For its 25th edition, the Montreal International Documentary Festival is pleased to announce the return of a previously shelved programming section, which aims to highlight documentary production from a particular region. This year, we look towards Brazil, a country that has undergone significant progressive social transformations but is facing a setback with the rise of the far right and the election of Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. At the time of writing, the 2022 elections have not yet happened, and the future for Brazilians remains as uncertain as the cultural policies adopted over the past twenty years that allowed a contemporary national filmmaking culture that is both eclectic and singular to flourish.

Presented in collaboration with Olhar de Cinema - Curitiba International Film Festival, a festival interested in creative documentaries, the program offers a compelling overview of this booming cinematic development and travels to different parts of Brazil. Award-winning filmmakers are featured alongside emerging talents, and the contributions of indigenous makers are highlighted.

The selected films are notable for their innovative approaches that explore formal expressions, often borrowed from non-documentary forms of artistic expression and fictional processes. Through these works, cinema asserts itself as a potent critical tool with the ability to spark a reflection and transformation of political and social realities. These films provide platforms for debating matters currently top-of-mind in Brazilian society, from ideological and territorial disputes to ethno-racial, gender and labour issues.

As we wait for brighter days, the RIDM and Olhar de Cinema are honoured to present this exceptional showcase, which reveals hitherto unexamined Brazilian experiences and positions cinema as a space for political resistance.
- Camila Macedo & the RIDM programming collective


In this program :

Brazilian party - November 19th - 10:00 PM - Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Normand-McLaren
Come dance to the rythm of the best brazilian vinyls : Tupi Collective will make you move all night as part of our Focus Brazil. From reggae to samba, and from hip-hop to forró, they'll transport you on a tropical journey.

Swing and Sway - November 20th 5:00 PM - Cinéplex Odéon Quartier Latin - Salle 12
Chica Barbosa & Fernanda Pessoa / Brésil / 2022 / 81 min / v.o. portugais / anglais / espagnol s.-t. anglais
Between Brazil and the US, two friends exchange video-letters inspired by other female directors while social upheavals infiltrate daily pandemic life.

Cavalo - November 21st 6:00 PM - Cinéma du Parc - Salle 2
Rafhael Barbosa & Werner Salles Bagetti / Brésil / 2020 / 85 min / v.o. portugais s.-t. anglais
Between documentary, fiction and performance, African ancestry is inscribed on the bodies of seven young artists in the process of creating.

Landless - November 22nd 8:30 PM - Cinéma du Parc - Salle 2
Camila Freitas / Brésil / 2019 / 110 min / v.o. portugais s.-t. français
In Brazil, the Landless Workers’ Movement occupies a failing factory. This film provides an introspective look into the daily struggle for land reform.

The Dead and the Others - November 23rd 8:15 PM - Cinéma du Parc - Salle 2
Renée Nader Messora & João Salaviza / Brésil, Portugal / 2018 / 114 min / v.o. krahô / portugais s.-t. anglais
Ihjãc’s dreams after his father’s death reveal to him he’ll soon be a shaman. Denying his fate, he leaves his Krahô tribe for a village in the Brazilian hinterland.

Program of films by indigenous makers - November 24th 8:30 PM - Cinémathèque québécoise / Salle Crave
89 min - english subtitles
In 1986, Vídeo nas Aldeias (“Video in the Villages”), a pioneering project for Indigenous audiovisual training and production in Brazil, was first launched. Since then, other initiatives have emerged, and people of various ethnicities now see cinema as an essential tool for cultural consolidation and transmission. The short and medium-length films in this program show a tiny but significant part of this history.
In this program : The Word Became Flesh, Grin, Summertime & Karioka

Waiting for the Carnival - November 25th 5:30 PM - Cinéma du Parc - Salle 2
Marcelo Gomes / Brésil / 2019 / 86 min / v.o. portugais s.-t. anglais
In the “national jeans capital,” a small Brazilian town transformed by neoliberalism, residents share their intense work routine and dreams.