Documentaries Open Windows to the World Documentaries are an important tool to help reflect and understand the world around us, and this is clear amongst the films screening at Festival do Rio.
With a diverse and enriching selection, Festival do Rio in 2023 features almost 80 documentaries, including exciting new short and feature-length productions screening in Première Brasil, classics of Brazilian cinema history, as well as the international productions that have already been celebrated by juries and the public at other major festivals.
In Première Brasil, 15 documentaries are screening, among them films competing for the festival’s Redentor Trophy in both the Official Competition and New Trends. Other Brazilian productions will screen Hors Concours or in the Portraits and The State of Things section of the festival.
Documentaries are an important tool to help reflect and understand the world around us, and this is clear from the films screening at Festival do Rio.
“A Flor do Buriti” (The Buriti Flower), a Brazilian documentary that is part of Première Brasil, and directed by João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora, won the ensemble award in Un Certain Regard at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Winner of the The Golden Eye, the best documentary award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 and Tunisia's candidate for an Oscar nomination in 2024, “Four Daughters” by director Kaouther Ben Hania, is one of the highlights of the World Panorama showcase. The Tunisian production shared the award in Cannes with “The Mother of All Lies,” a Moroccan film by director Asmae El Moudir. The film also won Best Direction in Un Certain Regard and is part of the Rio festival's Expectations section.
Other international productions celebrated at major foreign festivals includes “Orlando, My Political Biography,” by Paul B. Preciado, winner of the Best Director award in Un Certain Regard and the Teddy Award and the Special Jury Prize in the Encounters programme at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.
In the Unique Itineraries strand, some of the outstanding documentaries focus on the talent of great filmmakers, such as “Godard Cinema” by Cyril Leuthy; “Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer” by Thomas von Steinaecker; and “Dario Argento Panico” by Simone Scafidi.
A classic of Brazilian cinema, directed by one of the masters of documentary cinema, is also part of the Rio festival programme for those who want to revisit or watch this masterpiece on the big screen for the first time. The film is Eduardo Coutinho's “Cabra Marcado Para Morrer”, which is part of the Cinemateca É Brasileira section, and which back in 1984 won the Golden Toucan for best film at Rio’s first major film festival, FestRio.
Check out the list of the documentaries screening during Festival do Rio (films are Brazilian unless listed otherwise):
Première Brasil - Competition Documentaries
Assexybilidade, Daniel Gonçalves (RJ) - Première
Black Rio! Black Power!, Emílio Domingos (RJ) - World Première
Helô, Lula Buarque de Hollanda (RJ) - World Première
Línguas da Nossa Língua, Estevão Ciavatta (RJ) - World Première
O Coro do Te-Ato, Stella Oswaldo Cruz Penido (RJ) - World Première
Othelo, o Grande, Lucas H. Rossi dos Santos (RJ) - World Première
Utopia Tropical, João Amorim (DF) - World Première
Première Brasil - Hors Concours
A Flor do Buriti, João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora (Brazil / Portugal)
Première Brasil - Competition Shorts
Onde a Floresta Acaba, Otavio Cury (SP)
Thuë Pihi Kuuwi - Uma Mulher Pensando, Aida Harika Yanomami, Roseane Yariana Yanomami and Edmar Tokorino Yanomami (SP)
Première Brasil – New Trends Competition
Iracemas, Tuca Siqueira (PE) - World Première
Termodielétrico, Ana Costa Ribeiro (RJ) - World Première
Nada Será Como Antes, Ana Rieper (RJ) - World Première
Tudo o Que Você Podia Ser,Ricardo Alves Jr (MG) - World Première
Première Brasil - New Trends Shorts
A Alma das Coisas, Douglas Soares and Felipe Herzog (RJ)
Première Brasil - Panorama Shorts
As Marias, Dannon Lacerda
A Cinemateca É Brasileira
Cabra Marcado para Morrer, Eduardo Coutinho
São Paulo: A Sinfonia da Metrópole, Adalberto Kemeny e Rodolfo Lustig
Especial Séries Brasileiras
Resistência Negra, Mayara Aguiar
Première Brasil - Portraits
Dois Sertões, Caio Resende de Fabiana Leite
Roberto Farias, Memórias de um Cineasta, Marise Farias
Peréio, Eu Te Odeio, Tasso Dourado e Allan Sieber
Nelson Pereira dos Santos – Uma Vida de Cinema, Aída Marques, Ivelise Ferreira
Samuel Wainer, Dario Menezes
Nas Ondas de Dorival Caymmi, Locca Faria
Rio da Dúvida, Joel Pizzini
Aretha no Everest, Roberta Estrela D’Alva and Tatiana Lohmann
Première Brasil - Portraits - Shorts
Arruma um Pessoal pra Gente Botar uma Macumba num Disco, Chico Serra
A Edição do Nordeste, Pedro Fiuza
Macaléia, Rejane Zilles
Première Brasil - Special Screenings
Fala Tu, Guilherme Coelho
Quantos Dias Quantas Noites, Cacau Rhoden
Cine Memória LUPA
Imagens do Rio
World Panorama
Orlando, My Political Biography, by Paul B. Preciado (France)
Our Body, by Claire Simon (France)
Four Daughters, by Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia)
Walls Can Talk, by Carlos Saura (Spain)
Room 999, by Lubna Playoust (France)
Cannes Uncut, by Richard Blanshard and Roger Penny (United Kingdom)
Menus Plaisirs - Les Troisgros, by Frederick Wiseman (United States)
The State of Things
Beyond Utopia, Madeleine Gavin (United States)
We Are Guardians, Edivan Guajajara, Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman (Brazil, United States)
Behind the Headlines: Beyond the Panama Papers, Daniel Andreas Sager (Germany)
Antarctica Calling, Luc Jacquet (France)
Nuclear Now, Oliver Stone (United States)
The Rise of the Wagner, Benoît Bringer (France)
The Outpost, Edoardo Morabito (Italy, Brazil)
Invisible Bodies, Quezia Lopes
On the Border, Marcela Ulhoa and Daniel Tancredi
Incompatible with Life, Eliza Capai
I Will Be There Every Single Night, Tati Franklin and Suellen Vasconcelos
Rejeito, Pedro de Filippis
Bye Bye Amazônia, Neville D'Almeida
Rapacity, Ricardo Pretti and Julia De Simone
The State of Things - Shorts
Camorim, Renan Barbosa Brandão
Por Favor Leiam para que Eu Descanse em Paz, Anna Costa e Silva and Nanda Félix
Yãmî Yah-Pá, Vladimir Seixas
Unique Itineraries
Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV, Amanda Kim (United States)
Art of Diplomacy, Zeca Brito
EGILI - Black Queen of Carnival, Caroline Reucker
Radical Women, Isabel Nascimento Silva
Dancing Pina, Florian Heinzen-Ziob (Germany)
Trained to See - Three Women and the War, Luzia Schmid (Germany, Italy)
Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint, Halina Dyrschka (Germany)
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer, Thomas von Steinaecker (Germany, United States)
Dario Argento Panico, Simone Scafidi (Italy, United Kingdom)
Godard Cinema, Cyril Leuthy (France)
Scad Vendor: The Life and Times of Jonathan Shaw, Mariana Thomé and Lucas de Barros (United States, Brazil)
Raoni - An Unusual Friendship, Jean-Pierre Dutilleux
Expectations
The Mother of All Lies, by Asmae El Moudir (Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar)
I Am Somebody, Jamillah van der Hulst (Netherlands, United States, Pakistan)
Latin Premières
The Echo, Tatiana Huezo (México, Germany)
Mengele Returns, Alejandro Venturini and Tomás De Leone (Argentina, Brazil)
Midnight Movies
A Claustrocinephilia, Alessandro Aniballi (Italy)
Kokomo City, D. Smith (United States)
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