The Visions du Réel Industry programme commences April 14, with its usual panoply of pitching and networking events/opportunities and debates, presented both online and live. Head of Industry Madeline Robert guides BDE through the programme.
“The industry side of Visions du Réel is very closely connected with what we do in general at the festival, in terms of artistic aspects, in terms of its editorial line,” says Robert. “We strongly defend the same idea of a strong author vision in filmmaking.”
Core to her Industry operation is the successful fusion of decision makers with filmmakers and their projects, and the programme presents numerous opportunities to do just that, with 16 new projects selected for VdR–Pitching, 4 for VdR–Rough Cut Lab and 9 for VdR–Works in Progress.
What’s more Robert expects approximately 1200 international guests, of whom roughly half will be involved in the pitch sessions. The VDR-Film Market, which this year boasts 500 docs for consideration by the great and the good of the distribution, broadcast, sales and festival community, accounts for most of the other guests.
“Despite the challenge, we have always believed in the possibility of bringing an on-site version of VdR–Industry. Now more than ever, after a year of lockdowns, it seems important to us to physically meet each other again. We are therefore offering an alternative to the fully online format by inviting those who can join us in Nyon to continue to exchange and work together,” she underlines. Acknowledging the year suffered by doccers and the film community in general, she further stresses the point. “It was extremely important for us to present onsite this year.”
In terms of the new projects in VdR-Pitching, she admits to being amazed at how well developed the projects already are. “I don’t know whether it’s because of the extra time people had in lockdown or the impossibility of shooting, but the projects are very well developed. The quality is amazing.”
She points to Gabriele Brady’s The Wolves Always Come at Night, about two Mongolian herders who, after they discover their entire livestock is killed overnight, are forced to move to move to the polluted city. Brady’s Island of the Hungry Ghosts (2018) premiered at Visions Du Réel and Tribeca.
Robert also reserves mention for Anna Eborn and Åsa Ekman’s Aana (Sweden), which tells Aana’s intimate story about being young and trying to live a normal life in spite of the late effects of a harsh cancer treatment she had gone through as a child. Eborn’s latest film Transnistra won the VPRO Award during the 2019 IFF Rotterdam and the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Documentary at Göteborg IFF 2019.
“We also have the new project of Senegalese filmmaker Rama Thiaw (The Vanishing, in which the director ‘tracks the prints and threads’ of her remarkable mother who went missing in 2012), and also the latest film of Jean-Gabriel Périot (Facing Darkness, described as ‘a cinematographic journey through the Siege of Sarajevo’), a French filmmaker who works a lot with archive.”
“We have a lot of strong and quite renowned filmmakers, but also a lot of first timers,” Robert points out. “So we have a good balance.”
Three films from the Visions du Réel International Competition started their career at VdR-Industry: Les Enfants terriblesby Ahmet Necdet Cupur (Pitching du Réel 2019), Ostrov – The Island by Laurent Stoop and Svetlana Rodina (Pitching du Réel 2019) and Little Palestine (Diary of a Siege) by Abdallah Al-Khatib (Pitching du Réel 2020).
Likewise VdR–Work in Progress has impressive alumni that includes the 2019 project Acasā-My Home by Radu Ciorniciuc, which was awarded the Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival before having been selected by over 60 festivals worldwide, winning 10 awards and being nominated for The European Film Awards Documentary section.
The geographically diverse 9-strong selection includes projects from as far afield as India, Serbia, Peru and Hong Kong, UK and South Africa. Scottish documentary doyen Mark Cousins will present his The Story of Looking, in which he invites the audience “on an intimate journey through his visual world, to explore the central role of looking in his life and art, and in the past, present and future of humanity.”
Meanwhile Joris Lachaise’s Transfariana (France, Colombia) promises to tell an intriguing story. In a high security prison to the south of Bogotá, the marriage of a FARC leader to a transgender former sex worker sentenced to life imprisonment first caused a scandal and then led to a transformation of views at a national scale. Between prison life, Bogota’s urban network, and the Colombian countryside, the film looks for signs of the discrete movements governing the changes of a society.
Robert reminds how VdR–Rough Cut Lab offers a space for projects at editing stage, during which project teams will explore aspects of their editing and receive constructive feedback on their rough cut by experienced editors, tutors and consultants. The idea is to support filmmakers and producers in finding the best way to deliver their docs.
Other Industry events include the Prix RTS: Perspectives d’un Doc, the SWISS FILMS Previews and the projects emerging from the young directors participating in Opening Scenes Lab.
The Industry boss also urges doc professionals to drop everything and tune into two core debates over the coming days.
In the Filmmaking and Resistance panel (April 18) IDFA’s Orwa Nyrabia will direct a discussion between filmmakers Vitaly Mansky and Avi Mograbi, ‘one of them working and living in the very country he questions, the other one forced to live in exile because of his positions and films.’
Next day, the Film Festivals, Distribution and Strategy – One Year Later panel (19 April) will assess the past year and the strategies adopted by the various festivals in order to understand the current role of festivals in today’s market strategies. The speakers are Carlo Chatrian (Artistic Director, Berlinale) Tabitha Jackson (Artistic Director, Sundance) Jason Ishikawa (Senior Executive, Cinetic Media) and Hédi Zardi (CEO, Luxbox). The moderator is Screen International’s Finn Halligan.
“Filmmakers, far from being discouraged by this turbulent reality, seem to have strengthened their approach,” signs off Robert. “We will also attempt to understand, and perhaps foresee the evolutions in the industry, through [these] discussions and round tables.”
