Friday, August 17, 2012

RIDM's 15 years, 15 all-time favourites


Special RIDM program:
“15 years, 15 all-time favourites” chosen by 15 guest programmers

For the last 15 years, the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) has been an exceptional showcase for Canadian and international documentaries. To celebrate its 15th anniversary, the festival’s team invited 15 high-profile figures in the film world to share their all-time favourite documentary. 15 personal choices that add up to an original, subjective story of the first cinematic genre will be presented in a special section of this year’s programming.

The guest programmers are: Philippe Falardeau, Gael Garcia Bernal, Frederick Wiseman, Barbet Schroeder, Agnès Varda, Patricio Guzman, Lou Reed, Kim Longinotto, Jia Zhang-ke, Alanis Obomsawin, Gilles Jacob, Naomi Kawase, Philip Glass, Laura Poitras and Samira Makhmalbaf.

Quebec director Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar) chose the Belgian film Une délégation de très haut niveau (Philippe Dutilleul), a documentary that follows a Belgian parliamentary delegation on a surreal tour of North Korea. Falardeau considers the film “as hilarious as it is frightening” – and he can’t recommend it strongly enough.

Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, who has been involved in documentary production and distribution in Mexico for several years, chose Michael Glawogger’s Megacities. The first part of a trilogy (Workingman’s Death, Whores’ Glory), Megacities is an early masterpiece by the Austrian filmmaker, documenting daily subsistence in several enormous cities in different parts of the world.

Gilles Jacob, the president of the Cannes Festival, encourages the public to rediscover Dziga Vertov’s classic Man With A Movie Camera. He particularly appreciates the way the film “reinvents everything technique allows (or denies), yielding a breathtaking interplay of themes.”

The guest programmers’ 15 favourite films will be part of the 2012 RIDM. This special program celebrates 15 years of discovery, discussion and debate about documentary cinema. To learn more about the guest programmers’ selections, the public is invited to keep an eye on the RIDM’s website and Facebook page. The 15 selected films will be officially announced on September 17. A special “All-time Favourites” pass - $15 for the 15 films – will be available from September 17 to 23.

Quebec’s only film festival dedicated to documentaries, the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) presents the best reality-based films, including the works of established directors and new talents. RIDM’s complete 2012 program will be announced at a press conference on Wednesday, October 24 at 10 a.m. at the Cinémathèque québécoise.

The 15th RIDM will be held from November 7 to 18, 2012
at Cinémathèque québécoise, Cinema Excentris and Grande Bibliothèque.
Information: 
www.ridm.qc.ca info@ridm.qc.ca

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