Category Archives: Film Festivals

Festival:
The 31st IDFA

Dates:
November 14-25

About:
Yesterday’s post on the largest documentary festival in the world covered its competitive sections, while today’s looks at non-competitive programming. Continue reading →

Festival:
The 31st IDFA

Dates:
November 14-25

About:
The world’s largest nonfiction event welcomes new artistic director Orwa Nyrabia with this edition, showcasing nearly 160 new and recent documentary features. Because of the size of the event, this overview is split in two, with today’s post covering the competition sections and tomorrow’s the non-competitive strands. Continue reading →

Festival:
The 21st RIDM

Dates:
November 8-18

About:
More than 80 new and recent nonfiction features screen at this well-respected Montreal event

Thirteen titles vie for recognition in the Canadian Featryre Competition, including: Thierry Loa’s 20-22 OMEGA, a music-driven look at mankind’s impact on our world; Nadine Gomez’s EXARCHEIA, LE CHANT DES OISEAUX, an immersion into the Athens neighborhood that’s become a refuge for migrants; Sami Mermer and Hind Benchekroun’s XALKO, a personal reflection on a small Kurdish village whose men have migrated away; Julien Elie’s DARK SUNS, which looks at the continuing legacy of unpunished femicides in Mexico; and Dan Popa’s SYMPHONY IN AQUAMARINE, an essay about people who live or work near the ocean.

The fest’s International Feature Competition includes a dozen titles, among them: Kristina Konrad’s UNAS PREGUNTAS, a look back at how Uruguay responded to an amnesty proposal for its military leaders 30 years ago; Zhang Mengqi’s SELF-PORTRAIT: SPHINX IN 47 KM, a meditation on the disappearance of rural China due to economic migration; Donal Foreman’s THE IMAGE YOU MISSED, a personal reflection on the filmmaker’s late father, a filmmaker himself; Salomé Lamas’ EXTINCTION, a hybrid exploring questions around national identity, centered around the unrecognized state of Transnistria.

Work appearing in the fest’s Midlength Competitions includes: Shehrezad Maher’s THIS SHAKING KEEPS ME STEADY, a hybrid exploring memory and trauma in Pakistan; Toni Geitani’s THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GOYA, an exploration of Lebanon’s conflict-ridden past; and Shahab Mihandoust and Ariane Lorrain’s ZAGROS, a look at the vanishing art of carpet weaving in the mountains of Iran.

Non-competitive strands include La Bête Humaine, with Giorgio Ferrero and Federico Biasin’s BEAUTIFUL THINGS, an exploration of people and the objects of their consumption; Christine Chevarie-Lessard’s A DELICATE BALANCE, an inside look at a ballet school; and Joseph Hillel’s CITY DREAMERS, which profiles unheralded female architects; The State of the World, which offers Jonathan Durand’s MEMORY IS OUR HOMELAND, a personal exploration of what happened to Poles who were exiled to Africa after spending WWII in Siberian labor camps; and Julien Fréchette’s MY WAR, about Westerners who have joined the Kurdish defense forces; Portraits, with films like Søren Steen Jespersen and Nasib Farah’s LOST WARRIOR, about a young British Muslim couple who become involved with Al-Shabaab; and ARTifice, with Jean-Nicolas Orhon’s ENSEMBLE, an observational portrait of a Montreal orchestra.

Festival:
DOC NYC

Dates:
November 8-15

Section:
Shorts, curated by programmer Opal H. Bennett: Continue reading →