The New Realities

IN MONTREAL’S crowded film-festival landscape, the Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM) has carved out its own distinct space. The festival consistently showcases filmmakers who are striving to expand ideas around what documentaries can and should be.

This year marks the fest’s 25th anniversary, and its entries do not disappoint, highlighting films that are dramatic/documentary hybrids, focus on unusual ideas and subjects, and brazenly defy expectations. The festival offers a welcome respite from a film form that becomes increasingly commodified year after year.

Part of the quarter-century celebration will mean the return of a popular screening section: a focus on a national cinema. This year, programmers will include a roster of films from Brazil, by way of collaboration with the