October leaves us a trail of good news while November approaches with a lot of activity in sight. Two friendly festivals, such as the great CPH:DOX from Denmark and Movies that Matter from the Netherlands have achieved the distinctive "Oscar Qualifying Festival". From now on, these two key events of the European documentary industry have the ability to promote the films in their programs for the race of the Oscar Awards of the North American Film Academy. Our sincerest congratulations!
At the end of the month, I travel to Bratislava, to the human rights film festival, One World Slovakia, where I meet Margje de Koning, Artistic Director of Movies that Matters. There I have the opportunity to discover some local documentaries that have a certain impact on me because they deal with such hurtful topics as perinatal grief or gender violence exercised through acid. However, a poetic and meditative documentary about the urgency of connecting with nature has the therapeutic effect of returning me to my center where I am reunited with my faith in humanity. "I'm the river. The river is me” talks about the Whanganui River, in New Zealand, the first in the world to achieve legal recognition as a legal entity.
But the return to Barcelona is far less peaceful. In one week, we will inaugurate the 19th edition of Memorimage, Reus International Film Festival specializing in archival images. A festival where we will be able to watch some of the beautiful films that were screened at the last edition of DocsBarcelona and that will try to find their place among local audiences. "Echo of you" by Zara Zerny, "Pepi Fandango" by Lucija Stojevic and "My sextortion diary" by Patricia Franquesa will therefore continue to leave their lasting mark on our retinas. All this without forgetting that in mid-November we close the call for films for the next edition of DocsBarcelona 2025 and that the selection committee has already started to watch the new crop of documentaries. Let's take a deep breath, flow like the river flows and move on, with the same passion as always.
