Paris Doc 2023
Each year, Cinéma du réel ponders upon the state of the documentary, its forms, its developments and the approaches of its filmmakers. This is what lends the festival its exploratory side, making it an ongoing research project. In addition to the screening of this flourishing contemporary international documentary cinema, Cinéma du réel invites us to experience the world and cinema through a plethora of gazes on the world, a plurality of documentary practices and visions other than our own.
Because cinema passes from the filmmaker’s mind to the mind of the spectator, it is an art of connivance, even collusion, between filmmaker and spectator, who experiences another imaginary, a universe other than his or her own. But this experience – which is also that of the other or rather the distance separating him or her from me – is singular inasmuch as it also reminds us that we all inhabit the same world.
A world to watch without being blinded by the continuous flow of events.
And it is perhaps through films that disturb, upend imaginaries, confront other desires, other aspirations, other dreams, that a discontinuity occurs in the inexorable unfolding of real-world events. This discontinuity, which questions, surprises, resists, delights, is what helps us to avoid being blinded and to look at our contemporaries. This is our invitation to the audiences of Cinéma du réel.
Catherine Bizern
Public forum
These exchanges revolve around a theme chosen by Les Amis du Cinéma du réel, which sees to the smooth running of the discussions thanks to a dedicated work group set up for this purpose. The Public Forum aims to highlight the concerns facing French industry professionals, as well as the challenges linked to documentary production.
Hosted by the Cinéma du reel, this 45th edition of the Public Forum will investigate the following question:
The space of documentary creation: from utopia to a standard model?
French documentary cinema has won recognition and awards worldwide, and its vigour and singularity have helped to revitalise forms, viewpoints and talents. While it has often found itself weakened, it has managed throughout its history to invent its own economic and political path in order to survive and keep going. Today, at a time when the entire industry is concerned about the threats to creation, the unique history of documentary production must serve as a driving creative force. In our view, it is now more important than ever to analyse and share the experience of making and distributing these films about the real world – films that are constantly reinventing themselves in the face of new constraints.
This day of discussions will involve three round tables which will attempt to define the specificities of the standard model and take stock of the ongoing struggles to defend independent and creative filmmaking.