The 25th edition of the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) kicks off in 10 days! The festival is pleased to share details about a special programming section that explores documentary in its many forms, entitled Unframing Documentary: Viewpoints on Diverse Narrative Practices. This program highlights documentary storytelling formats and practices outside the realm of film. It will run throughout the festival, from November 17 to 27.

UXdoc

Thanks to the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and in collaboration with Québec/Canada XR, this year marks the return of the UXdoc section curated by Katayoun Dibamehr and coordinated and designed by Arthur Guillarme. Offering a total immersion into different realities, five interactive works will be on view in the Foyer Luce-Guilbeault of the Cinémathèque québécoise, completely free of charge, from November 17 to 27. The Choice by Joanne Popinska looks at reproductive rights from a different vantage point with its portrayal of the emotionally complex decision some women must make. The Changing Same by Yasmin Elayat, Joe Brewster, and Michèle Stephenson examines four centuries of racial oppression through a disturbing tale imbued with magical realism and Afrofuturism. Jonathan Hagard’s Replacements follows a typical Javanese family living in a fictional neighbourhood of the very densely populated metropolis of Jakarta, capital of Indonesia. A child’s eye view of the world, Lou by Annick Daigneault and Martine Asselin allows us to experience the reality of an autistic child through their eyes and ears, while Sonia Bonspille Boileau’s William chronicles the journey of a 9-year-old boy taken from his family and forcibly enrolled in one of the 139 residential schools for indigenous children that existed in Canada until 1996.

Listening Sessions

By addressing issues still relevant today, such as gun control and femicides, Projet Polytechnique : Faire face revisits the tragedy that shook Quebec more than 30 years ago. The first episode of this podcast, which follows the process of writing a documentary play, will premiere as a special advance preview on Sunday, November 20 at 3 p.m. at the Cinéma du Musée. Hosted by Eugénie Lépine-Blondeau, the listening session will be followed by a discussion with creators Marie-Joanne Boucher and Jean-Marc Dalphond, as well as the podcast’s producer, Myriam Berthelet, and playwright Annabel Soutar. This Radio-Canada OHdio podcast is produced by Porte Parole in collaboration with Picbois Productions.

In October, five teams of three were invited by Transistor Media to take part in Kino-radio. Its aim? In just 48 hours, teams had to create an original sound piece of less than 10 minutes that adhered to the theme “Over the course of a Saturday night.” The outcome of this friendly competition, which took place in Gatineau, will be presented as a listening session, with participating artists in attendance, on Sunday, November 27 at 3 p.m. in the Crave Hall of the Cinémathèque québécoise.

Additionally, the presentation of three creative audio documentaries, curated with the help of Jenny Cartwright, will be held on Saturday, November 19 at 6 p.m. at the Cinémathèque québécoise’s Fernand-Séguin Hall. The program will feature Le souffle de Beyrouth by Marine Vlahovic, which recounts the Lebanese capital’s history through the cycles of destruction and reconstruction that have defined recent decades; Fuga by Felix Blume, which takes us into a Mexico City district and frequent stopover of freight trains crisscrossing the country to accommodate the consumerist lifestyle of northern countries, stripping southern ones in the process; and ECHAP by Noémie Fargier, Iga Vandenhove, and Vanessa Vudo, which skillfully evokes the capitalist steamroller that makes everything uniform, standard, nondescript… and disturbing. 

Theatre

On Saturday, November 19 at Espace Libre, a happy hour-style roundtable on documentary storytelling in theatre and cinema will follow a showing of the documentary theatre play Ciseaux. This Pleurer Dans’ Douche production reawakens Montreal’s queer consciousness from a feminist perspective through drag numbers, documentary material, and monologues by LGBTQ2S+ personalities such as Manon Massé, Safia Nolin, Judith Lussier, and Monique Giroux. The conversation will feature Geneviève Labelle and Mélodie Noël Rousseau, as well as Fanie Pelletier, the documentary maker behind Bloom. Festivalgoers are entitled to an $8 discount for the play Ciseaux upon presentation of an RIDM ticket, passport, or a Forum RIDM accreditation.

Performance

A live performance by visual artist Philippe Léonard and musical act C H R I S T entitled What now? will take place on Thursday, November 24 at 9:30 p.m. at the Cinémathèque québécoise’s Norman-McLaren Hall, in collaboration with Suoni Per Il Popolo. With this performance, the artists critique the patriarchal and abusive institution that is the Church by experimenting with a hybrid form. By weaving together 16mm, analog and digital video to create live visuals, the artists seek to devise a new language that incorporates specific elements from each medium. Admission is $17 in advance, via the RIDM box-office, or $20 at the door on the night of the event.