DEL DEMONIO (pictured); and Gabriele Salvatores’ nationalized remake of LIFE IN A DAY, ITALY IN A DAY.
The bulk of the Biennale’s documentaries appear in Venice Classics, a section modeled after Cannes own Cannes Classics that is devoted to restored classics and to films about films, filmmakers, and filmmaking movements. In addition to docs on Arthur Penn, Robert Altman, the New Taiwanese Cinema, and a number of Italian-specific subjects, the section offers Rüdiger Suchsland’s FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER, a study of Weimar cinema inspired by the eponymous Siegfried Kracauer book; and Bill Teck’s ONE DAY SINCE YESTERDAY: PETER BOGDANOVICH & THE LOST AMERICAN FILM (pictured), about the personal saga behind the filmmaker’s little-seen THEY ALL LAUGHED.
The festival’s Final Cut in Venice sidebar offers workshops to support final work on six documentary projects from Africa, including: Eddie Edwards’ look at disabled skate soccer in Ghana, ROLLABALL; Dalia Al Kury’s exploration of the belief in demonic possession in Jordan, POSSESSED BY DJINN (pictured); and Yahya Alabdallah’s chronicle of student council elections among Palestinian refugees in Jordan, THE COUNCIL.
Finally, like Cannes’ two independently programmed sidebars, Directors’ Fortnight and International Critics’ Week, Venice includes two autonomous programs, Venice Days and its own International Critics’ Week. Of the 26 features included, there are only two documentaries: From the former, a co-presentation with the Official Selection’s Special Screenings, 9 X 10 NOVANTA (pictured), an omnibus project developed with material from the ninety-year-old Luce Archives; while the former offers DANCING WITH MARIA, Ivan Gergolet’s portrait of a 90-year-old Argentine dancer who works with the physically and developmentally disabled.
what (not) to doc 