The 25th edition of Montreal documentary festival RIDM is on from Nov. 17 to 27

The 25th edition of the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) is on from Nov. 17 to 27. Featuring a wide selection of documentary films from local and international filmmakers, this year’s edition kicks off with Rewind & Play by French filmmaker Alain Gomis, presented with the support of the Consulate General of France in Quebec City. The film honours the legacy of jazz musician Thelonious Monk and employs the power of editing to expose the construction of a colonial discourse using archival footage from a TV program. Preceding the opening film screening will be the short film Des racines nées by ALUNAYA, created as part of the Conseil des arts de Montréal’s Regard sur Montréal 2022 film residency.

This year’s edition not only features a wide selection of films from around the world and at home, but several supporting events, including roundtables on documentary storytelling in theatre and cinema and Beyond Borders, which will focus on the blurred line between documentary and fiction. The 2022 RIDM Forum will also return this year, while the RIDM Talent Lab (sponsored by Netflix) offers 16 participants the opportunity to workshop their projects with documentary experts from around the world. 

Not sure where to start with the program? Here are some of our recommendations:

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)

Winner of the top prize at Venice, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed follows the life of artist Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family, the pharmaceutical dynasty that was greatly responsible for the opioid epidemic’s unfathomable death toll. 

Geographies of Solitude (Jacquelyn Mills)

The film is guided by Zoe Lucas, a naturalist and environmentalist who lives on Nova Scotia’s Sable Island, where she catalogues the island’s wild Sable Island horses, and endeavours to protect the unique ecosystem. It won three prizes at Berlin and is one of the msot critically acclaimed documentaries of the year. 

Jet Lag (Zheng Lu Xinyuan)

Following her highly acclaimed first film The Cloud in Her Room in 2020, Zheng Lu Xinyuan presents her latest film, Jet Lag,  an intimate autofiction that takes her from Vienna to China. An exploration of the personal and the mundane through an elliptical and black and white landscape. 

Terra Femme (Courtney Stephens)

Looking through archives across the world of travelogues, a type of vacation home movie, director Courtney Stephens searches for travelogues shot by women. Collecting archival footage from the 1920s and 1950s, Stephens creates a personal and historical approach to what it means to be a woman who watches instead of one who is watched. 

A House Made of Splinters (Simon Lereng Wilmont)

A poignant look at children living in eastern Ukraine, A House Made of Splinters takes a look at the impact of war and neglect on the children, who only have brief moments of love and hope from their caretakers. A heart-wrenching observational film from the director of The Distant Barking of Dogs (2018). 

For more on RIDM, please visit the festival’s website.

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