Festival:
The 71st Edinburgh International Film Festival
Dates:
June 21-July 2
About:
The Scottish event includes two dozen documentaries among its lineup of more than 100 features.
The bulk of the fest’s nonfiction offerings appear in the standalone Documentaries strand, which largely consists of standout films that have already debuted on the circuit. Making its world premiere here is Grant McPhee’s TEENAGE SUPERSTARS, a survey of Scottish music pre-Britpop; while international debuts include Carmen Bellas’ WHEN WE WERE WILD (pictured), an essay film about a Spanish neighborhood, and Tommie Dell Smith’s THE GROOVE IS NOT TRIVIAL, a portrait of a Scottish fiddle player. Slavko Martinov’s look at chicken breeders, PECKING ORDER, makes its European premiere, while Sérgio Tréfaut’s Holocaust essay, TREBLINKA, makes its UK debut.
Additional docs appear in the experimental Black Box section – George Clark’s hybrid re-enactment of Egyptian history, A DISTANT ECHO (pictured), and Steve Sanguedolce’s meditation on suicide, LAND OF NOT KNOWING – and in the Best of British strand – Alex Barrett’s city essay, LONDON SYMPHONY.
what (not) to doc 