Switzerland’s Visions du Réel holds its 47th annual edition beginning tomorrow, Friday, April 15 through Sunday, April 23. The Nyon-based documentary event will screen nearly 100 new and recent features in addition to retrospective and shorts programming. Highlights from various sections are noted below:
Among the twenty films in the International Feature Competition are several world premieres, including: Vic Rawlings and Jeff Silva’s LINEFORK, which follows a one-time banjo legend and his partner in rural Kentucky; Harutyun Khachatryan’s DEADLOCK, an observational film on an Armenian immigrant who struggles to survive as a mechanic; Christian Krönes, Florian Weigensamer, Roland Schrotthofer, and Olaf S Müller’s A GERMAN LIFE (pictured), on the now-supercentenarian secretary to Joseph Goebbels; Alexander Kuznetsov’s LIBERATION, THE USER’S GUIDE, which explores the bureaucratic institutionalization of Siberian orphans; Philip Widmann and Phuong-Dan Nguyen’s A HOUSE IN NINH HOA, a reflection on a long-ago splintered Vietnamese family; Shengze Zhu’s ANOTHER YEAR, a snapshot of a Chinese migrant worker’s family; Monica Lazurean-Gorgan’s A MERE BREATH, a longitudinal study of a Romanian family struggling with illness and unemployment; Cláudia Varejão’s AMA-SAN, a portrait of Japanese fisherwomen; and Zaynê Akyol’s GULÎSTAN, LAND OF ROSES, focused on female Kurdish guerrillas in battle with ISIS.
The International Mid-Length Competition showcases fourteen features, including world premieres FROM THE WEST, Juliane Henrich’s meditation on echoes of East and West Germany; HALF-LIFE IN FUKUSHIMA, Mark Olexa and Francesca Scalisi’s portrait of a solitary inhabitant in a nuclear accident zone; RESPLANDOR (pictured), Fernando Priego Ruiz’s look at the life of an elderly gaucho who is losing his sight; and THE PASS, Mattia Colombo, Francesco Ferri, and Alessandra Locatelli’s coming-of-ager about an Italian boy training to be a shepherd.
Nearly a dozen new Swiss-made docs appear in the fest’s Helvétiques section, including world premieres like Diedie Weng’s THE BEEKEEPER AND HIS SON (pictured), which follows a young Chinese man’s attempts to modernize his father’s apiary; Manuel Lobmaier’s ALPTRAUM, a comedy of errors in which two friends try to have an alpine adventure; Jan Gollob and Tino Glimmann’s BATUSHA’S HOUSE, about a unique, ever-expanding Kosovar housing structure; Shu Aiello and Catherine Catella’s UN PAESE DI CALABRIA, a profile of a small Italian village which has long ago embraced refugees; and Susanne Regina Meures’ RAVING IRAN, about a pair of underground DJs defying restrictive Iranian laws.
New and emerging documentarians are the focus of the twenty titles of Regard Neuf, with debuts like: Salomé Jashi’s THE DAZZLING LIGHT OF SUNSET, about a smalltown Georgian television journalist; Stefan Mihalachi’s ON THE PLATFORM, a portrait of a French institutional psychotherapist; Ana Tipa’s PRISONER, about a construction worker juggling families in both Uruguay and Brazil; Ivo Zen’s KING OF THE AIRS – NOTES ON A FRIENDSHIP, in which the filmmaker constructs a portrait of a departed friend; Fabio Bobbio’s THE CORMORANTS (pictured), which captures the endless summer shared by two boys; Ali Hammoud’s ASPHALT, on two truckers working against the backdrop of changes to the Arab world; Katy Grannan’s THE NINE, a contemplation of marginal lives in California’s Central Valley; and Hulda Ros Gudnadóttir’s KEEP FROZEN, an observational portrait of Icelandic dockworkers.
Additional programming includes Grand Angle, which showcases established filmmakers, including Laurent Cibien’s THE POLITICIAN, a comedic look at a mayoral incumbent’s campaign, and Daniel Schweizer’s TRADING PARADISE, an exposé of Swiss commodity dealers; while the Special Projections section includes Jan Kounen and Anne Paris’ THE JOURNEY (pictured), tracing a free diver’s pregnancy surrounded by sealife.
what (not) to doc 