Montreal’s premier nonfiction event, RIDM, celebrates its 18th edition this year beginning tonight, Thursday, November 12, and wraps up next Sunday, November 22 with the debut of Pascal Sanchez’s LES VAILLANTS, an observational film set in a local public housing development. Approximately 70 new feature docs will screen over the course of the eleven-day festival, with highlights noted below:
A dozen titles vie for recognition in the Canadian Feature Competition, including: Michka Saäl’s SPOON, a chronicle of the correspondence between the filmmaker and a prisoner poet; Viveka Melki’s AFTER CIRCUS, a portrait of Sarasota’s aging and retired circus community; Jean-François Lesage’s A SUMMER LOVE, which captures love in a Montreal park at night; and Hind Benchekroun and Sami Mermer’s CALLSHOP ISTANBUL (pictured), an exploration of the migrant experience via the locations where they call home.
International competitions include the ten-strong Features, with titles like Andrew Kötting’s BY OUR SELVES, about 19th century Romantic poet John Clare; and the Medium-Length, which includes: Nicholas Boone’s PSAUME (pictured), a hybrid vision of post-apocalyptic Sub-Saharan Africa; Alexandra Laffin’s HELP (AU SECOURS), about a hotline for the elderly; and Chloé Mahieu and Lila Pinell’s BUSINESS CLUB, which follows a clothing entrepreneur’s forays into China.
Among the thematic sidebars are Report on Quebec, which features titles like: Mélissa Beaudet’s COP CLASS (POLICE ACADÉMIE), providing an inside look into police training; Martin Fournier and Pier-Luc Latulippe’s MANOR (MANOIR), about the last days of a private facility for addicts and the mentally ill; and Magenta Baribeau’s NO KIDS FOR ME, THANKS! (MAMAN? NON MERCI!) (pictured), which profiles happily childless women.
Another themed section, ARTifice, includes Marianne Lambert’s I DON’T BELONG ANYWHERE – THE CINEMA OF CHANTAL AKERMAN, about the recently departed auteur; Saël Lacroix’s SUR LES TRACES D’ARTHUR, about an acclaimed young Quebecois artist who vanished mysteriously; and Jean-Sébastien Francoeur and Andrew Marchand-Boddy’s RETOUR AUX SOURCES (pictured), which follows a Cambodian mural artist back to the country he fled during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.
Additional sidebars include: Portraits, which includes Edouard Mills-Affif’s BRIDE OF THE NILE (LA FIANCÉE DU NIL) (pictured), about a woman facing marriage to a man she doesn’t love; State of the World, with Garry Beitel’s À LA POURSUITE DE LA PAIX, which profiles mediators in global conflict zones; music strand Beat Dox, which features the world premiere of Julie Bourbonnais and Genevieve Philippon’s I’M GONE: A FILM ABOUT AMY, a portrait of a recovering heroin addict musician; and, in Special Presentations, Claire Simon’s THE WOODS DREAMS ARE MADE OF, which captures the diverse uses of an urban woodland over a year.
what (not) to doc 