Twelve Catalan documentaries at the DocsBarcelona 2024

Three Catalan documentary productions will compete in the Official Section of the DocsBarcelona 2024 International Documentary Film Festival and nine more will compete in the new Docs&Cat section. A total of twelve titles make up the DocsBarcelona's firmest commitment to the Catalan creative talent and industry, with which the event vindicates the particular look that Catalan cinema dedicates to the documentary genre. The 27th edition of the DocsBarcelona will take place from May 2 to 12 at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) and the Cinemes Renoir Floridablanca.

Travel the world and premiere at DocsBarcelona

Within the Official Competitive Section, Docs&Pearls, three Catalan titles will be screened after their recent world premiere at different prestigious international festivals around the world, and are coming to our country thanks to DocsBarcelona.

This is the case of Patricia Franquesa 's second feature film (Estimada Sara), the documentary thriller My Sextorsion Diary, selected by the Austin Festival South by Southwest, in which the Catalan director shows how her world changes due to blackmail after having her computer stolen.

On the other hand, Adrián Silvestre's (Sedimentos) newest film, Hágase su voluntad, recently premiered at the Thessaloniki Festival, takes the pulse of the microcosm of the filmmaker's family and the invisible ties that bind them together. Sissel Morell Dargis also premieres these days at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX) her debut feature, Balomania, a portrait of Brazil and the clandestine culture of illegal hot air balloon gangs.

Nine Catalan documentaries in the new section Docs&Cat

This year the festival will program a new competitive section, Docs&Cat, which will include Catalan productions. Nine titles will compete for a new prize of 3,000 euros, sponsored by La Xarxa Audiovisual Local (XAL) and awarded by the Docs&Cat Jury, and four of them will have their world premiere at DocsBarcelona.

This is the case of Casa Reynal, by Laia Manresa (Morir de día), about family transmission and the legacy of their memory; of Respira, mama, a story about the right to breathe clean air signed by Meri Collazos; of Unbound, by John English and Tom Garner, about a group of dancers who survive the abuses of the dance world and their struggle to regain confidence and the stage, and Una estrella fugaz, by Ignasi Guerrero and Arturo Mendiz, Goya for Best Fiction Short Film for El corredor, which now brings to the screen perinatal grief from the father's point of view.

Two award-winning titles arrive from the Málaga Film Festival. The documentary Binu, historia de dos estrellas, by Guillem Cabra and Mar Clapés, presents Francesc Fortí and Francina Suriñach, owners of the first restaurant in a village to obtain two Michelin Stars, which is now experiencing a second boom. It has been recognized with the Jury Prize in the 'Cine Cocina' section of the Andalusian competition, while Pepi Fandango, by Lucija Stojevic (La Chana), has received a Special Mention from the Jury. The Croatian director accompanies a Holocaust survivor on her journey from Vienna to Andalusia to confront her conflictive relationship with the most authentic flamenco, which she knew during her childhood in the Nazi camps in the South of France.

In The Click Trap, Peter Porta delves into the dark side of online advertising, a lucrative business with a high human cost that threatens the stability of our democracies. Science Fiction, by Francisco Forbes and Ferran Romeu, portrays a scientist, Laurence Burton, pursuing his lifelong dream: to build an airplane powered only by clean energy.

Completing the new section is the Catalan production Burden, by Miguel Eek, which tackles a taboo by proposing an unprecedented vision of emotional, physical and sexual violence against men. The documentary, which will premiere in Spain thanks to DocsBarcelona, accompanies thirteen men on a retreat in a forest in Mallorca to begin a process of individual and collective healing.

"Local talent is still alive and powerful"

The DocsBarcelona's Artistic Director, Anna Petrus, has emphasized that "accompanying and promoting Catalan documentary talent is one of DocsBarcelona's most important commitments." She added that "that's why we hope that the festival's audiences will be enthusiastic about the programming of the Docs&Cat section and the three films competing in the international Docs&Pearls section. They are documentaries that show that local talent is still alive and powerful".