Retrospectives at RIDM
At RIDM, the retrospectives aim to pay tribute to filmmakers that have left their mark on documentary cinema and continue to reinvent the genre today. By revisiting their filmographies, we hope to go beyond an appreciation of a single cinematographic piece, in order to contextualize the artistic endeavours, reflections, and explorations within their broader body of work. Our retrospectives also invite our audience to follow the work of these filmmakers into the future.
Bani Khoshnoudi: Territories of Memory
This year’s retrospective explores the work of filmmaker, visual artist, and archivist Bani Khoshnoudi. Filmmaker, visual artist and archivist Bani Khoshnoudi has been directing documentaries, fiction films and experimental short films for over twenty years, as well as creating installations and performing.
This unique program spans the entirety of her career, allowing us to discover a rising artist who is already one of the most relevant contemporary documentarians of her generation.
Her work explores several topics that are significant to our present day, such as exile, displacement, memory, violence, solidarity and the fight for freedom. Her documentaries cover the social and political events of the past two decades in Iran. They paint a sensitive portrait of Iranian society, revealing the tension between the aspirations of a people looking for change and the rigid framework of a regime that imposes restrictions and repression. Shot in part in France and Mexico, where she lives in exile, her films have a resolutely political bent and evolve through the constant exploration of cinema’s narrative and aesthetic possibilities, all while maintaining a remarkable artistic coherence.
In addition to her films, Bani Khoshnoudi will propose the installation Scaffold, and what time has taught us, present a conference on her cinematic process, and participate in discussions after each screening of her films. She will also participate in the Regards croisés project, organized by the Cinéma du Musée, in which she will engage in a dialogue with filmmaker Miryam Charles and her work. Regards croisés is a project made possible by the Conseil des arts de Montréal.
Films that comprise the 2026 retrospective
Feature-length films
A PEOPLE IN THE SHADOWS by Bani Khoshnoudi
— In an impressionistic style, this film observes daily life of Tehranis in 2007, painting a nuanced and sensitive portrait of a society too often kept in the shadows.
THE VANISHING POINT by Bani Khoshnoudi
— A work of active remembrance, this film examines the past at a time of intensifying repression and growing protest in Iran.
THE SILENT MAJORITY SPEAKS by Bani Khoshnoudi
— Filmed during the 2009 Green Movement, this documentary essay on political revolt in Iran explores collective memory and the power of images.
LUCIÉRNAGAS by Bani Khoshnoudi
— Through a skillful and subtle approach, this fiction explores the complex reality of exile through the everyday life of Ramin, an Iranian immigrant in Veracruz.
Short films
CEM by Bani Khoshnoudi
— Through layers of translucent imagery, the film reveals the solidarity of a dance performed by Communist Kurds, captured on Super 8 during the May Day demonstration in Paris.
SAP by Bani Khoshnoudi
— An inventive collaboration with saxophonist Christine Abdelnour, this work conveys and embodies a palpable tension, as well as a life that soars in the face of repression.
EL CHINERO, UN CERRO FANTASMA by Bani Khoshnoudi
— Shot on film and developed using desert plants, this work revisits the tragedies of Chinese migrants in Mexico that have remained unrecorded and undocumented.
ELEGY FOR THE FORGOTTEN, ON AN ENDLESS WAR by Bani Khoshnoudi
— This cinematic elegy is an eloquent montage that explores the power and role of images under a regime that controls their circulation and narrative.