The Montreal International Documentary Festival (Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal – Ridm) starts on Wednesday, November 7th. My Dad worked for the National Film Board for 30 years in Montreal, Ottawa, Fredericton, Halifax and Montreal (again). Growing up as an Nfb brat was to grow up breathing the language of cinema and to believe passionately that the divisions between animation, documentary, short films and features were artificial – like pretending that vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream weren’t different flavours, but completely different species of frozen milk-based desserts.
That said, there is no denying that the general public believes in that artificial division and that documentary film suffers from it, so Ridm, Québec’s only documentary film festival is our best local opportunity to show some love to documentaries. I would urge anyone in Montreal to take a chance and check out some of the films that Ridm is programming.
That said, there is no denying that the general public believes in that artificial division and that documentary film suffers from it, so Ridm, Québec’s only documentary film festival is our best local opportunity to show some love to documentaries. I would urge anyone in Montreal to take a chance and check out some of the films that Ridm is programming.
- 11/4/2012
- by Michael Ryan
- SoundOnSight
Reviewer: Philip M Tatler IV
Ratings (out of five): *** 1/2
In The Sky Turns, filmmaker Mercedes Álvarez returns to her birthplace: the small Castilian village of Aldealseñor. Nearly four decades earlier, Álvarez became the last child to be born in Aldealseñor and, upon her return, she discovers a place out of time in both senses of the phrase – the way of life the village has clung to since prehistory remains an anachronism and the village inhabitants are finally yielding to the death knell of modernity.
Ratings (out of five): *** 1/2
In The Sky Turns, filmmaker Mercedes Álvarez returns to her birthplace: the small Castilian village of Aldealseñor. Nearly four decades earlier, Álvarez became the last child to be born in Aldealseñor and, upon her return, she discovers a place out of time in both senses of the phrase – the way of life the village has clung to since prehistory remains an anachronism and the village inhabitants are finally yielding to the death knell of modernity.
- 4/24/2012
- by weezy
- GreenCine
With the Berlinale gearing up in earnest now, we've got some catching up to do, but we'll have to be swifter about it than usual. Firehose-style linkage probably won't resume until next week.
"The farm village of Aldealseñor, Spain has seen it all," writes Michael Joshua Rowin for the L, "and contains it: fossilized traces of Mesozoic reptiles, ruins of Roman settlements from the conquest of Numantia, a Moorish palace pre-dating Christian reclamation (and the village itself), and a 500-year-old oak bearing witness to everything from long-forgotten burials to Fascist rule to a dramatic depopulation. The last child born in Aldealseñor, filmmaker Mercedes Álvarez, returned in 2003 to record the history living amidst 14 remaining elderly holdouts and the near-ancient rhythms that still perdure. The resultant The Sky Turns is a documentary marvel, excavating the strata of epochs and applying its findings to the grand scope and frustrating limitations of cultural heritage and personal memory,...
"The farm village of Aldealseñor, Spain has seen it all," writes Michael Joshua Rowin for the L, "and contains it: fossilized traces of Mesozoic reptiles, ruins of Roman settlements from the conquest of Numantia, a Moorish palace pre-dating Christian reclamation (and the village itself), and a 500-year-old oak bearing witness to everything from long-forgotten burials to Fascist rule to a dramatic depopulation. The last child born in Aldealseñor, filmmaker Mercedes Álvarez, returned in 2003 to record the history living amidst 14 remaining elderly holdouts and the near-ancient rhythms that still perdure. The resultant The Sky Turns is a documentary marvel, excavating the strata of epochs and applying its findings to the grand scope and frustrating limitations of cultural heritage and personal memory,...
- 2/13/2011
- MUBI
3 lands win at Rotterdam fest
ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands -- Movies from Russia, Spain and Italy each took home a Tiger award at close Saturday night of this year's Rotterdam International Film Festival. The festival's competition jury, including American photographer Nan Goldin, awarded Russia's Ilya Khrzhanovsky's 4, Italy's Daniele Gaglianone's Nemmeno Il Destiono (Changing Destiny) and Spain's documentarian Mercedes Alvarez's El Cielo Gira (The Sky Turns) a Tiger apiece. In addition to the cash purse, each winner's film will air on Dutch public television network VPRO. Festival director Sandra den Hamer said the 34th edition had been a success. Attendance rose slightly -- to an all-time high for the event -- to 358,000 admissions, up 3,000 from last year. The number of overseas guests also rose 150 to 2,586.
- 2/6/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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