11/03/2024 - The 18th edition of the ever-evolving gathering, which throws its weight behind the most trailblazing narratives within the domain of non-fiction, is unspooling from 11-16 March

Punto de Vista, Navarre International Documentary Film Festival is taking place in Pamplona (Navarre) from 11-16 March. Over six days, the city will become the epicentre of the international documentary audiovisual community thanks to screenings, chats with filmmakers, round-tables and family-orientated sessions that are being organised in different places around Pamplona, with the majority of the programme unspooling in Baluarte.

This year, Punto de Vista is divided into six strands: the Official Section, comprising 23 titles; the Focuses, sessions homing in on a single subject and directing their gaze at filmmakers from the international scene, such as the USA’s Su Friedrich and Ivory Coast’s Joël Akafou, in addition to a cycle curated by Miriam Martín that investigates where trees fit into documentary film; the Mediation Programme, which opens the festival up to audiences from all over the city, particularly the youngest demographic; Lan (which means “work” in Basque), which allows room for reflection on creation and production; Contacts, or connections with other disciplines, which will centre on artists Jerome Hiler and Néstor Basterretxea; and the always eagerly anticipated Project X Films, which nominates filmmaker Celia Viada Caso to shoot a movie in Navarre and is premiering Tránsitos, a personal vision of the famous San Fermin festivities by Anna López Luna.

Standing out among the films in the Official Competition Section are the world premiere of the new feature by Argentina’s Mariano Llinás, Retrato de Mondongo, and the Spanish bows of the latest flick by India’s Anand Patwardhan, The World Is Family, and France’s La Rivière by Dominique Marchais, which was recently crowned with the Jean Vigo Prize. This strand also offers Silence of Reason [+see also:
film review
interview: Kumjana Novakova
film profile] by Macedonian director Kumjana Novakova, which won awards at Sarajevo and IDFA, and the medium-length film by French-Lebanese filmmaker Maya Abdul-Malak Un cœur perdu et autres rêves de Beyrouth.

Other films locking horns in this section include the feature Remembering Franco by Pedro Pinzolas (Spain), enjoying its world premiere; short films such as El canto de los años nuevos by Spaniard Alexander Cabeza Trigg; My Next Door Neighbours by Denmark’s Maia Torp Neergaard, also being world-premiered; and Sur le fil d’Ariane by Adina Ionescu-Muscel and Clara Beaudoux (Belgium). There will also be medium-length films such as En communauté by Camille Octobre Laperche (France) and Ôte-toi de mon soleil by Messaline Raverdy (Belgium).

Also worth mentioning are the opening and closing films of the festival, which also form part of the Official Section, albeit out of competition. The gathering kicks off today with the delightful Zinzindurrunkarratz [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Oskar Alegria (who was once the director of this very festival), while it will be brought to a close by the latest feature by investigator and police inspector Pedro G Romero, De caballos y guitarras, an essay on the perception of horses, the male gaze, that of the camera and other related themes. Another title that will be part of the Official Section (out of competition, in the Lan section) is Life in the Dark, a portrait of Argentinian film archivist Fernando Martín Peña, directed by Enrique Bellande.

A new addition this year is the provision of a series of overarching subjects (“Primera Persona”, “Género(s)”, “Planeta Enfermo” and “Acércate a Punto de Vista”) cross-cutting the various sections. These are banners that, over the course of the entire programme, tie together films that raise the same questions or, in the latter case, beckon visitors to discover the festival for the first time.

(Translated from Spanish)