The social and political documentary film festival will be held outdoors in Montreal parks from June 29 to September 6, 2022! The festival will arrive as a breath of fresh air and will attract Montrealers who are eager to come together.
For its 13th edition, the Cinéma sous les étoiles will feature more than 40 outdoor screenings in a dozen parks. The films will highlight crucial and topical social, political and environmental issues; the screenings will be followed by a discussion with the film team and/or invited experts in order to have a debate and raise public awareness of these key topics.
PROGRAMMING|AN OVERVIEW
The Cinéma sous les étoiles programming team aims to offer viewers national and international selections of short, medium and feature social and political documentaries. A quality program that focuses on Quebec productions to allow a meeting between the public and local filmmakers. By drawing up local realities, the event also promotes the mobilization of cinephile citizens within their neighbourhoods.
This year, the French documentary L’énergie positive des dieux by Laetitia Moller (Canadian premiere) will officially launch the festival on June 29 at Laurier Park, accompanied by a show. Coming from a medico-educational institute welcoming young autistic people and encouraged by their music educator Christophe, the four singers of the group Astéréotypie – Stanislas, Yohann, Aurélien and Kevin – unveil on stage their texts on a wave of rock. The spectators of the festival will live, with this film, a collective adventure teeming with poetry and freedom.
Several feature documentaries will be presented as Quebec and Canadian premieres. Starting with El Silencio del Topo (The Silence of the Mole) by Anais Taracena (Quebec premiere). This Guatemalan documentary helps us to discover the fascinating story of Elías Barahona, a mole infiltrated into the heart of Guatemala’s most repressive military government during the 1970s. Olivier Dubuquoy’s documentary, Irréductibles will also have its Quebec premiere. With the participation of sociologist and philosopher Edgar Morin, Irreducible sheds light on men and women – including the trade unionist José Bové – who won environmental battles that seemed lost in advance, sometimes using non-violence, sometimes in hiding. In addition, Canadian director Shannon Walsh, present at the Cinéma sous les étoiles 2011 with one of her previous films, returns this year with The Gig is up (Canadian premiere) which allows us to become aware of the exploitation that is intertwined in the uberization of work.
Many Quebec documentaries are also part of the program. Among these, Nicolas Paquet’s The Act of Beauty which depicts a community of peasants located in the Bas-St-Laurent region, developing a more human and ecological social and agricultural model. In addition, Quebec filmmaker Emanuel Licha will present Zo Reken, a film that gives voice to several Haitians to address the state of the country and neocolonialism. The two filmmakers will also be present during the screenings.
The complete program and the locations that will host the films will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
SHORT FILM COMPETITION
For the 8th consecutive year, Cinéma sous les étoiles also features a short film competition. This competition aims to promote and encourage emerging film production by providing a privileged space for documentary filmmakers from here and abroad. A jury composed of a PhD student in sociology – Ambre Fourrier – a documentary filmmaker and producer – Amy Miller – a sociologist and researcher – Philippe Néméh-Nombré – will award prizes to the winners this year.
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