Le FIFA unveils the program for its 42^nd edition

“At the heart of the programming for the 42^nd edition of Le FIFA, a central question emerges: that of our future. The films explore the impact of new technologies on the world of art — artificial intelligence, blockchain — and the implications they have for both art markets and the environment. How can we harmoniously combine technology and nature? How can we invent a world in which we choose to live? This requires a revolution in the way we look at things, but also the ability to see beyond our preconceptions and embrace new realities. That’s why, more than ever, Le FIFA is making room for women’s voices, for thoughts from the fringe, for rebellious spirits. Le FIFA celebrates the rediscovery of artists sidelined by history, inviting us to revisit the links with our roots. Through perspectives marked by sensitivity, fragility and passion, this edition exalts human genius, magnifying the contribution of artists to answering all these questions. All in a paradigm infused with intimacy, vulnerability and raw vitality. Art, in its purest essence, that sublimates, overturns and upsets. For all these reasons, now more than ever, we want Art!”

- Philippe U. del Drago, General and Artistic director of Le FIFA
Photo: Frédéric Girard

The Competition is the Festival’s signature category, highlighting the artistic richness of today’s world through the work of inventive and daring filmmakers. This year, this category is enriched by a national section

Among the feature-length films in competition, don’t miss the inspiring journey of Mumbai street dancer Manish in Pip Gilmour and Leslie Shampaine​’s Call Me Dancer. Visit the vast desert expanses of South Africa’s Karoo region, inhabited for centuries by indigenous peoples, with Dane Dodds’ !AITSA (Grand Prize for Best Artistic Achievement at the Pärnu Film Festival 2023). Discover the forgotten story of a 19^th-century artist who single-handedly invented a whole new kind of performance combining dance, light, fabric and movement in Loïe Fuller — Obsessed with Light by Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum. On a national front, this year’s closing film, Sisyphe, features the performance of director, set designer, visual artist and photographer Victor Pilon, who accomplished the unimaginable by moving 300 tonnes of sand in 180 hours. See also German Gutierrez​’s documentary Lyne Lapointe — L’art et la matière, devoted to this extraordinary visual artist from Quebec.

COMPETITION — FEATURE-LENGTH FILMS

Convinced that art is a powerful catalyst enabling each and every one of us to become involved in building tomorrow’s world, this year Le FIFA is showcasing films that cultivate art as an open-mindedness, that marry artistic practices and convictions, works that illustrate the reliefs of future cultures as well as the roots of our mutual origins.

The Festival will be presenting a program of artists’ films curated by Pascale Pronnier and Louise Déry, from Studio Le Fresnoy and Galerie de l’UQAM respectively, on our view of forests, as well as a number of films on the use of technology and its impact on our future, such as What the Punk, which follows the wildfire of CryptoPunks at the origin of the crypto art. In addition, two installations by Montreal artist Vincent Charlebois, accessible free of charge at Place Ville Marie and on the outskirts of the Saint-Laurent metro station, invite us to reflect on the relationship between technology and our experience of nature.

In this out-of-competition, invitation-only section, curated by Nicole Gingras, curator of visual and media arts, discover (in theatres only) four programs that focus on innovative approaches to film and video in three main areas: experience of place, creative processes and notions of mobility and identityé.

Also in Le FIFA Expérimental section, take a look at the Manon Labrecque focus, a tribute to the artist who passed away at the end of summer 2023, inviting you to explore 30 years of studio research and invention. An invitation to discover or revisit a unique work in the history of video.

FIFA EXPERIMENTAL

Year after year, dance takes pride of place at Le FIFA. That’s why La Nuit de la danse will once again delight the dance community and fans of the body in motion. Today’s greatest talents will be on hand for this 3^rd edition at Théâtre Outremont: Mistaya Hemingway, Kaveh Nabatian, Hofesh Shechter, Vickie Grondin, Marlene Millar, Laetitia Demessence, Cécile Rogue, Clara Rodríguez Arasanz, Loup-William Théberge and many others will present their latest creations on the (very) big screen.

LA NUIT DE LA DANSE

Changing our perspective on the world is fundamental today, and this year more than half of the films presented are directed or co-directed by women. Whether it’s through the eyes of the beholder or the journeys of invisible women, Le FIFA will be presenting game-changing works that revisit the story we’ve been told. In The Mies van der Rohes — A Female Family Saga, for example, Sabine Gisiger portrays the famous architect through the eyes of the women who surrounded him, while filmmakers Clara and Julia Kuperberg (re)discover American director Dorothy Arzner, a pioneer of cinema in the 1920s who was the only woman director in Hollywood between 1927 and 1943. In the same vein, director Claude Hamel​’s Ourse bleue, a feature-length documentary about cree-born author, painter, poet, sculptor and storyteller Virginia Pésémapéo Bordeleau, provides a counterpoint to the scant importance accorded to women artists and women in general once they’ve passed their prime.

Architectural films are all about choice: who are we building for? From Le Corbusier (The Power of Utopia — Living with Le Corbusier in Chandigarh by Karin Bucher and Thomas Karrer) to Roger Zmekhol (Skin of Glass by Denise Zmekhol), architecture questions the space inhabited by its own occupants. In the fascinating Rehab (from rehab), Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine offer us a sensitive and personal look at the design of care spaces in hospitals. Produced by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Daniel Schwartz​’s Where We Grow Older examines how aging demographic growth is reshaping architectural and social constructions. Finally, the film Green Over Gray: Emilio Ambasz by Mattia Colombo and Francesca Molteni explores the green architecture revolution through the landmark projects of a pioneer in the climate impact debate

ARCHITECTURE

The 42^nd edition of FIFA also gives a voice to dissidents with Pussy Riot, Rage Against Putin, Crash Test (about the controversial artist Piotr Pavlenski) and Queendom, a magnificent film about Gena Marvin, a performance artist from the far east of Russia, but also to combatants, with Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano, documenting the shooting of the film Costa Brava, Lebanon, directed by Mounia Akl and shot in the aftermath of the deadly explosion in the port of Beirut in August 2020. This 42^nd edition will also showcase the struggles of artists from the 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, including the fantastic Baby Queen, which offers a poignant perspective on queer realities in Singapore through the life of drag queen Opera Tang.

On the music front, Le FIFA presents a duo of films based on the Opéra national de Paris’ production of Charles Gounod​’s Roméo et Juliette: a documentary on the staging by Thomas Jolly, who will conduct the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, followed by an exceptional recording of the opera itself. Discover the prodigious Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, who confides in Bruno Monsaingeon​’s camera. A unique visual concert experience with soprano Suzie LeBlanc also awaits you with the Mouvance project, a profound reflection on exile and uprooting in Acadian lands (soprano Suzie LeBlanc is nominated for Classical Album of the Year with Mouvance at the 53^rd Juno Awards).

MUSIC

A laboratory for experimentation, a laboratory for the next generation, a perilous cinematic exercise, the short film will be seen in a big way at Concordia University. With a selection of films that will transport you to the four corners of the globe, from Mexico to South Korea, via Switzerland, Greece, Italy, Canada and many other destinations, this first edition of La Nuit du court promises to be grandiose, with films by Laura Bari, Mathieu Fortin, Sasha Theodora, Filémon Brault-Archambeault, Emilie Racine, Katherine Knight, Anthony Von Seck, Robin Pineda Gould, Jules de Niverville and Marc Kandalaft.

LA NUIT DU COURT

Last but not least, FIFA’s Cartes blanches offer artists and curators a space for expression and sharing, opening doors to discovery and dialogue: Andreina Aveledo with a carte blanche devoted to fashion, and the Institut du Monde Arabe will be honoring women directors from several Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine) as well as from Iran. A carte blanche on the theme of intimate explorations will also be given to director Khoa Lê.

CARTES BLANCHES