The long-running Swiss nonfiction event, Visions du Réel, begins tomorrow, Friday, April 17, and concludes next Saturday, April 25. More than 100 features will screen during the 46th event, which takes place annually in Nyon, with highlights noted below:
The International Feature Competition includes such work as: Abbas Fahdel’s nearly six-hour opus, HOMELAND (IRAQ YEAR ZERO), a portrait of an Iraqi family over two years; Dominic Gagnon’s OF THE NORTH, focused on homegrown Inuit filmmaking; Kim Beamish’s THE TENTMAKERS OF CAIRO, a profile of Egyptian artisans; Jian Fan and Hongfang Chai’s MANUFACTURING ROMANCE, on the impact of economic development on Chinese families; Vladimir Loginov’s ANTHILL, which observes Russian men in their makeshift work spaces; and Sander Burger’s ALICE CARES (pictured), about a robot designed to care for the elderly.
Among the film’s in this year’s International Mid-Length Competition are: Nino Gogua’s MADONNA (pictured), about Georgia’s only female bus driver; Aleksandra Maciuszek’s CASA BLANCA, a profile of an elderly Cuban mother and her disabled son; Frédéric-Pierre Saget’s DRÔLE DE GUERRE, an essay about a town that’s home to the French Foreign Legion; Tomás Astudillo’s MOMENTS OF CAMPAIGN, an observational record of an Ecuadorian presidential incumbent’s campaign; and Teboho Edkins’ COMING OF AGE, which follows the futures of four Lesothon teenagers.
Swiss-made nonfiction gets its own spotlight in the fest’s Helvétiques section. Among the offerings: Juliana Fanjul’s meditation on her Mexican family’s servants, MUCHACHAS (pictured); Lorenzo Valmontone and Steven Blatter’s portrait of an East End street thug turned singer, JUMPING THE SHADOWS; David Nicolas Parel’s study of his brother’s obsession with body building, BROTHER’S BODY; Jonathan Cohrs’ chronicle of a river expedition through New Jersey, BACK WATER; and Yann Bétant’s look at a struggling Roma street puppeteer, CICI.
The event’s Grand Angle section highlights work of noted filmmakers, and includes: Sylvain Biegeleisen’s TWILIGHT OF A LIFE (pictured), about the last days of his nonagenarian mother; Stephan Bergmann’s THE LAST GIGOLOS, a portrait of two professional gentlemen callers; Moyoung Jin’s MY LOVE DON’T CROSS THAT RIVER, about the 75 year romance between a Korean couple; Susann Wentzlaff and Jörg Junge’s BEING BRUNO BANANI, on the search for a luge athlete in a Polynesian kingdom; and Nicolas Steiner’s ABOVE AND BELOW, described as a post-apocalypic portrait of America.
Finally, first and second films are the focus of in Regard Neuf, with such selections as: Elia Urquiza’s NEXT, about aspiring child and teen actresses; Myriam El Hajj’s A TIME TO REST, in which Lebanese men recount their military years; Kristina Paustian’s SWIMMERS, which looks at a controversial Russian scientist turned fringe cult leader; David Kremer’s SONS OF BARENTS (pictured), a look at life on a fishing vessel in the Arctic Circle; Julia Pesce’s US WOMEN/THEM WOMEN, a meditation on sisterhood filmed over a summer; Sara Fattahi’s COMA, offering the perspectives of three generations of Syrian women on war; Cyril Leuthy’s THE NIGHT IS FADING, which follows the filmmaker’s father back to Algeria; and Lou McLoughlan’s 16 YEARS TILL SUMMER, about an ex-con who comes home to tend to his dying father.
what (not) to doc 