Visions du Réel 2022

Jean Genet, Notre-Père-des-Fleurs was the last documentary made by Moroccan filmmaker Dalila Ennadre, who died two years ago following a long illness. The film had its international premiere this week in the Medium-length and Short film competition at Visions du Réel. Ennadre called critic and curator Nadia Meflah to help complete the film six months before her death. Meflah talks to Business Doc Europe.

As if the Balkans needs another country, and another set of borders... Meet Czech businessman and self-proclaimed ‘president’ Vít Jedlička who, in 2015, founded the ‘sovereign state’ of Liberland on an island on the Danube between Croatia and Serbia. In Isabella Rinaldi’s documentary, screening in VdR Medium/Short Competition, we also meet a happy Dutchman who has fully bought into the Liberland concept and two Tito-loving idealists who are dedicated to re-establishing a mini Yugoslavian state.

Visions du Réel 2022 has announced that the Special Guest of its 53rd edition running 7 to 17 April 2022 will be Kirsten Johnson (Dick Johnson is Dead, 2020 Sundance US Doc Jury Award winner) who will present a retrospective of her films as well as a selection of films to which she has contributed, which includes Laura Poitras’ Citizenfour (2014, co-producer and camera).

Pulitzer Prize nominated US novelist Marianne Wiggins is the subject of the new doc world-premiering this week in the International Medium/Short competition in Nyon. This, though, isn’t the typical biographical portrait of an important writer. It’s more of a story about creativity in the face of illness; an intimate study of an artist trying to recover her full faculties after a devastating personal setback. Co-director Ressler talks to BDE.

The Swiss docfest (7 to 17 April 2022) will celebrate the life and work of revered Italian director, screenwriter and producer Marco Bellocchio with the presentation of its Honorary Award. The homage will include a Masterclass and a retrospective of selected works of ‘one the most significant oeuvres in contemporary filmmaking.’

Edited from countless home movies, Marusya Syroechkovskaya’s How to Save a Dead Friend not only shows her best friend Kimi’s descent into drug-induced depression and death, but indirectly portrays a whole generation growing up – but often not growing old – in Putin’s Russia.

The 23 films, 9 of which will be presented as world or international premieres, “mark the cinematographic year and reveal the landscape of contemporary non-fiction filmmaking,” says the festival. VdR expresses its support for Ukrainian artists and filmmakers and strongly condemns the ongoing Russian invasion. At the same time it underlines “its support for Russian artists and citizens who are currently expressing their resistance,” says the festival.

The VdR-Industry Awards 2022 were announced April 13. With more than 2100 accredited professionals from over 80 countries, the Festival says it has broken the Industry attendance record of last year's hybrid edition (+27%). “With its numerous prizes and grants, VdR-Industry and its partners reaffirm their determination to support independent documentary filmmaking in all its diversity,” say organisers. Festival Awards will be presented on Saturday April 16.

Twenty-seven projects by 32 filmmakers, produced across 29 countries, will participate in the VdR-Pitching, VdR-Work In Progress and VdR-Rough Cut Lab programmes. 15 directors are female, 17 are men. 13 projects are directed and produced by filmmakers from countries of the global South or global East. VdR Industry activities will take place from April 10-14.

The short film Aralkum by Munich-based filmmakers Daniel Asadi Faezi and Mila Zhluktenko looks to reverse, at least cinematically, the desertification of the Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Commissioned by the Tashkent International Film Festival, who provided the pair with a full crew, the film is lyrical, tragic and inventive in equal measure. The filmmakers talk to Business Doc Europe.