141 films from 44 countries: get ready for RIDM

Less than two years after his feature film Rebelle cleaned up at the Canadian Screen Awards and earned him an Academy Award nomination, Concordia grad Kim Nguyen (BFA 97) is back in town with his first documentary.

The world premiere of Nguyen’s Le nez (The Empire of the Scents) opened the 17th edition of the Montreal International Documentary Festival — Rencontres international du documentaire de Montréal, or RIDM — at Concordia on Wednesday, November 12.

Charlotte Selb, RIDM’s director of programming, says the festival strengthened its ties with the university this year in large part because of the major upgrades to the 700-seat theatre on the ground floor of the Hall Building: the newly refurbished Alumni Auditorium (H-110), site of Le nez’s inaugural showing.

“It’s really one of the best theatres in town,” she says. As Selb points out, most of the festival’s major screenings are taking place there, including Quebec premieres of Citizenfour, Laura Poitras’ film about whistleblower Edward Snowden, and The 50-Year Argument, a film by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi about the famed New York Review of Books.
 

Follow your nose

In Le nez (The Empire of the Scents), Nguyen explores how our sense of smell relates to our emotions and our memories.

The project was initially inspired by François Chartier’s award-winning cookbook, Taste Buds and Molecules, the Art and Science of Food and Wine. While it touches on a lot of the book’s revelatory content, Nguyen decided to take his chosen subject in another direction.

“What became really interesting and unique was how our brain is linked to our sense of smell,” he says, adding that the film essentially became a quest to find the most intriguing elements that make smell unique among our senses.

“In the end, it conveys how deeply our sense of smell is related to desire, memory and emotions.”

More than just a bike film

Marinoni, a film about legendary cyclist and bicycle manufacturer Giuseppe Marinoni, directed by JMSB graduate Tony Girardin (BComm 00), is playing in H-110, at 3 p.m. on Saturday, November 22. (Full disclosure: the writer of this article contributed to the editing of this film.)

Selb says the film is the festival’s top seller so far. “In my 12 years with RIDM, I’ve never seen a film selling so fast,” she says. “It really shows that Montreal is a biking city!”

Marinoni follows the 75-year-old former cycling champion and successful entrepreneur as he returns to the track to attempt a cycling distance record over one hour in his age category.

Girardin, who met Marinoni through his interest in vintage bicycles, says he was taken by the legendary cyclist’s story of passion and perseverance. Almost immediately the director proposed making a film about his life.

“I thought this guy's amazing. He's such a character. But he didn't want to do it. It took three years to convince him. Every time I would go to the store to get a bike refurbished or fixed, I would mention it.”

Eventually the cantankerous but charismatic craftsman signed on, and over the course of the film we see him come to accept Girardin’s constant presence with his camera, and to look on the filmmaker as a trusted friend. The result is a film that’s about more than just bikes and the people who ride them.

“I showed little, rough versions of what I had to a couple of friends, they told me, ‘You have the most amazing story of a relationship developing between two people,’” Girardin says.
 

Getting to market

Marinoni was a top-10 audience favourite at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival last spring, and received strong praise from reviewers at the Vancouver Film Festival.

The Montreal-based filmmaker says his film first got noticed at the 2013 edition of Doc Circuit Montreal, RIDM’s documentary market.

“I had five minutes of movie done, a teaser, and I showed it to some people. Alex Rogalski from Hot Docs [North America's largest documentary film festival, conference and market] said, ‘You’ve got something here. Show me what you can in January.’ So I just went for it. I worked like mad to get the film done in time for Hot Docs.”

This year’s edition of the RIDM Doc Circuit has been expanded from three to five days, and now includes a talent lab, aimed at directors, among its offerings.

“It’s not so much about financing and distribution, but really looking at the creative process,” Selb says. 

More Concordia graduates at RIDM

Karim B. Haroun (BFA 08 and BFA 13) is hosting the North American premiere of Mystic Mass, his film about the Ashura rituals in Nabatieh, Lebanon.

During this commemorative event, thousands of Shiites gather to mark the death of Imam Hussein through rituals of self-flagellation and mutilation.

Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre (MFA 05) brings her 14-minute animated film Jutra, about the legendary Quebec filmmaker Claude Jutra, to RIDM. Canadian film blogger Pat Mullen calls it “a must-see documentary for Canadian film fans.”

Points of View is an interactive documentary by Zohar Kfir (MFA 11) that explores Palestinian life. The project draws on footage from a video advocacy project, created by B’Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.

The Wandering Muse is the latest documentary by Tamás Wormser (BFA 92). It introduces virtuoso Jewish musicians from around the world who use a vast range of musical styles to express themselves.

I’ve Seen the Unicorn, a film by Vincent Toi (BFA 13), tells the story of a young boy from Toi’s homeland of Mauritius, who dreams of becoming a jockey and competing in the Maiden Cup, a major annual sporting event on the island.

In Speaking Into the Air, filmmaker Pablo Alvarez-Mesa (MFA 14) introduces ham-radio operator Andre Sipose, who maintains an array of obsolete antennas and radio gear in his Montreal basement.

Alvarez-Mesa’s short film explores the passage of time and changing forms of communication through a portrait of one man’s preoccupation with an anachronistic hobby.
 

Find out more about the 2014 Montreal International Documentary Festival.