Cinematheque・Passion, under the Cultural Affairs Bureau, will hold the 8th Macao International Documentary Film Festival from September 14 to October 12. The theme of this year’s festival is “Illusion” and it will feature 25 documentaries from around the world, inviting the public to reflect on how documentaries can restore our perception of the real world.
The festival is divided into four sections: New Releases, Taste of Portuguese, In Between and Classic Document. There will be 25 documentaries covering a wide range of social issues and humanistic concerns from different regions. They will present real stories from various parts of the world and will reveal the illusions, joys, festivities and sorrows that reality brings us.
The opening film, Agent of Happiness, recounts the journey of a famous happiness researcher from Bhutan, who sets off in search of the unique philosophies of happiness of the local inhabitants in the mountains. The “New Releases” section, a careful selection of the best works from the main film festivals of the last year, includes the acclaimed Johatsu – into Thin Air, which reveals how the phenomenon of “disappearing people” is not just a business, but also a way for many to escape the suffocating pressure of society. The groundbreaking Hungarian film KIX follows the growing up process of an eight-year-old boy over the course of ten years, sensitively capturing the transition from a carefree childhood to the loss of identity. Anxious in Beirut, awarded Best Documentary at the Shanghai International Film Festival, documents the scars and rebirth of the city of Beirut after the explosions, conveying the young director’s love and pain for his homeland.
The “Taste of Portuguese” section selects two highly anticipated works. Renowned Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, who has already competed in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival with Aquarius and Bacurau, presents his new film, Pictures of Ghosts, a moving story about the love between a city and the cinema, told through the disappearance of a movie theater, evoking the golden age of Brazilian cinema. The winner of the “Un Certain Regard” section at the Cannes Film Festival, The Buriti Flower is a co-production between Portuguese and Brazilian directors, created in collaboration with the indigenous Krahô people. This cinematic epic explores the growing difficulties of survival faced by indigenous peoples in a timeless poetic reflection.
The “In Between” section presents three innovative works, including This Woman, which explore a completely different way of representing reality. The “Classics” section, which celebrates legendary works from the history of cinema, will screen the acclaimed The Qatsi Trilogy, with a soundtrack by the master of minimalism Philip Glass. Ah Ying will also be screened, a milestone that established Hong Kong New Wave director Allen Fong Yuk-ping as a pioneer in the fusion of the real and the fictional. In addition, the restored version of the only film by the legendary Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad, The House is Black, will be presented.
The Cinematheque・Passion is located at Travessa da Paixão, nº 9-13, Macau, closed on Mondays. For more information about the festival and related tickets, please visit the Cinematheque・Passion website at www.cinematheque-passion.mo, the Cinematheque・Passion Facebook page and the cinemathequepassion Instagram page.