The films of Visions du réel
For more than 50 years, Visions du Réel has been presenting audacious and singular works, imbued with past, present or future realities. Each year, the Festival turns Nyon into a focal point at which several generations of filmmakers and artists from all over the world find a loyal audience on a voyage of discovery. Recognised globally as one of the major festivals dedicated to non-fiction filmmaking, it presents a majority of films as world or international premieres, and constitutes an essential platform for creation for the thousands of film professionals who meet there every year.
On the occasion of this 55th edition, which will take place from April 12 to 21, 2024, we invite you to discover 3 films that were selected at the previous edition of the festival!
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Ardent Other
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In 2019, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris burns before the eyes of a stunned crowd. Using images captured at the time, Alice Brygo reconstructs the scene using photogrammetry and sound staging, highlighting the behavior of the crowd.
Losing Ground
Subscription access
In February 2021, Myanmar wakes up to the sounds of a military coup. The hopes of an entire generation are extinguished. Protests are held, but the dictatorship is too powerful: arrests, imprisonments and threats of execution ensue. The capital becomes a large open-air prison, but a few anonymous voices still have the strength to cry out.
Human, Not Human
Otto spends night and day blurring faces on Google Streetview for a cent each. It's the kind of work he and his friends around the world can find on the Amazon Mechanical Turk, the crowdworking platform. Alongside his turker friends, Otto sinks into a robotic world that raise the question of humanity.
Foragers
_Foragers_ depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it employs fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. The restrictions prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like ’akkoub an...
Leading Lights
Marie and Juliette quit their teaching jobs to open La Petite Ecole in the heart of Brussels where children, without former schooling and often exiled, are welcomed. Leaving aside formal learning, they offer them space and time to be children again before facing school which will expect them to be students. This film walks us through their efforts and research and thereby forces us to see the s...
The Empty Sphere
This experimental documentary portrays a space object and its fall into the darkness of a space cemetery. A woman scientist reveals her attachment to this object and the absence of images documenting this mysterious place. As a reverse sci-fi journey, this essay mixes reality and fiction to guide us, like a stalker, to the outskirts of an invisible place.
Moth
In the middle of summer, the box tree moth, accidentally introduced into France, takes over the Provencal Drôme region and leads inhabitants to improvise defensive systems to fight their invasion and devastation. In this apocalyptic climate, 18-year-old Lou discovers her feelings for her childhood friend, Sam.
Seeking Aline
Rokhaya, a young filmmaker, returns to her home in Dakar in order to make a film about a local historical figure. Over the course of her research, consisting of interviews with local personalities, discussions with her team, and fictional scenes shot on location, we discover the story of Aline Sitoe Diatta, a heroine of the Senegalese resistance who is considered a high priestess.
The Plastic House
A young woman constructs a reality for herself by imagining what her life would be like after the death of her parents. Absorbed in the slow process of working alone in the family greenhouse, she relives the ghostly memories of her Cambodian mother and father. The ritual of healing through physical labour is gradually revealed over time. As the plastic roof above her bears the weight of the nat...
Trouble Sleep
Fred, unemployed graduate like many young Nigerians, is starting a new job as a taxi driver. As for Akin, he taxes commercial vehicles for the national transport union. They both operate in the rich urban landscape of Ibadan, in which Alain Kassanda’s camera choreographs the multiplicity and perpetual power relations at play.
Without You, Without Me
As a small girl, Adèle Shaykhulova had to leave Russia for France, leaving the rest of her family behind. To make up for this absence, she secretly films their conversations. But when she learns that her cousin Sonia, with whom she grew up, has cancer, film becomes perhaps the only way to bridge an immeasurable distance.
Le Pays
Chady and David work on the transport boats of Lake Geneva. On the waters of the lake, the two men, haunted by the memories of their countries of origin, share confidences and the same feeling of uprooting. A strange intimacy develops between the two men. They then undertake an erratic stroll, through a space-time that may only exist in their dreams, but which at times resembles Switzerland.
Akaboum
This is the story of a gang of teenage boys from the north-western edge of the Paris region. We follow them in their wanderings, supposedly taking them from the suburb of Cergy to that of Marne-la-Vallée. It's also the story of a gang of duck-rabbits on their way to a party at the castle of the Sleeping Beauty. They are members of the Ygrk Klub. Somewhere between documentary and fiction, we are...
Norie
During the annual ghost festival in Japan, the director, Yuki, along with his father Munemitsu, embarks upon an emotional journey in the footsteps of Norie. Together they draw a portrait and honour the memory of Yuki’s mother. As they bring her back from the depths of their memories, the two men discover each other and create new, unexpected bonds.
Ardent Other
Subscription access
In 2019, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris burns before the eyes of a stunned crowd. Using images captured at the time, Alice Brygo reconstructs the scene using photogrammetry and sound staging, highlighting the behavior of the crowd.
Losing Ground
Subscription access
In February 2021, Myanmar wakes up to the sounds of a military coup. The hopes of an entire generation are extinguished. Protests are held, but the dictatorship is too powerful: arrests, imprisonments and threats of execution ensue. The capital becomes a large open-air prison, but a few anonymous voices still have the strength to cry out.
Human, Not Human
Otto spends night and day blurring faces on Google Streetview for a cent each. It's the kind of work he and his friends around the world can find on the Amazon Mechanical Turk, the crowdworking platform. Alongside his turker friends, Otto sinks into a robotic world that raise the question of humanity.
Foragers
_Foragers_ depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it employs fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. The restrictions prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like ’akkoub an...
Leading Lights
Marie and Juliette quit their teaching jobs to open La Petite Ecole in the heart of Brussels where children, without former schooling and often exiled, are welcomed. Leaving aside formal learning, they offer them space and time to be children again before facing school which will expect them to be students. This film walks us through their efforts and research and thereby forces us to see the s...
The Empty Sphere
This experimental documentary portrays a space object and its fall into the darkness of a space cemetery. A woman scientist reveals her attachment to this object and the absence of images documenting this mysterious place. As a reverse sci-fi journey, this essay mixes reality and fiction to guide us, like a stalker, to the outskirts of an invisible place.
Moth
In the middle of summer, the box tree moth, accidentally introduced into France, takes over the Provencal Drôme region and leads inhabitants to improvise defensive systems to fight their invasion and devastation. In this apocalyptic climate, 18-year-old Lou discovers her feelings for her childhood friend, Sam.
Seeking Aline
Rokhaya, a young filmmaker, returns to her home in Dakar in order to make a film about a local historical figure. Over the course of her research, consisting of interviews with local personalities, discussions with her team, and fictional scenes shot on location, we discover the story of Aline Sitoe Diatta, a heroine of the Senegalese resistance who is considered a high priestess.
The Plastic House
A young woman constructs a reality for herself by imagining what her life would be like after the death of her parents. Absorbed in the slow process of working alone in the family greenhouse, she relives the ghostly memories of her Cambodian mother and father. The ritual of healing through physical labour is gradually revealed over time. As the plastic roof above her bears the weight of the nat...
Trouble Sleep
Fred, unemployed graduate like many young Nigerians, is starting a new job as a taxi driver. As for Akin, he taxes commercial vehicles for the national transport union. They both operate in the rich urban landscape of Ibadan, in which Alain Kassanda’s camera choreographs the multiplicity and perpetual power relations at play.
Without You, Without Me
As a small girl, Adèle Shaykhulova had to leave Russia for France, leaving the rest of her family behind. To make up for this absence, she secretly films their conversations. But when she learns that her cousin Sonia, with whom she grew up, has cancer, film becomes perhaps the only way to bridge an immeasurable distance.
Le Pays
Chady and David work on the transport boats of Lake Geneva. On the waters of the lake, the two men, haunted by the memories of their countries of origin, share confidences and the same feeling of uprooting. A strange intimacy develops between the two men. They then undertake an erratic stroll, through a space-time that may only exist in their dreams, but which at times resembles Switzerland.
Akaboum
This is the story of a gang of teenage boys from the north-western edge of the Paris region. We follow them in their wanderings, supposedly taking them from the suburb of Cergy to that of Marne-la-Vallée. It's also the story of a gang of duck-rabbits on their way to a party at the castle of the Sleeping Beauty. They are members of the Ygrk Klub. Somewhere between documentary and fiction, we are...
Norie
During the annual ghost festival in Japan, the director, Yuki, along with his father Munemitsu, embarks upon an emotional journey in the footsteps of Norie. Together they draw a portrait and honour the memory of Yuki’s mother. As they bring her back from the depths of their memories, the two men discover each other and create new, unexpected bonds.
