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Source: Variety
The medium of cinema may be an inherently fictional art form, but there are films that come closer to capturing reality than something intentionally designed to be more fictional. This, of course, is the very purpose of the documentary, a non-fictional version of cinema that, as the Oxford English Dictionary describes it, “document[s] reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record”. With all that said, there’s no way for a documentary film to be a perfect portrayal of whatever it is they’re choosing to capture on screen – after all, a filmmaker will most likely have their work constructed in a way that best gets across their personal view of the subject, and doing so may require some slight adjustments or distortions to the footage they’ve recorded – but the best documentaries are those that are nonetheless able to present a compelling presentation of their respective topics. Over the years, documentary films have received quite a bit of favorable attention, from the Academy Awards’ annual handing-out of Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short prizes to such pictures’ inclusion at countless different film festivals. In the case of the latter, there aren’t too many festivals that are dedicated solely to showcasing the best that documentary cinema has to offer, which makes the recent announcement of such an event by the American Cinematheque, a non-profit organization located in Los Angeles, all the more noteworthy.
On Tuesday, March 19th, the American Cinematheque announced that it would be kicking off a new documentary-centric film festival called This is Not a Fiction later next month. A nine-day event taking place between April 10th and April 18th, the festival will see various venues located in the heart of Los Angeles exhibit a select number of documentary feature-length and short films while also holding a handful of in-person panels intended to pay tribute to many of the most noteworthy names associated with documentary filmmaking. According to festival founders Chris LeMaire and Cindy Flores, who serve as Senior Film Programmer and Film Programmer respectively, This is Not a Fiction “goes beyond the limits of genre, with the lineup reflecting the boundless possibilities of non-fiction storytelling”, with LeMaire and Flores further describing it as “a celebration of non-fiction as a form of filmmaking and its profound impact on our lives, from its influence in art and entertainment to its power in education, political advocacy and social discourse”.
So what do potential festival goers have to look forward to? First, there’s the Los Angeles premiere of “Thank You Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story”, which will be held at the city’s Aero Theatre on April 10th and serve as the opening program of This is Not a Fiction. On top of a screening of the docuseries, there will also be a Q&A panel that will feature filmmaker Gotham Chopra and the subject of the docuseries himself, John Bon Jovi. Elsewhere that night, over at the Los Feliz 3, festival attendees can look forward to screenings of “Bastards at the Party” and “Nostalgia for the Light”, the former of which will also have a Q&A panel with filmmaker Cle Sloan. Both the Aero Theatre and the Los Feliz 3 will continue to serve as the festival’s main venues for the following day, with the former screening “Los Angeles Plays Itself” (accompanied by a Q&A with filmmaker Thom Andersen) and the latter exhibiting the newly restored “Not a Pretty Picture” (which will also feature a Q&A, this one with the film’s director Martha Coolidge) and then “Mysterious Object at Noon” shortly afterwards. On April 12th, the third day of the festival, the Egyptian Theatre will begin its involvement with the festival, showing a 15th anniversary presentation of the film “30 for 30” that will feature yet another Q&A panel; it’ll be perhaps the biggest panel yet, with the likes of Marsha Cooke, Brett Morgan, and Jeff Tremaine being among those who will participate in the discussion. That screening will be followed by that of the film “Trash Humpers”, while over at the Aero Theatre, one can look forward to a 30th anniversary screening of “Crumb” (one followed by a Q&A panel with Terry Zwigoff) and then that of the film “Trash Humpers”. The Los Feliz 3 will also hold a few additional screenings that evening, specifically for the films “Girls State” and “Sans Soleil” (the former of which will have a Q&A panel with producers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss moderated by Amy Nicholson).
Throughout all the days that follow, there will be even more documentary films old and new to look forward to, including all of the following: premieres of “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus” and “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg”; restorations of “Lumumba: Death of a Prophet” and “Incident”; “Jackass: The Movie”, accompanied by a Q&A panel with filmmaker Jeff Tremaine; a 35mm print of “Gimme Shelter”; “Homeland: Iraq Year Zero”, which will be presented by the Arab Film and Media Institute; “Brothers Keeper” and “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills”, both of which will use 35mm prints owned personally by their director Joe Berlinger (who will also participate in Q&As after the films’ screenings); a program titled Science is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painlevé that will showcase a selection of the French documentarian’s short films made between the years 1935 and 1968; and “Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces”, from director Morgan Neville (who shall also participate in a Q&A after the film’s screening).
Finally, to close out This is Not a Fiction, the Aero Theatre will hold the Los Angeles premiere of a film titled “Power” while following it up with another film called “Strong Island”, while the Los Feliz 3 will screen “Landscape Suicide” (which, as is the case for many of the films exhibited at this festival, will feature a Q&A, this one with filmmaker James Benning) and the Arab Film and Media Institute’s presentation of “This is Not a Film”. There will, of course, many other fascinating documentaries to be screened over the course of the festival (many of which could not be listed here because there are just so many), and hopefully, should this event go as smoothly as desired, it could be the first of one of many This is Not a Fiction festivals that will continue to cherish the art of documentary filmmaking.
