Comprehensive coverage of the 54th Edition of Visions du Réel, including a conversation with Emilie Bujès, the festival's artistic director, about how this year’s program came together, a co-curated watch list, and a filmmaker interview with Alexander Abaturov about his film, PARADISE (IDFA 2022) which will be screening in the Grand Angle Section at Visions du Reel. We hope you enjoy these episodes, and stay tuned for more!  

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Podcast Episode: Visions du Réel 2023 with Emilie Bujès

Before traveling to Nyon, Docs in Orbit had the pleasure of speaking with Emilie Bujès, the festival's artistic director, about this year’s program and how it came together. Moderated by Christina Zachariades in Brooklyn.

Emile Bujès (Photo © Sébastien Agnetti): Emilie is the artistic director of Visions du Réel as well as program advisor for the Director's Fortnight in Cannes. Previously, she was deputy artistic director at the Festival International du Film de La Roche-sur-Yon, commissioner at CNAP (Paris), and has taught at HEAD (Geneva) and HKB (Bern). She has served as curator at the Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève (2010-2014) and collaborated on programming for the Center for Contemporary Art Vilnius, LUFF, Transmediale, and Forum (Berlinale), among others. 


Podcast Episode: Visions du Réel 2023 Recap

The festival may have come to a close, but many of the films have continued to stir something inside us. This episode features a collection of voice memos gathered from a cross-section of attendees at  Visions du Réel, sharing their responses to a film they encountered at the festival.

FEATURING:

  • Nicole Chi, Director of Guián, about This Woman by Alan Zhang 

  • Ghada Fikri, Director of How Are You, Baba? about Locus Cordis by Alhassan Yousef

  • Alhassan Yousef, Director of Locus Cordis, about Love is Not an Orange by Otilia Babara

  • Otilia Babara, Director of Love is not an Orange, about Our Body by Claire Simon

  • Inge Coolsaet, Film Critic for Fantomas and Representative of Argos, on Where the Green Grass Grows by Peter Mettler

  • Anna Dziapshipa, Director of Self-Portrait Along the Borderline, about Where the Green Grass Grows by Peter Mettler

  • Vadim Rizov, Film Critic and Director of Operations for Filmmaker Magazine, about Human, Not Human by Natan Castay (Read Rizov’s Visions du Réel 2023 Festival Review on Filmmaker Magazine here)

  • Ben Mullinkosson, Director of The Last Year of Darkness, about Knit's Island by Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse & Quentin L'helgoualc'h

  • Ekiem Barbier, Co-Director of Knit's Island, about Corpo Celeste by Alice Rohrwacher

  • Narges Kalhor, Director of Sensitive Content, about Waking up in Silence by Daniel Asadi Faezi & Mila Zhluktenko

  • Sonia Ben Slama, Director of Machtat, about Pure Unknown by Mattia Colombo & Valentina Cicogna

  • Ziad Touma, producer of Made to Walk, about Orlando, My Political Biography by Paul B. Preciado

  • Hosein Jalilivand, filmmaker, film scholar, and contributor for Docs in Orbit, about Memories of a Perfect Day by Davina Maria


Podcast Episode: PARADISE with Alexander Abaturov

Featuring a conversation with Alexander Abaturov about his film Paradise (2022), which premiered at IDFA in the International Competition section and is having its Swiss premiere in the Grand Angle section of Visions du Rèel. Set in the small village of Shologon in Northern Siberia, Paradise documents the local inhabitants battling severe and extreme wildfires during the summer months.

Alexander Abaturov was born in Russia in 1984. After graduating from Gorki University, he became a journalist. In 2010, he received a Masters's degree from the French documentary School in Lussas. In 2013, he directed his first documentary, SLEEPING SOULS, selected in numerous festivals and awarded the Institut Français Prize at the Cinéma du Réel Festival. THE SON, his first feature-length documentary, was premiered at the Berlinale Forum and selected at many other festivals such as ArtDocFest, Message to Men, Cinéma du Réel, and several others.


Docs in Orbit Screening Schedule for VdR

Set off the luminous shores of Lake Geneva in the small town of Nyon, Switzerland, Visions du Réel is an annual film festival with a strong reputation for championing creative, contemporary non-fiction cinema. This year's 54th edition will be taking place under a banner year for documentary films, which has recently seen works of non-fiction receiving the highest recognition in prestigious European film festivals (Golden Lion in Venice, Golden Bear in Berlin, and two documentary films selected to compete in Cannes).

With over 160 films in the lineup, 82 of which are world premieres, planning a viewing schedule for Visions du Réel is no small effort. To get through the task, we've assembled a small study group of three Docs in Orbit contributors from different parts of the world, each with their distinct affinities to examine the program. Together, we carefully combed through each section, watched all the available trailers, and researched new films that intrigued us. And, since we went through this process, we figured it might be nice to share it with others who might find it helpful. 

With a shared love for cinema,  Aylin Gökmen, Hosein Jalilvand, Christina Zachariades

Friday, April 21 

  • 6 PM: Love is Not an Orange by Otilia Barbara (Highlights Section - Swiss Premiere) - We recently saw this film at MoMA DocFortnight, and it's worth a second viewing. Composed almost entirely of VHS home footage from the late 90s collected from families in Moldova as the country struggled to adjust to the post-Soviet climate where women were forced to leave home and work overseas to provide for their children. A collection of scenes documenting moments in their children's lives and opening care packages their mothers send them from afar, LOVE IS NOT AN ORANGE paints a powerfully intimate collective portrait of a generation. A piercing emotional work of domestic cinema that lingers days after watching.

  • 8:30 PM - Nightwatchers by Juliette de Marcillac (Opening Night Film - Grand Angle - World Premiere) - It seems appropriate that we end our first night in Nyon with images of the mountains in moonlight. Nightwatchers follow the work of volunteers and rescuers on outreach expeditions to help migrants who find themselves in dangerous conditions as they hike high up into the mountains to cross the border to seek refuge in France. 

Saturday, April 22 

  • 2 PM: Masterclass - Alice Rohrwacher (Special Guest) Starting our day with absorbing knowledge from Alice Rohrwacher before she heads to Cannes to premiere her latest film.

  • 5:30 PM - The Wonder Way by Emmanuelle Antille (National Competition - World Premiere) Taking off from Michel Foucault's assertion that "there are countries without places and histories without chronology," Emmanuelle Antille's latest film takes us to the existence of imaginary territories. It explores the people who create them as a means of resistance to the present world. With a captivating premise and Antille's background in visual arts, video art, and photography, "The Wonder Way" is a film we look forward to catching at the festival. 

  • 8:00 PM - Antier Noche by (International Feature Film Competition - World Premiere) We are capping our evening with a nocturnal film, Antier Noche (The Night Before Last"), by Alberto Martín Menacho. Set in a village in the Spanish region of Extremadura, the film offers a contemporary portrait of the youth in the town where the filmmaker's grandparents were born.     

Sunday, April 23 

  • 11 AM: Machtat by Sonia Ben Slama (International Competition - World Premiere) The film's synopsis already sparked an exciting exchange among us as we started sharing reflections on our own cultural bridal customs. We are looking forward to catching Machat, which closely follows three women who are professional musicians at traditional wedding ceremonies in Mahdia, Tunisia, and hearing how it resonates among audiences. 

  • 1:45 PM - Dark Room by Asli Baykal (International Medium Length & Short Film Competition) Satiating our love for analog film practices, and the delightful image-making process, Dark Room brings us into a film photography workshop for children in a Turkish border town. 

  • 8:30 PM The Avalanche by Pınar Öğrenci (International Medium Length & Short Film Competition) -  After selecting films, we realized we have a shared affinity for films that traverse between art installation spaces and cinemas. That's why we plan to end our evening with the latest film by artist and activist Pınar Öğrenci. Avalanch takes place in southeastern Turkey, where issues like fascism, forced displacement, and genocide have persisted for decades. The film was realized in Documenta 15 this past year and edited by Eytan Ipeker, whose previous films we sincerely appreciate ("Mimaroglu: The Robinson of Manhattan Island" (VdR 2020), The Pageant (VdR 2020), and "Ah Gözel Istanbul" (available on MUBI). 

Monday, April 24

  • 2 PM - Self-Portrait Along the Borderline by Anna Dziapshipa (International Medium Length & Short Film Competition) - A film that examines one's fractured cultural identity growing up with ties to Georgia and Abkhazia, two nations in conflict since 1992. With a moody trailer and creative use of archival images, we anticipate an engaging personal story and an exciting montage of images (edited by Eka Tsotsoria).

  • 7 PM - While the Green Grass Grows by Peter Mettler (VdR - International Competition - World Premiere) - Following his 2020 retrospective and masterclass at Visions du Réel, multi-media artist Peter Mettler joins the festival again with his latest project, While the Green Grass Grows. Renowned for his unique style of filmmaking and intuitive process in crafting audiovisual journeys - Mettler's filmmaking feels closer to the works of a jazz composer, stringing together images through free association and in an improvised fashion. His latest project, which will be screening at the festival, is part of a larger 7-part film with parts 1 & 6 premiering at the festival.

Tuesday, April 25

  • 3:45 PM - An Owl, a Garden & the Writer by Sara Dolatabadi (International Feature Film Competition - World Premiere) A daughters portrait of her father, the prolific Iranian novelist Mahnoud Dowlabadi, this film was also edited by Afsaneh Salari, whose previous film the Sihloettes (VdR 2020 - International Competition), was among one of the first films Docs in Orbit featured on the podcast. 

  • 5:00 PM: A collection of short films from Alice Rohrwacher - After what is sure to be a thought-provoking masterclass with Alice Rohrwacher, we look forward to watching her shorts in the cinema. 

  • 8:30 PM Paradise by Alexander Abaturov (Grande Angle - Swiss Premiere) - Set in the small village of Shologon in Northern Siberia, this film documents the local inhabitants battling severe and extreme wildfires during the summer months. A favorite of discover of ours from IDFA 2022, Paradise set off an alarm in us and became a must-see.

    Wednesday, April 26, 2023

  • 2 PM Astrakan 79 by Catarina Mourão (Burning Lights Competition - World Premiere) The trailer for this film excited us with its dramatic and emotive atmosphere. Astrakan 79 is the latest film produced by Terratreme Films, a film company that has produced many incredible films, including Dry Ground Burning (Berlinale Forum, 2022) and António and Catarina (Locarno, 2017). 

  • 6 PM: Floating Islands by Nicolas Humbert & Simone Fürbringer (National Competition - World Premiere) The inclusion of "Floating Islands" in our watchlist is driven by our admiration for Humbert's prior works (including the splendid "Middle of the Moment" co-directed with Werner Penzel). Humbert has established himself as a master of poetic and associative storytelling, and his new film promises to be no exception. In addition, his collaboration with Fürbringer, who has demonstrated her editing talent in works such as "Wild Plants" and "Brother Yusef," further raises our anticipation for this release.

Thursday, April 27

  • 8:30 PM Three Promises by Yousef Srouji (International Medium Length and Short Film Competition) In the early 2000s, the Israeli army retaliated against the West Bank's second intifada. To cope with the anxiety of the bombings, a Palestinian woman films her family spending time together in the basement of their house. Finally, after two decades, her son revisits these family tapes. We are interested in the idea of a filmmaker transforming their inheritance of images and memories, which makes this short film - one we won't miss at the festival.

Friday, April 28

  • 2 PM Taxibol by Tommaso Santambrogio (Burning Lights Competition - World Premiere) The latest film is from filmmaker Lav Diaz, renowned as one of the key members of the slow cinema movement. The film mainly takes place within the confines of a taxi, where Diaz chats with the driver about politics and history. 

  • 6 PM The Echo by Tatiana Huezo (Grand Angle - Swiss Premiere)  - We are drawn to Tatiana Huezo's cinema for her sensitive renderings of families and children, often with mothers at the narrative's core. Her latest film, The Echo, premiered at the Berlinale to critical acclaim, and we can't wait to finally have the chance to watch this film in Nyon. 

Saturday, April 29 

  • 2 PM Orlando, My Political Biography by Paul B. Preciado (Highlights - Swiss Premiere) In line with the theme of literature in this year’s program, we are delighted to wrap up our festival experience with this film straight from the Belerinale where it won four awards. In “Orlando, My Political Biography,” Preciado sheds light on Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando,” the first novel in which the main character changes sex in the middle of the story.  A century later, Preciado, who is a trans writer and activist, decides to send a film letter to Woolf, telling her that Orlando has come out of her fiction and is living a life she could have never imagined.

  • 6:30 PM Natalia by Elizabeth Mirzaei (Burning Lights - International Premiere) A black and white portrait of a young woman's transition from student life to the bride of Christ, Natalie has been on our list of films to catch since it premiered at the True/False, where it received praise from both audiences and critics.