Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Sundance winner Flee
Running April 8-18, the Oscar®-qualifying It’s All True doc fest (Brazil) will present 12 feature and medium-length productions in its International Feature competition and seven feature titles in its Brazilian competition. Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Sundance winner Flee will open the festival while Luiz Bolognesi’s The Last Forest will close.
A festival retrospective will mark Chris Marker’s centenary while Brazilian director Ruy Guerra and fellow countryman Caetano Veloso (composer) will be honoured with special programs.
In total, the 2021 It’s all True festival will present 69 titles from 23 countries, with 37 films selected for its four official competitions.
“Documentary film production was not stopped by the worst pandemic of the last century,” comments festival founder and director Amir Labaki. “Some unforgettable [examinations of] this cruel period already mark this year’s selection. The vigour of Brazilian production is also extraordinary, in such an adverse situation.”
The opening film in 2021 will be Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee, winner of the Grand Jury Prize in World Cinema Documentary at Sundance 2021. The closing film, on April 18, will be Luiz Bolognesi’s The Last Forest, which world-premièred in the Panorama section of Berlinale 2021.
The centenary of French master Chris Marker (1921-2012) will be celebrated with a special retrospective. The full program of the 18th International Documentary Conference, co-presented by Itaú Cultural, will focus on Marker’s work and legacy, with a lecture by French critic Jean-Michel Frodon and US scholar Bill Nichols, among others.
A special program will also celebrate the 90th anniversary of Brazilian-Mozambican maverick Ruy Guerra, one of the leading members of the Cinema Novo movement and a pioneer of the film industry of the independent Mozambique. Guerra will present a master class during the festival.
Brazilian singer and composer Caetano Veloso will receive an homage with nine documentaries that represent more than 60 years of a unique career.
Award-winning films in the Brazilian and International Competitions, both feature-length and short, will automatically qualify for Academy Award consideration. The prize ceremony will be broadcast April 18 on the It’s All True YouTube channel.
International Feature and Medium-length films in Competition
9 Jours A Raqqa/ 9 Days in Raqqa (9 Dias em Raqqa)
Direction: Xavier de Lauzanne
Synopsis: A French writer crosses Iraq and Syria to meet Leila Mustapha, mayor of Raqqa. In this still dangerous city, she has nine days to live with Leila and tell her story in a book.
Aganai/ Me and the Cult Leader – A Modern Report on the Banality of Evil (Eu e o Líder da Seita)
Direction: Atsushi Sakahara
Synopsis: In 1995, Aum Shinrikyo, a Tokyo-based Doomsday cult, conducted the largest terrorist attack in Japan’s history, killing thirteen people and injuring 6,000 on a sarin-gas attack on three crowded Tokyo subway trains. Twenty years later, one of the victims decides to face the cult.
Glory to the Queen (Glória à Rainha)
Direction: Tatia Skhirtladze
Synopsis: During the Cold War, four legendary female chess players from Georgia revolutionized women’s chess across the globe.
Gorbachev.Heaven (Gorbachev.Céu)
Direction: Vitaly Mansky
Synopsis: Condemned by his own people, this lonely old man is living the last days of his life in an empty house in the suburbs near Moscow.
Histoire d’un Regard/ Looking for Gilles Caron (História de um Olhar)
Direction: Mariana Otero
Synopsis: Engineered as an investigation, the film searches, through its iconic images and the gaps in them, to salvage the presence of photographer Gilles Caron, who disappeared when he was 30. Nominated for the 2021 Best Documentary César®.
Leonie, Actrice en Spionne/ Leonie, Actress and Spy (Leonie, Atriz e Espiã)
Direction: Annette Apon
Synopsis: Leonie Brandt (1901–1978) dreamed of becoming an actress. After realizing her dream, she took on the role of her life and became a spy for the Dutch intelligence service in Nazi Germany.
A Thousand Cuts (Mil Cortes)
Direction: Ramona S. Diaz
Synopsis: Journalist Maria Ressa, a former lead investigative reporter in Southeast Asia for CNN, places the tools of the free press— and her freedom—on the line in defence of truth and democracy.
MLK/FBI (MLK/FBI)
Direction: Sam Pollard
Synopsis: MLK / FBI is the first film to uncover the extent of the FBI’s surveillance and harassment of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Based on newly discovered and declassified files.
Paradise (Paraíso)
Direction: Sérgio Tréfaut
Synopsis: This film was suddenly interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and became a tribute to a decimated generation. World premiere.
President (Presidente)
Direction: Camilla Nielsson
Synopsis: When Robert Mugabe was removed from power, by his own party, after thirty-eight years of dictatorial rule, Zimbabwe’s military leaders promised they would ensure democracy via a national election. Can a free, fair, and transparent election be truly possible?
Totally Under Control (Sob Total Controle)
Direction: Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan, Suzanne Hillinger
Synopsis: An in-depth look at how the Trump administration handled the response to the Covid-19 outbreak during the early months of the pandemic, also the last ones before presidential elections in October 2020.
Vicenta (Vicenta)
Direction: Dario Doria
Synopsis: Although she may put everything at risk, Vicenta begins a war against the Argentinian government in order to achieve what she considers fair: the legal interruption of her daughter’s pregnancy.
Brazilian Feature and Medium-length films in Competition
Alvorada Palace (Alvorada)
Direction: Anna Muylaert, Lô Politi.
Synopsis: A behind-the-scenes look at the life and routine of Brazil’s first and only female president, Dilma Rousseff, during the dramatic unfolding of the impeachment process that removed her from power. Brazilian premiere.
The Repentants (Os Arrependidos)
Direction: Armando Antenore, Ricardo Calil
Synopsis: The Repentants tells the seldom-remembered story of former militants who embarked on the cause at a very young age only to be arrested, tortured, and converted into a propaganda tool for their enemies. World premiere.
Dos Tiempos (Dois Tempos)
Direction: Pablo Francischelli
Synopsis: Thirty-five years after their first encounter, which would change the course of both their lives, the Argentinean guitarist Lucio Yanel and his Brazilian pupil Yamandu Costa decide to retrace the route that brought Yanel across the border to the countryside of Rio Grande do Sul all those years ago . World premiere.
Edna (Edna)
Direction: Eryk Rocha.
Synopsis: Camped at the edge of the Transbrasiliana highway, Edna inhabits a land in ruins, built upon massacres. Raised by a single mother, she has felt in her bones, and in those of her descendants, the impacts of a war that has never ended: the war for land. Brazilian premiere.
Desire Machine – 60 Years of Teatro Oficina (Máquina do Desejo – Os 60 Anos do Teatro Oficina)
Direction: Lucas Weglinski, Joaquim Castro
Synopsis: Over the last six decades, the Teatro Oficina has done much more than revolutionize the language of theatre in Brazil. The aesthetic influence of José Celso Martinez Corrêa’s company can be felt from Tropicalism to the renewal of Brazilian audiovisual output from the 1960s on. World premiere.
Paulo César Pinheiro – Letter And Soul (Paulo César Pinheiro – Letra e Alma)
Direction: Cleisson Vidal, Andrea Prates
Synopsis: Here, sitting comfortably on his sofa, he reflects on human nature and takes us on a trip that evokes and involves some of the biggest names in MPB— Brazilian Popular Music. World premiere.
Zimba (Zimba)
Direction: Joel Pizzini
Synopsis: A film about the career and artistic philosophy of the actor and director Zbigniew Ziembinski (1908–1978), the precursor of modern theatre in Latin America and mentor to generations of Brazilian actors. World premiere.
