Montreal Doc Fest to feature “Dragonslayer,” “Tiniest Place”

October 26, 2011 by Kelly Anderson

Dragonslayer

The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM), held from November 9-20, has unveiled its programming slate, led by Tristan Patterson’s SXSW and Hot Docs award-winner Dragonslayer (pictured).

The 14th edition of the fest will see 115 films presented in three sections: official competition, panorama and retrospectives.

Screening in the Official Competition under the international feature competition category are 18 films, including Dragonslayer, The Tiniest Place, A Still Jacket, Yatasto, Natalia Almada’s El Velador, Swiss filmmaker Fernand Melgar’s Vol Spécial and The Castle, as well as hybrid documentary/fiction films Bouton, At the Edge of Russia and La BM du Seigneur.

The 11 films in the running for the Canadian feature competition grand prize and the Cinémathèque québécoise Critics’ Choice Award includes Catherine Hébert’s Carnets d’un grand detour (Notes on a Road Less Taken), Gary Burns and Jim Brown’s The Future Is Now!, Richard Lavoie’s Quai-Blues and Yanick Létourneau’s Les États-Unis d’Afrique.

New talents include Carlo Guillermo Proto’s El Huaso, Mia Donovan’s Inside Lara Roxx, Bill Stone’s Work in Progress, Marie-Ève Tremblay’s Le voyage Silencieux, David York’s La Guerre de Wiebo (Wiebo’s War) and Xun Yu’s Tales of West Street (Part 1) – The Vanishing Spring Light. All are eligible for the best new talent from Québec/Canada Award.

A sample of films being included in the international short and medium-length competition include Canadian shorts Johanne Fournier’s Le temps que prennent les bateaux, ma famille en 17 bobines by Claudie Lévesque, and He Whose Face Gives No Light by Andrea Bussmann, which screen alongside international films Flying Anne, Out of Reach and Hula and Natan.

The special presentations, running through the Panorama section, will feature the latest from Alexander Sokourov, Il nous faut du bonheur; Jacques Perrin’s L’Empire du milieu du Sud; Leonard Retel Helmrich’s Position Among the Stars and Charles Najman’s Une étrange cathédrale dans la graisse des ténèbres.

Other special presentations include a doc on writer Jose Saramago’s love affair with Pilar del Rio, Jose et Pilar; a self-portrait by Charlotte Rampling called The Look; El sicario, Room 164, a tell-all from a former Mexican drug cartel hitman; Nous, Princesses de Clèves; and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, with the updated ending.

Current affairs strand Horizons will feature Karamay, a six-hour Chinese documentary, banned in China; Fragments d’une révolution; Impunidad; Spectres; and Prison and Paradise, an inside story of terrorism in Indonesia.

Retrospectives of Frederick Wiseman, Jørgen Leth and Helena Třeštíková will also be featured during RIDM. The fest will pay homage to the filmmakers by screening their most notable works.

Ten of Wiseman’s films, including Titicut Follies, Law & Order, Primate, Model and Domestic Violence will screen, while Danish director Jørgen Leth and Czech filmmaker Třeštíková will be honored. Additionally, all three filmmakers will give masterclasses for the general public and professionals.

RIDM will also pay tribute to the passing of Richard Leacock by screening an exclusive interview between the filmmaker and fellow director Peter Wintonick. Meanwhile the late Italian director Gualtiero Jacopetti’s cult shockumentary film Mondo cane will also be featured.

The full film program can be found at www.ridm.qc.ca.

As previously reported, RIDM’s opening film will be Frederick Wiseman’s Crazy Horse. The fest will close with Tahrir, Place de la Libération, by Italian filmmaker Stefano Savona.

Tags: Dragonslayer, Flying Anne, Frederick Wiseman, Helena Trestikova, Inside Lara Roxx, Jorgan Leth, Jose et Pilar, Montreal International Documentary Festival, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, Position Among the Stars, Richard Leacock, RIDM, The Future is Now!, The Tiniest Place