From November 10 to 20, the RIDM will hold its 19th annual festival. Today the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) is proud to unveil five major films from its program.
A selection for official competition at the prestigious Visions du reel festival and winner of the Doc Alliance Selection Award at the Locarno International Film Festival, Gulîstan, Land of Roses, first feature by Zaynê Akyol (Canada), a young Kurdish-Canadian filmmaker based in Quebec, will be presented at this year’s Festival. Sublime images immerse viewers in the lives of a group of PKK’s Kurdish female fighters who wage war on ISIS on the Iraqi and Syrian borders. Gulîstan, Land of Roses is produced by Périphéria, in co-production with the German production company Mîtosfilm and the NFB.
Gulîstan, Land of Roses trailer
Kate Plays Christine earned Robert Greene (United States) a Special Jury Award for writing at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. This out-of-the-ordinary film redefines the boundary between documentary and performance by observing the work of a young actress preparing to play a television presenter who committed suicide on air. Kate Plays Christine is distributed in Canada by KinoSmith.
Cinema Novo, winner of the award for best documentary at the Cannes Festival, is made entirely from archival images related to the famous Brazilian movement. This beautiful, poetic essay by Eryk Rocha (Brazil) is both a history lesson and a filmmaking master class.
The great filmmaker Wang Bing (China) has made an unforgettable, arresting portrait of the lives of refugees in his latest film, Ta’ang. On the Chinese border, the Ta’ang people, fleeing a civil war, seek refuge in the mountains.
Voted best film in the international competition at Hot Docs 2016, Brothers is reminiscent of Richard Linklater’sBoyhood. In this deeply sensitive film, a mother, Aslaug Holm (Norway), documents the everyday lives of her two sons over a span of eight years.
Limited presales
Starting today, the festival is releasing a limited number of passes good for all festival screenings (certain exceptions apply) at the special price of $85 including taxes (plus applicable service charges). The offer is valid until August 26. Official presales of passes ($100) will begin on September 2.