Cinema: five filmmakers on this autumn’s program

To round off the Year of the Documentary, La cinémathèque du documentaire à la Bpi intends to show the extraordinary power of cinema to make us grow, to question us and to fill us with wonder. This autumn’s program brings together the full diversity of documentary voices and forms. Five filmmakers are highlighted to savor their singularity and celebrate their commitment.

To open the season, a vibrant tribute is paid to Bruno Muel, who passed away last spring. Jean-Pierre Thorn, Francine Muel and other special guests will pay tribute to his unwavering commitment.

Then comes the first complete series of documentaries devoted to Claire Simon in France. To accompany forty years of cinema dedicated to the pleasure of telling stories with what reality offers to see and hear, filmmakers and critics will share their vision of her work. Among them Alain Bergala, Catherine Bizern, Vincent Dieutre, Thierry Garrel, Arthur Harari, Laïs Decaster and Romain Lefebvre. The filmmaker will offer a master class alongside editor Luc Forveille, and discuss the choices and approaches of her singular cinema.

The other highlight of the season is the first Claude Lanzmann retrospective since his death. A monument of cinema around the absolute masterpiece Shoah. Arnaud Desplechin and Wang Bing will each present one of the screenings of Shoah. In dialogue, nine rarities will extend the filmmaker’s fieldwork. The retrospective is also an opportunity to see other places with Claude Lanzmann and listen to other words, from Poland to Korea, from Paris to Israel. Five spoken-word events complete the sessions at the Centre Pompidou, the Mémorial de la Shoah and the Musée d’art et d’histoire du judaïsme. This is an opportunity to hear leading historians such as Tal Bruttmann, Denis Charbit and Sylvie Lindeperg, as well as film-makers such as Luc Dardenne and László Nemes, critics and memory professionals. They will discuss Lanzmann’s relationship with images, Poland’s Jewish past and the future of Shoah following its inclusion on UNESCO’s Memory of the World register. Caroline Champetier, the filmmaker’s director of photography, will also shed light on Lanzmann’s gesture and his conception of the shot.

The season spotlights filmmaker Dominique Marchais for an overview of his work, in conjunction with the premiere of his latest film. In his presence, we’ll explore our relationship with landscape and nature.

Among the regular appointments, Trésors du doc pays tribute to the memory of a committed filmmaker, Jocelyne Saab, pioneer of the new Lebanese cinema. Recently restored, her work stands out for its power and courage. Les yeux doc à midi presents the Europa mosaic (from Mariupol to Reims). La Fabrique des films welcomes the Archives françaises du film, then the Archives nationales, and finally Ioanis Nuguet. Du court, toujours celebrates the Agence du court métrage and filmmaker Pierre Hébert. Nouvelles écritures returns with the Burning lights prize at the last Visions du réel festival. Les rencontres d’Images documentaires focuses on images of a world at war. The Cinémathèque idéale des banlieues du monde welcomes Périphérie. Fenêtre sur festivals welcomes Cinélatino to screen the latest film by Chilean filmmaker Ignacio Agüero. Special screenings with our major partners France Télévisions, ARTE and Sacem offer exclusive access to the latest films by Stéphane Correa, Matthieu Bareyre and Arnaud des Pallières. With Scam, we celebrate Jean-Pierre Thorn for the Prix Charles Brabant.

From the Cinéma du réel festival, two other previews in the presence of the filmmakers: Yamina Zoutat‘s Chienne de rouge and the last two episodes of Mehran Tamadon‘s dialectic work. Finally, ciné-conférences organized with Ehess continue to explore the contiguous territories of reality in symbiosis with the Claude Lanzmann cycle, in the presence of Nicolas Bouchaud, for example. Director Pauline Horovitz will be the guest of a master class organized by DEMC master students. Last but not least, the conferences of the Université permanente de Paris focus on three major museums: The Louvre, the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and the Centre Pompidou, with Ilona van Tuinen and Laurent Le Bon.

To find out more, download the program (PDF, 2 MB) and/or discover the full program offered this autumn by La cinémathèque du documentaire at the Bpi.