Doclisboa 26

Rayna Teneva grew up in Kazanluk, a Bulgarian town famous for its arms factory, Arsenal AD, and for its rose oil, made from flowers picked in Bulgaria’s “rose valley.” The artist and filmmaker, who is now based in Vienna, isn’t therefore surprised that her feature Geography Is Destiny (an international premiere in Doclisboa’s International Competition) is so often described as being about “guns and roses.” Nonetheless, as she tells BDE, she hopes audiences will see beyond such an obvious cliché.

Doclisboa’s Marina Thomé discusses this year’s offer to international professionals attending Nebulae, the festival’s industry programme that kicks off October 16. “Success, for us, is creating an environment where filmmakers can develop author-driven projects that challenge cinematic form and language, while creating spaces for reflection through roundtables, conversations with festival programmers, training activities, labs and live cinema performances,” she underlines to BDE.

Doclisboa (15-25 October) is one of the first events in a packed autumn season for documentary markets and festivals that also includes Ji.hlava, DOK Leipzig and, a few weeks later, IDFA. Festival director Hélder Beja argues, however, that the Lisbon footprint is very different to those of the other events. “We truly defend and believe in film above all,” Beja tells BDE. “We have gone a little bit away from the term ‘documentary’ these days, even if we have it in the name of our festival. ‘Documentary’ is a word that very rarely appears in everything that we write.”

The 24th edition, running 15 to 25 October, will present 34 world premieres, 13 international premieres, three European premieres and 32 Portuguese premieres, “spanning generations, geographies and different ways of making and thinking about cinema,” organisers write. Doclisboa opens with Asphalt Guerrilla by Edgar Pêra, and closes with Thanks for Coming by 95-year-old Alain Cavalier.