The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) is proud
to open its 22nd edition today Thursday, November 14,with
the Quebec premiere of the film The Disappearance of my Mother, with director Beniamino Barrese and his mother Benedetta
Barzini
in attendance. The film is a touching, intimate portrait of a
former fashion icon who now shuns the camera, wanting to disappear from this
world of ubiquitous screens. The opening ceremony will start at 7 p.m.
in the Alumni Auditorium (H-110) at Concordia University.

The screening will be followed by a party at RIDM Headquarters at
the Cinémathèque québécoise (335 De Maisonneuve Blvd. E.), where several
artists will take the stage starting at 9:30 p.m. Annie Sama, Fwonte,
J.u.D and Akpossoul will help celebrate the opening of the year’s
biggest documentary event.

A second screening of The Disappearance of my Mother,
followed by a discussion with Beniamino Barrese, is scheduled for
Thursday, November 21 at 4 p.m. at Cinéma du Parc.

Opening of the UXdoc Space

The beginning of the festival also marks the opening of the UXdoc space,
which hosts interactive projects, installations and virtual reality
experiences. Located in the Raoul-Barré room at the Cinémathèque québécoise,
the space will feature 9 projects, including Stealing
Ur Feelings
by Noah Levenson,
an augmented reality experience on facial recognition technology. Festivalgoers
can also get an introduction to participatory documentary theatre with Hotspot by Patricia Bergeron, a new type of experience about the
realities of migrant processing centres.

Local and international adventures

With Wilcox, Denis Côté takes us takes us to the heart of the wandering of a
man in the Quebec nature. The
Song of Empedocles
by Sylvain L’Espérance and Marie-Claude Loiselle
invites us to a documentary and philosophical journey in Greece. The posthumous
feature film Mavericks,by Michka Saäl, pays tribute to the beauty of
Montreal and its people as she captures the details of everyday life.

Right from the start, the festival will present several Quebec premieres
with their Canadian and international directors in attendance, including 143
Sahara Street
(Hassen Ferhani), nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up (Tasha Hubbard), 
Jordan River Anderson, the Messenger (Alanis Obomsawin), and Conviction (Nance Ackerman, Ariella Pahlke, Teresa MacInnes).

Robert Fisk is a writer and Middle East correspondent and the protagonist of This is Not a Movie by Yung Chang. Fisk will open the Forum RIDM on Monday, November 18 with a discussion on his long career. This stimulating discussion, moderated by Le Devoir editor Brian Myles, will touch on field research and the question of truth in the era of fake news.

North American premieres

On the festival’s first weekend, festivalgoers will have the chance to
see North American premieres of documentaries in which the filmmakers meet
people on their sacred ground, such as No
Gold for Kalsaka
by Michel
K. Zongo
, which documents how a gold mine, whose operating permits had been
held by multinationals, caused terrible social and environmental damage in
Burkina Faso. In Les
yeux de mon amour
, Rui Silveira invites us to witness
a ritual in which a Portuguese village is transformed by beautiful paper
flowers.

Genre cross-pollination: the Laura Huertas Millan retrospective

Laura Huertas Millán – Decolonizing Ethnography is a retrospective of the Franco-Colombian filmmaker’s work, going to
the heart of our imagination and emotions with a range of works of great formal
and conceptual depth. Laura Huertas Millán will be present on November
15 and 16 after the screening of the two programs of her works, each comprising
three short films.

Family screening

On Saturday, November 16, the RIDM is delighted to invite kids and their parents to a very special family screening followed by an activity and a snack. Programmed by the Carrousel du film de Rimouski.

The 22nd annual RIDM will take place from
November 14 to 24, 2019.

at the Cinémathèque québécoise, Centre Pierre-Péladeau, Cineplex Odeon
Quartier Latin,

Cinéma du Parc, Cinéma Moderne and Concordia University.

Information : www.ridm.ca / info@ridm.ca

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