Documentary film

La Cinémathèque du documentaire à la Bpi 

Documentary film was designed to set out to discover the world and its inhabitants, travel through appreciative and respectful eyes, show the view of the film-maker.

Since January 2018, the Bibliothèque publique d’information has made a rather crazy bet: to give those interested, those who love film, and anyone else, the opportunity to watch documentary films in the cinema of the Centre Pompidou. Films from all over the world, from the great classics to the latest creations, films to allow time to look at and think about the world, together, at the cinema.

This what the Parisian version of a separate project intends to do: La cinémathèque du documentaire (documentary film library).

Resonating with society, its hopes, dreams, concerns, there’s an extraordinary buzz around documentaries. They attract an ever increasing audience. At the cinema, on television, on digital networks, each day they add to an exceptionally wide-ranging collection of observations, writing and forms.

Exhibiting these works is a major challenge the Cinémathèque du documentaire sets out to contribute to. Initiated by the Scam, spearheaded by the joint action of several institutional and voluntary actors in France (CNC, Ministry of Culture, France Télévisions, Sacem, Audiens, Ardèche Images, Bnf, Bpi, Images en bibliothèques, filmdocumentaires.fr, Procirep and Copie privée) the mission of this new structure is to contribute to identify and list works, foster their distribution, and highlight the various actions of a network of broadcasting sites.

It finds a Parisian setting in the Bibliothèque publique d’information.

Three main seasons are organised with each having a key series, the Bpi’s programme aims to support and broadcast contemporary works, show the original and restored versions of heritage films, promote and question artistic and themed collections.

The Cinémathèque du documentaire à la Bpi also organises regular meetings that can be seen throughout the year: Du court, toujours, Fenêtre sur festivals, Trésors du doc, Les rencontres d’Images documentaires, La fabrique des films,and a selection of films from the Les yeux doc digital platform as well as a film education section aimed at schools

Documentary film has always been part of the Bpi’s identity. The Bpi was the first multimedia library in France in 1977. Today the library has a collection of 3000 documentaries to watch at the library, and will shortly be opening a specialist resource centre. Digitally broadcasting documentary films in libraries through the National Catalogue is also a major challenge for the Bpi. Its Video-On-Demand platform, Les yeux doc, is now in its 2^ne year. This platform allows a large public to watch a regularly-updated selection of documentaries at home or via projections; the formula is simple, the libraries subscribe and their users benefit from it.

Cinéma du réel Festival 

This international documentary film festival started by the Bpi, celebrated its 40th anniversary in March 2018.  Every year in March, it has become the not-to-be-missed meeting in documentary film, exploring its multiple forms, showing and demonstrating what the “documentary space” is: film.
To extend the emotion of the latest festival or prepare the next one, the Cinéma du réel website helps you choose from a rich programme and gives you access to the archives of previous festivals.
You can also subscribe to the festival newsletter.