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FIPADOC 2022

FIPADOC to return to Biarritz this month

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- The Basque coast festival is returning in-person from 17 to 23 January, with over 200 documentaries in the showcase, a Benelux focus and its traditional Professional Days event

FIPADOC to return to Biarritz this month
Babi Yar. Context by Sergei Loznitsa

After a 2021 edition which unfolded in two stages in order to successfully negotiate health and safety constraints (unspooling online to begin with, followed by a physical edition in June), FIPADOC is returning to Biarritz in person and on the usual dates for a 4th edition unfurling 17 – 23 January with over 200 documentaries gracing the line-up.

Within the international competition, 11 titles (as yet unseen in France) will be evaluated by a jury set to include American-Israeli director Rachel Leah Jones, her French counterpart Stan Neumann and Dutch helmer Adriek van Nieuwenhuyzen (who’s responsible for the IDFA’s Industry sidebar). Nine feature films selected for this line-up are European (co)-productions: Babi Yar. Context [+see also:
film review
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interview: Sergei Loznitsa
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]
by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, President [+see also:
film review
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interview: Camilla Nielsson
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by Denmark’s Camilla Nielsson, The Lost Leonardo [+see also:
trailer
interview: Andreas Koefoed
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]
by her compatriot Andreas Koefoed, Burning Memories [+see also:
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]
by Switzerland’s Alice Schmid, The Balcony Movie [+see also:
film review
interview: Paweł Łoziński
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]
by Poland’s Pawel Lozínski, All-In [+see also:
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by Belgian-Turkish filmmaker Volkan Üce, A Thousand Fires [+see also:
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by British-Palestinian director Saeed Taji Farouky, the French-Belgian-Gabonese title On Zenith’s Edge by Natyvel Pontalier, The Last Shelter [+see also:
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by Ousmane Zoromé Samassékou (Mali/France/South Africa) and Blue Box [+see also:
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by Michal Weits (Israel/Canada/Belgium).

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14 films are participating in the national competition, namely the feature-length films Witchcraft Stories [+see also:
film review
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by Hadrien La Vapeur and Corto Vaclav, Escape by Katia Jarjoura, Marie-Jo Will See You at 4 [+see also:
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film profile
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by Camille Ponsin, Penelope My Love [+see also:
film review
interview: Claire Doyon
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by Claire Doyon, The Rise and Fall of Jacques Tati by Jean-Baptiste Péretié, Des idées de génie? by Brice Gravelle, L’homme qui peint des gouttes d’eau by Oan Kim and Brigitte Bouillot, Gégé, a Farm Story by Florent Verdet, The Trial – Prague 1952 by Ruth Zylberman and The Century of Seamstresses by Philippe Picard and Jérôme Lambert.

Several other competitions are also in the offing. Stealing particular focus in the Musical Documentaries field (a genre selling well worldwide at present) we find the French production Boom Town by Sébastien Koegler, Dutch title Crazy Days – Or Making an Opera in Pandemic Times by Sanne Rovers, Belgian movies Misha by Paul de Roo and En mis zapatos by Pedro Morato, and the Portuguese-French feature film Paraíso [+see also:
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by Brazil’s Sérgio Tréfaut.

Shining bright among the 10 titles gracing the Impact competition are Aya [+see also:
film review
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interview: Simon Coulibaly Gillard
film profile
]
by Simon Coulibaly Gillard (discovered in Cannes’ ACID line-up), the French production China: The Uyghur Drama by François Reinhardt, Name of the Game by Norway’s Håvard Bustnes, How to Kill a Cloud [+see also:
film review
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interview: Tuija Halttunen
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]
by Finland’s Tuija Halttunen, Land by German director Timo Großpietsch, and the Dutch production Shadow Game by the duo Eefje Blankevoort and Els van Driel, to name just a few.

The programme also includes a European Stories section, involving the animated film My Favorite War [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen
film profile
]
by Latvia’s Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen, Before They Meet [+see also:
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by Vytautas Puidokas, Spanish films Gemma Has a Plan by Arantza Diez and That Night by Marc Parramon Bori and Amets Arzallus Antia, Children of the Enemy [+see also:
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by Chilean-Swedish director Gorki Glaser-Müller, German production Courage [+see also:
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interview: Aliaksei Paluyan and Jörn M…
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by Aliaksei Paluyan, Swiss-Serbian title Dida [+see also:
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by Nikola Ilić and Corina Schwingruber Ilić, Belgian-French-Irish production Game of Truth by Fabienne Lips-Dumas, and Reconciliation [+see also:
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]
by Slovenia’s Marija Zidar.

The festival’s generous line-up likewise includes a Panorama of 11 Francophone creations from 2021, Smart (VR, augmented reality, web series, etc), short film and Young Creation competitions, a Focus section homing in on the Benelux countries (for which documentary-maker Heddy Honigmann is guest of honour), a Carte Blanche line-up in celebration of Arte’s 30th anniversary, a new Taste of Doc section (gastronomy, food, healthy eating) and films to enjoy as a family, while exciting previews include those of the multi-award-winning work Flee [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
film profile
]
by Danish director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, and of Deneuve, la reine Catherine by France’s Virginie Linhart.

Finally, the festival’s Professional Days event will host a vast array of conferences (notably exploring such questions as "does the documentary form lend itself to serialisation?" and "the future of creative documentaries"), thematic presentations (including one by the new channel Canal+ Docs) and workshops, in addition to four pitching sessions (one of which dedicated to 23 International Projects).

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(Translated from French)

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