Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) 2020

The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) is proud to announce the program for its 23rd edition. This year, the festival will run for three weeks, from November 12 to December 2.

109 films, including 48 features, and numerous remote discussions and workshops will, more than ever, make November a grand celebration of documentary film

This year, the festival’s program will be available online everywhere in Quebec via enligne.ridm.ca. To make the most of the flexibility enabled by the web while creating a festival experience that encourages a dialogue among the works, a subset of the program will be available each week. The weekly line-ups will be organized around 8 thematic sections with equal weighting for short, medium and feature-length films. In addition to the films, the sections will be enhanced with complementary content such as video discussions and podcasts. All films and other content will be accessible with reduced-cost passes and subscriptions. The films in this year’s festival come from 45 countries and once again underscore the superb work being done by women – who made 52% of the films in the official selection. As a space for discovering new documentary voices, the festival will include 18 first features alongside works by festival favourites like Frederick Wiseman, Claire Simon, Dieudo Hamadi, Laura Huertas Millán and Kazuhiro Soda.

Meeting the many challenges of 2020, the RIDM has designed its sections as explorations of issues and responses to current realities.

NOVEMBER 12 TO 18, the RIDM invites audiences to:

DISRUPTING HISTORY: 11 films that use cinema to shed light on little-known historical episodes, critique official narratives or reflect on the enduring impact of key figures. Collectively, these essays, broadsides, performances and archival explorations form a fascinating set of works that, from Canada to Afghanistan, Colombia and Nigeria, encourage us to rethink our relationship with the past.

EXPLORING NATURE: 11 films about our multifaceted relationships with nature and the environment: the impacts of climate change, spiritual and mystical connections with the natural world, animal’s-eye-view perspectives and observations of the socio-cultural impacts of our relationship with nature.

SEEKING COMMUNITIES: 11 films that observe and examine politics, identity issues and social reintegration. From observational grand narratives to autobiographical testimonials, this section is all about how we engage with others.

NOVEMBER 19 TO 25, the RIDM will focus on:

CONTEMPLATING DYSTOPIA: 12 films that confront the strangeness of our world. An unlikely road movie with the spokesman for a death cult, an imagined world without people, futuristic architecture and nocturnal odysseys. These creative films reframe our reality.

BECOMING ONESELF: These 12 films are profiles and self-portraits about our relationship with the world – a series of inspiring and poetic existential quests that affirm the many definitions of self.

CHALLENGING POWER: These 12 films, running the gamut from activist cinema to highly experimental pieces, confront past and present injustices while paying tribute to many brave and committed people.

NOVEMBER 26 TO DECEMBER 2, the RIDM will ask viewers to:

REDEFINING INTIMACY: 13 films with an intimate side, exploring everything from family relationships and romantic entanglements to the state of healthcare. These very personal stories question the relationship between the individual and their society and time.

SURVIVING VIOLENCE: 12 activist films that testify powerfully to some of today’s most distressing violence: exploitation of Indigenous peoples, the tragedies faced by migrants, countries at war, state repression and violence against women.

For more information visit: https://ridm.ca/en