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Revered Italian director, screenwriter and producer Marco Bellocchio received April 11 the festival's highest honour before the Swiss premiere of his latest documentary, Marx Can Wait. Among the laudators were Emilie Bujès, artistic director of Visions du Réel, and Marco Müller, former director of the Venice FF and Locarno FF. On April 12 Bellocchio will give a public masterclass at Visions du Réel, which will also be live-streamed.

Though conventional in tone and structure, Steven Vit’s My Old Man also manages to be gently profound as it dwells on a childhood spent in a conventional family (not unlike countless ones encountered in Switzerland and elsewhere) and the director’s realisation that he doesn’t really know the often-absent father who would call from the other side of the world to say goodnight when he was a child.

An intriguing and languid blend of magical realism and observational documentary, Tizian Büchi’s Like An Island (L'îlot) presents the often enigmatic story of two men whose job is to watch over the area around the Vuachère, the burbling river running through a suburban neighbourhood in Lausanne (Switzerland).

Canadian filmmaker Jason Loftus talks to Business Doc Europe about his mixed media Eternal Spring, the thrilling and emotional story of a group of Falun Gong practitioners who managed briefly to take over Chinese state TV. The film is selected for Grand Jury Doc Competition.

Belgian producer Kristian van der Heyden spoke to a panel of a panel of NGOs, distributors and outreach changemakers during the Movies That Matter Take On Impact pitch session. In the project Slave Island two filmmakers, the Belgian Jimmy Hendrickx and Indonesian filmmaker Jeremy Kewuan, explore the hidden paradise of Sumba island, only to discover the atrocities of present-day slavery.

World premiering in Visions du Réel’s International Feature Film Competition, Éclaireuses follows two passionate teachers in Brussels who create their own little safe space for children – many of them refugees – who never went to school before. The doc may eschew analysis of wider pedagogical issues but shines a deserved light on two teachers who lovingly, patiently, and professionally take care of children who have fallen through the cracks of the system.

Deep into indigenous territory within the Brazilian rainforest a local activist and his team are fighting back with a video camera as a weapon. Their provocative and often heart-breaking story is impressively recorded by documentary director and cinematographer Alex Pritz who joins them to stress the urgency of the dilemma facing both land and people.

A simple but deeply insightful and, at times, challenging documentary, Marjolein Busstra’s We Don’t Talk (Wij praten niet) follows an in-depth series of conversations between therapists and teenagers as they tackle a complex web of sexual violence and exploitation.

Visions du Réel Industry kicks off April 10 with a wide programme of new project presentations, lab sessions, networking opportunities, a film market and showcase of VdR films, industry talks and an exploration of co-production opportunities with Sweden, Denmark and Norway. “We feel strengthened by the lessons we have learned from the digital and hybrid editions of the last two years,” says Head of Industry Madeline Robert.

The spectacular mountains of Ecuador provide a vibrant backdrop for this epic and often brutal story of the battle between locals (and eco-guerrillas) and a government that is beholden to China, having sold off mining contracts for millions of dollars, resulting in both loss of land and loss of political sovereignty to a foreign government.