– The programme for the 48th edition of the documentary film festival hosts 37 films in competition and numerous events, with Lucrecia Martel at the pre-opening and a tribute to Frederick Wiseman
Matter of Britain by Peter Treherne
Relocated since last year to the heart of the Latin Quarter in the Parisian theatres of L’Arlequin, Reflet Médicis and Saint-André des Arts, while the Centre Pompidou is being refurbished, the Cinéma du réel International Documentary Film Festival will hold its 48th edition from 21 to 28 March, offering a packed and diverse programme in line with the demanding editorial policy championed by general delegate and artistic director Catherine Bizern.
Thirty-seven films (including 16 feature films) will be screened in competition, including 20 world premieres, three international premieres and 14 French premieres. A jury has been assembled to judge the feature films, comprising Spanish filmmaker Jose Luis Guerín, his Congolese counterpart Alain Kassanda, French composer Félicia Atkinson, British-Japanese programmer Julian Ross (who works in Rotterdam, among other places) and American-French-Iranian filmmaker and visual artist Bani Khoshnoudi.
Among the feature films in competition, notable examples include Matter of Britain by English director Peter Treherne and London [+see also:
interview: Sebastian Brameshuber
film profile] by Austrian director Sebastian Brameshuber (discovered at the Berlinale Panorama), The Cow’s Complaint by Mahdy Abo Bahat and Abdo Zin Eldin (a collaboration between Egypt, France and the United Kingdom), and the French-Chilean co-production Landless Children by René Ballesteros, the French-Belgian film Labore nobile by Juliette Achard and Franco-Columbian co-production Relicto by Guillermo Quintero. Also in the running are An Incomplete Calendar by Iranian director Sanaz Sohrabi, And The Moon Sets over The Temple That Was by South Korea’s Justin Jinsoo Kim, Levers by Canada’s Rhayne Vermette, The Rib of the Greater Bay Area by China’s Zhou Tao and Windward by America’s Sharon Lockhart.
Also featured are five 100% French feature films: Blind Song by Stefano Canapa and Natacha Muslera, Back before 3 p.m. by Gaël Lépingle, I Crossed the Desert With a Gun in Hand by Laurence Garret, The Waterline by Olivier Zabat and From Here to the Apple Tree by Cyprien Ponson.
The pre-screenings section features films that were well received in Venice (Landmarks [+see also:
film review
interview: Lucrecia Martel
film profile] by Lucrecia Martel, which will pre-open the festival on 20 March – the Argentine filmmaker will meet the Parisian public on 27 March – and Remake by Ross McElwee), Berlin (Dao [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Gomis
film profile] by Alain Gomis, We Are the Fruits of the Forest by Rithy Panh, A Russian Winter [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Patric Chiha, Eight Bridges by James Benning), Locarno (Mare’s Nest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ben Rivers
film profile] by Ben Rivers), Sundance (To Hold a Mountain [+see also:
film review
interview: Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glom…
film profile] by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić) and San Sebastián (In-I in Motion by Juliette Binoche, who will be present at the screening on 28 March), as well as Eberhard as Seen by Amit Dutta, The Vanishing Point by Bani Khoshnoudi and Belleville Beats by Hugo Sobelman.
Cinéma du réel will also pay tribute to the late Frederick Wiseman and dedicate Focus sections to Scottish filmmaker and musician Luke Fowler and Palestinian director and artist Jumana Manna (who, in addition to her own work, will also present a selection of films about the daily lives of her compatriots). Not to mention the 13 short films in the First window programme, as well as the Popular front(s), Cinema is ours and Ecofeminism sections.
Finally, as part of the 13th edition of ParisDOC, the festival’s professional section, Works-in-Progress will present six films in editing or post-production Ioanis Nuguet, Mahsa Karampour, Stéphanie Roland, Erik Nuding, Juan Manuel Sepúlveda and the duo Sara Rastegar – Simone Pozzi), nine projects in development on the First Contact menu, round tables at the Public Forum focusing on the subject of censorship, and Classic Documentary Film Rendez-vous.
(Translated from French)
