Documentary cinema: winter 2024 programme

To launch its seventh year of screening at the Centre Pompidou, La cinémathèque du documentaire à la Bpi presents a retrospective dedicated to filmmaker Stéphane Mercurio, whose work is being brought together for the first time.

For over thirty years, Stéphane Mercurio has been giving a voice to the invisible ones with immeasurable empathy. People deprived of housing or freedom, in search of identity or gender — the filmmaker listens to and films the marginalized of the French archipelago, those for whom life is a struggle. Mercurio likes to elicit the liberation of thought through words, which we rarely hear with such acuity. In the shadow of hospital and prison walls, on the stage of a theatre, the filmmaker tailors a cinema in which the intimate questions our commonality. With the hope that each of her films will change the way we look at the world, Stéphane Mercurio sees cinema as “a civic space in which viewers are given space to think, and time to question themselves”.

This first French retrospective would not be complete without a five-film tribute to Christophe Otzenberger, Stéphane Mercurio’s unfailing travel companion. Hosted by François Ekchajzer (Télérama), the masterclass on Saturday 13 January will take us on a journey through Otzenberger’s career, evoking his documentary and fiction films, as well as his sound films for radio. Like every winter, La cinémathèque du documentaire à la Bpi expands the program of the Hors pistes festival. This year, echoing the whimsical personality of guest of honor Thomas Salvador, it features four screenings full of burlesque twists and turns on a journey to summits that are not always snowy.

This winter, our regular events offer a luxuriant panorama of contemporary creation. A whole new generation of documentary filmmakers is presented for the first time by the Bpi for Du court, toujours. The École documentaire de Lussas in Ardèche and Portraits de Mellionnec (Côtes-d’Armor) unveil some of their nuggets. Another special opportunity to discover cinema in progress, La fabrique des films (The Film Factory) invites you to listen to the intimate dialogue between filmmaker and editor, thanks to artists invited in residence by the Périphérie film creation center. With the CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée), La fabrique des films will be an opportunity to discover the documentary project in progress by visual artist Emma Boccanfuso. Last but not least, Fenêtre sur Festivals welcomes the Festival La Rochelle Cinéma for a carte blanche around two of the festival’s tutelary figures: Alain Cavalier and Spanish filmmaker José Luis Guerín. It is an ideal opportunity to catch up with Cavalier, after the retrospective devoted to him in 2019.

Les yeux doc à midi gives librarians from Île-de-France carte blanche once again to present a selection of films from the Les yeux doc platform. The programme culminates in March with the screening of films in competition for the 4th Les yeux doc Audience Award. The public is invited to vote and have their say at the end of these screenings.

Once again, Séances spéciales (special screenings) with our partners offer the opportunity to discover the latest films by Delphine and Muriel Coulin, thanks to ARTE, and the latest film by Indian director Sarvnik Kaur, thanks to France Télévisions. Finally, thanks to Scam, we’re celebrating Jean-Pierre Thorn, who was awarded the Charles Brabant Prize for lifetime achievement.

Two events this season revisit history, whether painful or full of hope. Les Rencontres d’Images documentaires, with Gabriel Bortzmeyer and Christophe Postic, revisits two major works of war cinema, by Stefano Savona and Radovan Tadic respectively. La cinémathèque idéale des banlieues du monde continues to explore singular territories with Chats errants, and important places of memory such as the Drancy detention camp. Finally, Trésors du doc focuses on the documentary work of Med Hondo. The Franco-Mauritanian filmmaker, known for his anti-colonialist stance and, incidentally, for being the voice of Eddie Murphy on the silver screen, has put his convictions at the service of a cinema committed to freedom fighters.

To find out more, download the brochure (PDF, 4 MB) and discover the full programme offered this winter by La cinémathèque du documentaire à la Bpi.