120 films will screen at this year’s Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM). The festival announced its complete line-up today, which exceeds gender parity and offers roughly 25% of the programming slots represented by Canadian docs. In addition to the previously announced opening and closing night selection of Futura and Gabor, RIDM will screen new docs including Jeremiah Hayes’ NFB film Dear Audrey, a portrait of filmmaker Martin Duckworth as he cares for his wife as she experiences the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Other Canadian docs at RIDM include titles that have enjoyed a strong festival run since launching at Hot Docs this spring, including Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy, Shannon Walsh’s The Gig Is Up, Yasmin Mathurin’s One of Ours, Caitlin Durlak’s Dropstones, and Hot Docs’ Best Canadian Feature winner zo reken by Emanuel Licha. RIDM will screen all docs in theatres with subsequent online screenings in three windows.
On the international front, RIDM makes a Quebec splash for Payal Kapadia’s formally daring A Night of Knowing Nothing and Francis Leplay and Isidore Bethel’s consideration of dating and relationships, Acts of Love. The fest also screens Hot Docs’ Best International Feature winner Ostrov – Lost Island for fans of slow cinema, as does Andrea Arnold’s polarizing moo-vie Cow. 2017 RIDM audience award winner Amandine Gay returns with A Story of One’s Own, which looks at the politics of adoption, while Vadim Kostrov’s docudrama Orpheus reflecting on contemporary Russia from the point of view of today’s youths. Festival favourite Ben Russell, meanwhile, returns with The Invisible Mountain, a “reappropriation” of Réné Daumal’s novel Mount Analogue.
RIDM also offers three special showcases in this year’s festival. The event includes a showcase of four new shorts by Mary Menie Mark, Melanie Lameboy, Alfred McKenzie, and Véronique Picard that will precede each screening of films in the Canadian features competition. The next generation of filmmakers will also be celebrated in Dugal, La soirée de la relève Radio-Canada, which will screen short docs by Jérémie Picard, Julia Zahar, Sara Ben-Saud, Stéphane Nepton, Simon Larochelle, and Aucéane Roux. Finally, the immersive 360° travelogue Territories of the Americas by Patrick Bossé brings innovations in documentary to RIDM.
This year’s RIDM runs in theatres Nov. 10 to 21 and online Nov. 14 to 25. Visit RIDM.ca for the complete line-up.
