Documenta Madrid

By Maddalena Dottori
29/04/2009

DOCUMENTA MADRID 09 kicked off on May 1, featuring the best of international documentary film.

The 6th International Documentary Film Festival of Madrid will feature 108 films which have been selected from among the 1078 films received, and have previously not been released in Spain in their competitive sections.

The films from 40 different countries making up the Competitive Sections are just one part of the documentaries to be screened at the festival, which will also offer numerous others in its Parallel Sections. The 10-day festival will feature a strong Spanish representation with 30 films in competition. In addition, there will be a diversity of countries represented in the films in competition from abroad, with a solid European presence. The monetary prizes will amount to a total of €73,000.

The films will compete in categories such as National Competition, National Short Film, Original Full-length Film, and Reporting. The festival's Parallel Section programme will include:
A tribute to the 100 year-old director Manoel de Oliveira's lesser known work as documentary filmmaker.

Retrospectives and master classes by key figures in contemporary documentary film, such as the visionary Chris marker, the legendary Frederick Wiseman and the up-and-coming Andres Veiel.

A series of screenings called Intimate Elegies II, where major filmmakers such as David Lynch, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and David Cronenberg among others, will dissect the film history from its beginning to the present day through a series of documentaries. The Oblique Laugh, a series focusing on the connections between documentary films and humour.

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