“DocsBarcelona is the main documentary film festival in Spain and one of the most important events in the documentary film industry in the south of Europe,” Artistic Director Anna Petrus tells BDE ahead of the event’s 27th edition, running May 2 to 12.
Every year the festival attracts an audience of circa 40,000 spectators with a programme of approximately 40 (feature) films and 10 short films from 30 different countries. The Docs&Pearls International Competition comprises the Official Section of the festival, while nine films from Catalonia will compete in the Docs&Cat section.
“The festival takes place during the first two weeks of May when Barcelona becomes the epicenter of documentary filmmakers and professionals from all over the world,” says Petrus. “At the same time, our local audiences are very enthusiastic and diverse and DocsBarcelona wishes to collect all their interests. That’s why our programme has a strong commitment to gender perspective and diversity, in front and behind the camera, to address those different types of audiences. In DocsBarcelona anyone can find [their] favorite documentary and, at the same time, discover different perspectives and approaches to reality in cinema. We celebrate [our] passion for documentaries.”
Petrus points out how, every year, a particular theme will emerge as she and her fellow programmers sift through the hundreds of submissions. “When we become aware of this, we try to follow the trend and, naturally, it becomes one of the main themes of the festival,” she says. The core theme of this year’s festival is colonialism or, as Petrus emphasises, “the decolonized gaze.”
Nine movies (six features and three shorts) in the 2024 programme address this issue “which is at the top of the public agenda,” Petrus underlines. These are: Mambar Pierrette; Rosinha and Other Wild animals; Phantoms of Sierra Madre; Pure Unknown; Our Land, Our Freedom and Daughter of Genghis), and three shorts (Nos Îles; The Statues and Quan ens trobem).
“However, the section will host other topics such as the digital world and its challenges and dangers (My Sextortion Diary, The Click Trap), or female empowerment (Mexican Dream, Copa 71), which are also trends inside the contemporary creative documentary films,” Petrus adds.
The festival opens May 2 with Agent of Happiness by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó. The documentary follows the daily routine of Amber, one of seventy-five government agents in the Kingdom of Bhutan hired to measure people’s happiness in statistical terms.
“I discovered Agent of Happiness at the dok.incubator programme where I was invited to watch the work-in-progress movies,” says Petrus. “I immediately fell in love with the main protagonist, Amber, and his existential conflict. At the same time, I was fascinated by the ability of the filmmakers to narrate through an impressive cinematography. Even at that moment I watched a rough cut, I could feel that it was a very solid documentary film.”
“In an edition in which we are questioning colonialism and, thus, trying to change the perspective in the way that history has been explained, Agent of Happiness appeared to be an appropriate starting point because, despite the film seeming to be a gentle approach to Bhutan, at the end it firmly questions common beliefs about what happiness should or shouldn’t be in a country which considers itself the happiest in the world. In fact, the film is a deep and moving journey (an invitation) to change our perspective.”
This year, the local Catalan and Spanish industries are placed even more squarely in the frame during the festival. “Catalonia has always been very enthusiastic about documentary, both regarding talent and audiences. The passion for documentary transmitted by universities and film schools, and the devotion and support for the genre coming from the Catalan broadcaster, have led to a concrete and important space for documentary creation and consumption,” says Petrus.
“DocsBarcelona has widely supported Catalan documentaries and professionals all [throughout] its history” she adds. “However, we decided to create the Docs&Cat Competition section to offer common visibility not only between the festival attendees, but also between the professionals from all around the world that are interested in our festival or trying to know more about what is going on in our territory. We think about this section as a strategical label for the local production to internationalize.”
Doc_U presents a selection of the best short documentary movies coming from universities and film schools in Spain, and has developed into a showcase for emerging new talent in documentary filmmaking. “Additionally, this section offers a space to the Doc Around Europe project which is an European network where DocsBarcelona belongs to along with other four film festivals (FIPAdoc, DokMünchen, Verzio and MakeDox). Through this network, we support new talent,” Petrus underlines.
Unsurprisingly, DocsBarcelona is a central hub for the Catalan Industry and a very important place to meet local talent and film professionals. In addition to supporting Catalan productions within its Docs&Cat section, DocsBarcelona works closely with Pro-Docs, the Catalan documentary producers’ association, which plays a key role in festival industry activities. “DocsBarcelona expects to connect the local documentary film industry with the international professionals attending our festival during the ten days we are celebrating the art of documentary,” says Petrus.
Likewise with the Barcelona audience of cinephiles who will engage in all matter documentary between May 2 and 12. “DocsBarcelona has a very faithful audience which has been growing up and diversifying along with the festival in the last thirty editions. Barcelona is a multicultural city and DocsBarcelona has always worked to address its different types of audiences,” Petrus underlines.
“However, one of our main challenges for the upcoming years regarding our audiences is to work and build a documentary sensibility among the very young people, and I do believe this is a shared concern between all the festivals in the world. It is really challenging to open curiosity for documentary in these generations who have already grown up with the velocity of the multi-screen and the intensity of the new technologies,” Petrus says. “That’s why DocsBarcelona has an educational brand, Nextus, whose objective is to introduce documentary films [from] inside the Spanish educational system.”
This year the festival will welcome doc luminaries in the form of Raymond Depardon and Claudine Nougaret who, together, will receive the Honorary Docs Award; and the widely revered Victor Kossakovsky who will be presenting the Spanish premiere of his Architecton, which world-premiered at Berlinale 2024.
“It is truly an honour to welcome Raymond Depardon and Claudine Nougaret at DocsBarcelona this year. They are one of the most fascinating creative tandems in documentary film history and the authors of some of the most beautiful documentaries we ever watched,” says Petrus, who underlines the special relationship between Depardon’s “visual” and Nougaret’s “auditory” sensitivities as photographer and sound engineer respectively. During the festival, DocsBarcelona audiences will be able to watch a retrospective of the filmmakers’ works that includes 10è Chambre, instants d’audience; Profils Paysans: La vie modern and Journal de France. Audiences can also attend a conversation in both will reveal “the singularity of their common creative process,” Petrus notes.
The Artistic Director adds: “Kossakovsky is a recurring filmmaker at DocsBarcelona where he has a very passionate audience which will be delighted with the last film in his trilogy about the planet. Architecton is a sensory impact film that questions the use that human beings make of natural resources to build and also destroy. At the same time, it poses interesting questions to the audience regarding the way we threaten them. This special session will take place at the Phenomena Theater, one of the most beautiful in Barcelona.”
So what will constitute a successful festival for Petrus when doors close May 12? “A successful 27th DocsBarcelona for me would be continuing nurturing our audiences and contributing to the enjoyment and celebration of documentary together. That means not only meeting at the theaters but to continue debating and reflecting on the movie afterwards, outside,” she signs off.
