A-List Festivals on How Documentaries Can Play in the Big League
variety.comLise Pedersen A panel composed of representatives from A-list festivals got together on Sunday for an online talk staged by documentary film festival Visions du Réel to discuss the place of documentary films at their events.The speakers were Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, U.S.
programmer and selection committee member of the Venice Film Festival, Cristina Nord, head of the Berlinale Forum, Eva Sangiorgi, director of the Viennale, and Frédéric Boyer, artistic director of the Tribeca Film Festival.Asked to outline their selection criteria, most panelists agreed theirs was a director-driven approach based on individual submissions. “It’s first and foremost about inviting films that are truly inspiring and ground-breaking: it’s always interesting when you discover something that you haven’t seen before,” said Nord, adding that documentaries hold a significant place in the Berlinale’s independently curated, experimental Forum section, where they represent roughly half of the films selected. “Our objective is to give an impression of what’s going on in documentary filmmaking in its broadest sense.
We explore all types, from very classical, observational approaches like in Constantin Wulff’s ‘Chamber of Labor,’ which premiered this year, to more experimental films like the Canadian doc debut by Myriam Charles, ‘Cette Maison,’ ” she said.
The fact that there is no specific section dedicated to documentaries at the Venice Film Festival empowers nonfiction filmmaking, according to D’Agnolo Vallan: “It encourages the idea that docs can participate in the same space as traditional feature films.
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