For those of us who work daily in the world of documentary cinema, the facts speak for themselves (and are there for anyone who wants to look): more documentaries are being made around the world than ever before. Many more, in fact, than in 1959, when the first International Documentary Film Contest emerged, known to us today as ZINEBI.
The general public need only glance at the ubiquitous content platforms to see the evidence: on some of them, documentary films and series far outnumber “conventional” fiction cinema. At the same time, the global boom in documentary showcases and festivals is mirrored by the growing presence of dedicated sections at the world’s major film events: Cannes, Venice or Sundance, for example.
Documentary has become the ideal instrument for cinema to respond boldly and swiftly to the defining concerns of our time. This was already true in the days of celluloid, and it is even more true in the age of digital filmmaking: while large-scale fiction productions — even those intent on tackling urgent contemporary issues — must marshal vast budgets, lengthy scripts, technical crews and complex shooting plans, today’s documentaries stride forward thanks to the risk and courage of filmmakers who delve into realities the media can only sketch in passing, offering audiences a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the world we live in.
Today, Beautiful Docs renews ZINEBI’s annual commitment to contemporary documentary: a showcase that brings to Bilbao (among the first, as ever) the voices and visions of leading 21st century filmmakers such as Werner Herzog, Gianfranco Rosi, Rita Azevedo Gomes and Kamal Aljafari, alongside a new generation of documentarists — Candela Sotos, Berta Vicente Salas and Soumaya Hidalgo Djahdou — who embody the strength and vitality of cinema’s most living genre.
Rubén Corral Giménez
Between Vesuvius and the Gulf of Naples, the land quakes from time to time, and the fumaroles of the Phlegraean Fields taint the air. The ruins that lie below — Pompeii, Herculaneum, long-submerged Roman villas — tell of a future that was buried by time. From these traces of history, memories of the subterranean world, in black and white, a lesser-known Naples emerges and fills with lives.
Between Vesuvius and the Gulf of Naples, the land quakes from time to time, and the fumaroles of the Phlegraean Fields taint the air. The ruins that lie below — Pompeii, Herculaneum, long-submerged Roman villas — tell of a future that was buried by time. From these traces of history, memories of the subterranean world, in black and white, a lesser-known Naples emerges and fills with lives.
The shooting of Franco Maresco's film on Carmelo Bene is interrupted. Maresco accuses the production of "filmicide" before vanishing. A friend steps in, investigating as a chance to explore one of Italian cinema's most corrosive authors.
The shooting of Franco Maresco's film on Carmelo Bene is interrupted. Maresco accuses the production of "filmicide" before vanishing. A friend steps in, investigating as a chance to explore one of Italian cinema's most corrosive authors.
FUCK THE POLIS is a film about an intimate connection with the world: a profound attempt to look at what surrounds us, where history coexists with the present and our memories and emotions intertwine with the objectivity of reality.
FUCK THE POLIS is a film about an intimate connection with the world: a profound attempt to look at what surrounds us, where history coexists with the present and our memories and emotions intertwine with the objectivity of reality.
For a decade, Dr. Steve Boyes has been in search of a mysterious elusive herd of Ghost Elephants in the highlands of Angola, a wooded plateau — virtually uninhabited, but in size as large as England. He sets out with master trackers from Namibia, the best remaining in the world, but there is a deep underlying question: would it not be better to keep these gigantic elephants rather as a dream, as ghosts, as the White Whale, than finding them in reality?
For a decade, Dr. Steve Boyes has been in search of a mysterious elusive herd of Ghost Elephants in the highlands of Angola, a wooded plateau — virtually uninhabited, but in size as large as England. He sets out with master trackers from Namibia, the best remaining in the world, but there is a deep underlying question: would it not be better to keep these gigantic elephants rather as a dream, as ghosts, as the White Whale, than finding them in reality?
In the wake of Palestinian memory, National Pride: From Jericho to Gaza follows Hassan Al Balawi, a diplomat based in Brussels, returning to his homeland on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat—a tutelary figure of the liberation struggle and leader of the PLO. Filmed in 2019, the film traces his journey from Jericho to the Gaza border, through an occupied West Bank where every checkpoint, every landscape, bears the imprint of broken promises.
In the wake of Palestinian memory, National Pride: From Jericho to Gaza follows Hassan Al Balawi, a diplomat based in Brussels, returning to his homeland on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat—a tutelary figure of the liberation struggle and leader of the PLO. Filmed in 2019, the film traces his journey from Jericho to the Gaza border, through an occupied West Bank where every checkpoint, every landscape, bears the imprint of broken promises.
Between Spain and Algeria, Soumaya reconnects with her family and heritage. Through laughter, prayer, and memory, three generations of women weave threads across distance, belief, and tradition.
Between Spain and Algeria, Soumaya reconnects with her family and heritage. Through laughter, prayer, and memory, three generations of women weave threads across distance, belief, and tradition.
In south-eastern Spain, a great wall separates worlds. A healthy world, and one deemed sick, contagious. The sanatorium of Fontilles has been a sanctuary for those afflicted with leprosy. The filmmaker travels along and across this wall and encounters witnesses of the past and the present : the last residents, workers, a Franciscan sister, neighbours, and the landscape. Together, they embody fragments of its memory and become storytellers of a vanishing world.
Three MiniDV tapes of life in Gaza from 2001 were recently rediscovered. What started as a search for a former prison mate from 1989, led to an unexpected road trip from the north to the south of Gaza with Hasan, a local guide whose fate remains unknown.
A cinematic reflection on memory, loss and the passage of time, capturing a Gaza of the past and lives that may never be found again.
Duela gutxi aurkitu zituzten Gazako bizitza islatzen duten 2001eko hiru MiniDV zinta. 1989an espetxeko kide ohi baten bilaketa gisa hasi zenak ustekabeko bidaia bat eragin zuen Gazako iparraldetik hegoaldera, Hasan bertako gidariak lagunduta, eta orain ez dakigu hari zer gertatu zitzaion.
Memoriari, galerari eta denboraren joanari buruzko gogoeta zinematografiko bat, zeinak agian inoiz berriz aurkituko ez diren bizitzak eta iraganeko Gaza bat irudikatzen dituen.
The quest for “La flor de Irupé”, a long-lost film by Guillermo Fernández-Zúñiga, pioneer of Spain’s early 20th century scientific cinema, unfolds as a journey through memory, family, and the nation’s archives. As we watch the slow growth of the yrupẽ water lily, different layers of images and silences begin to surface.
The quest for “La flor de Irupé”, a long-lost film by Guillermo Fernández-Zúñiga, pioneer of Spain’s early 20th century scientific cinema, unfolds as a journey through memory, family, and the nation’s archives. As we watch the slow growth of the yrupẽ water lily, different layers of images and silences begin to surface.
