From November 20 to 1is December, the 27e edition of the Montreal International Documentary Meetings (RIDM) offers a vast selection of 146 films from 54 countries. International and national works, emerging works, short films, new narrative approaches, the offering is varied. Here are our suggestions.
Published at 7:00 a.m.
Learnby Claire Simon
In several of his fiction films (North Station) or documentaries (The competition, First solitudes), the filmmaker Claire Simon carries out observation work or sneaks into crowds and groups, small or large, to give voice. This is still the case with Learn in which she places her camera in a few classes at the Anton Makarenko elementary school, in Ivry-sur-Seine, France.
Teachers and students learn to live together, to share, to work, to listen, to respect. It’s never supported. It’s beautiful, gentle, contemplative. The finale, with its new cycle, is perfect. And if our memory serves us correctly, we don’t see any electronic devices during these 105 minutes of cinema.
Saturday, November 23 at 1:30 p.m. at the Cinéma du Musée and Sunday, November 24 at 1:45 p.m. at the Cinéma du Parc
Wild catsby Steve Patry
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RIDM
Still from the film Wild cats
And Learn by Claire Simon evokes living together, Wild cats by Steve Patry is that of living on the margins. Here, we are in the middle of the snow-laden boreal forest where Martin lives in a makeshift cabin, removed from society. His numerous cats form his family. Even more, his reason for living. With an economy of words and disarming sincerity, Martin recounts how his cats saved his life.
That doesn’t mean this man doesn’t talk to humans. A few rare friends surround him. As in his previous films (From prisons to prisons, As long as I have breath in my body), Steve Patry turns his camera without judgment towards very fragile beings.
Sunday, November 24 at 8:45 p.m. at the Cinéma du Musée and Wednesday, November 27 at 1 p.m. at the Cinémathèque québécoise
Simon and Marianneby Simon Fournier and Pier-Luc Latulippe
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RIDM
Still from the film Simon and Marianne
The documentaries of this tandem do not go unnoticed. Manor (2016) examined the daily lives of around forty idle people in a seedy motel in Saint-Hyacinthe. Outside Serge Outside (2021) made a lot of noise since it chronicled the ultra-reclusive life of actor Serge Thériault, aka Môman in Little Life.
In Simon and Mariannethe documentarians follow in the footsteps of a couple, one of whose partners, the writer Simon Roy, will soon receive medical assistance in dying. Shot in black and white, the film is marked by great moments of intimacy where the couple questions the meaning of life and death. Poignant!
Saturday, November 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Cinéma du Musée and Saturday, November 30 at 8:15 p.m. at the Cinéma du Parc
No Other Landfrom an Israeli-Palestinian collective
In current events often dominated by the Israel-Hamas war for a year, the incessant Israeli-Palestinian conflict is very present in the RIDM programming with four feature films, including No Other Land presented in February at the Berlinale, where it won two prizes.
Directed by an Israeli-Palestinian collective (Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamban Ballal and Rachel Szor), the film attempts to understand both sides of the story by molding itself to the experiences on the ground of a Palestinian activist and a Israeli journalist.
Tuesday, November 26 at 6 p.m. in the Latin Quarter and Sunday 1is December at 8:45 p.m. at the Cinémathèque québécoise
Unionde Stephen Maing et Brett Story
On March 30, 2022, workers at the JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island in New York voted to unionize with the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). This is a first for warehouse workers at this e-commerce giant with 1.5 million employees. Over a period of one year, the documentary follows the difficult journey of the organizers and, more particularly, of their leader Chris Smalls, a former employee and persona non grata on Amazon grounds.
The film also sheds light on the working and personal life conditions of these workers. To describe their approach as an obstacle course is not an exaggeration.
Monday, November 25 at 7 p.m. at Concordia University and Saturday, November 30 at 6:45 p.m. at the Latin Quarter
Ninan Auassat: We, the childrende Kim O’Bomsawin
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RIDM
Still from the film Ninan Auassat: We, the children
In November 2020, we described the documentary as luminous My name is human that Abenaki filmmaker Kim O’Bomsawin dedicated to Joséphine Bacon. The same epithet sticks to his new opus, Nina’s Auassatclosing film of the RIDM. In it, the documentary maker gives a voice to children and adolescents from the Atikamekw, Eeyou-Cree and Innu communities.
Like all young people, they have dreams, they have friends who have become confidants, they take life head on to embrace it. But they also want to learn their original language and their traditions. The story does not, however, eliminate their concerns about the problems (alcohol, suicide) encountered in their community. But it is done with balance and without ever dismissing the search for happiness.
Saturday, November 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Latin Quarter and Sunday 1is December at 3 p.m. at the Cinémathèque québécoise
Consult the complete program
