2020 Viewing experiences Viewing experiences
We are pleased to be able to present our second “Viewing experiences” selection in theatrical screening conditions, even though the audience will be limited. We will get to meet the directors in the end. It is the happy outcome of a series of trials and tribulations, twists and turns with which the team of the États généraux du film documentaire has had to deal these past months. For our part, we were relatively spared, which allowed us to work in more or less normal conditions.
As a result of the exceptional conditions in which the encounters will be held this year, we will only show eleven films, as opposed to twenty-four last year. This is an opportunity to highlight rare and necessary films, almost all of which will be presented for the first time.
So eleven films, and thirteen filmmakers who grapple with war, crime, racism, sexism, with an unwavering faith in cinema. More than ever, the films in this selection seem to result from the commitment of their authors, body and soul, at the cost of putting themselves in danger – often palpably. Many of these projects have been carried out with the resources available in an emergency situation, “without a safety net” as one might say, overcoming economic and material limitations.
Like last year, we strived for intensity throughout the long journey of watching so many films (close to nine hundred were submitted). And intensity, this year, seemed to unfurl in dust, concrete, rocks, under sudden lights or hostile climates. Being faithful to the part of reality they have chosen to represent, the films of this edition are all rough in some way or another, at the risk of causing a form of discomfort. Inhospitable territories, which are sometimes at the end of the world, sometimes a few kilometres away from home. A “jungle” in the north of France, the Corsican scrub, antiquated mines in Morocco, Yazidi territories in Syria and Iraq, the streets of Beirut and Shanghai…
A film emblematic of this selection is The Jungle of Dunkirk by Payam Maleki Meighani. An incredible odyssey, made up of long sequences filmed “up close” – the expression is to be taken literally – of a handful of Iranian migrants in France.
Alexandre Liebert’s approach in Sinjar, the Birth of Phantoms is very singular. It is a transmedia project that falls within the provinces of photojournalism and investigation, and unfolds as a long poem that is both brutal and sophisticated, around the dramatic fate of the Yazidis.
Miners stems from Ouahib Mortada’s long-term acquaintance with the work of pitmen in Jerada, Morocco. Its chaotic camerawork is orchestrated by its incredibly vibrant editing.
In the same way, in Considering the Ends, the rather harsh images and words balance each other out somehow. Using silences and texts, Elsa Maury offers an astonishing “mise en poème” that comes across as luminously simple.
Poetry is there, at the heart of documentary cinema. With a few accurate words, either spoken or written, everything becomes possible. An ultimate resort. A sublime resort. An origin and an achievement, for the authors who have the strength and courage to take us far, to the heart of their visions.
Stéphane Bonnefoi, Adrien Faucheux
Debates led by Stéphane Bonnefoi and Adrien Faucheux.
In the presence of the directors and/or producers at the first screenings in the Salle Cinéma.