The Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival is bracing for its 23^rd edition (24-29 October). The festival’s programmers have created this year’s line-up, consisting of 277 films, from a total number of 3,700 submitted movies. “Unlike last year, when we presented a broad retrospective of direct cinema and cinéma vérité, combining the filmmaking production of the USA, Canada and France, this year, we have decided to pay substantial attention to Eastern European filmmakers,” festival director Marek Hovorka explains.

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The gathering will introduce comprehensive retrospectives of Kazakh director Sergei Dvorstevoy and Ukrainian filmmaker Feliks Sobolev, accompanied by a unique showcase of Ukrainian experimental films from the 1960s and 1990s. The retrospective section will be complemented by a showcase of movies by avant-garde artist Man Ray as well as Slovak documentary films from the 1960s. The competition section for Central and Eastern European directors, Between the Seas, will screen Slovakian documentarian Jaro Vojtek’s latest film, Paradise on Earth, as well as Erik Praus’ The Calling [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], Goran Radovanovic’s The Makavejev Case or Trial in a Movie Theater [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], Margit Lillak’s The Circle [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] and Bogdan Stoica’s Canadian-produced The Irreversible Consequences of Slipping on a Banana Peel.

The crucial theme of the 23^rd edition will be “Women in Change”, focusing on films by and about women. The festival director believes that works created by women “draw our attention by evocatively opening up painful issues, being formally innovative and lending an empathic ear to the stories of others”. The titles selected to tie in with this theme include Pia Hellenthal’s Searching Eva [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Pia Hellenthal, Eva Collé
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intervista: Alexe Poukine
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scheda film]. Nine films will compete for the Best World Documentary Film accolade in the Opus Bonum section, including Greta Stocklassa’s Kiruna – A Brand New World [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Federico Ferrone, Michele …
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The latest crop of domestic documentary films will be on display in the Czech Joy section, including Dagmar Smržová’s latest foray investigating the sexuality of disabled people, I Want You if You Dare [+leggi anche:
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As usual, the Ji.hlava IDFF will offer a plethora of off-screen events and highlights, such as master classes by Romanian New Wave director Cristi Puiu, Macedonian producer Atanas Georgiev, Sergei Dvortsevoy and Barbora Chalupová (who teamed up with Vít Klusák as one of the authors of Caught in the Net [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which homes in on the issue of online child abuse), an array of virtual-reality works and videogames, and the Inspiration Forum, set to welcome over 100 personalities from outside the film realm.

The 23^rd edition of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival runs from 24-29 October, and the full programme is available here.