A celebration of history and cinema: every year, the Pessac International History Film Festival offers a fascinating array of documentaries and historical fiction. Here's a look back at two feature-length films presented at this 34th edition, each of which, in its own way, questions our view of twentieth-century history.
LENI RIEFENSTAHL, LIGHT AND SHADOWS BY ANDRES VEIEL
There are few figures in the history of cinema as unsettling as Leni Riefenstahl. On the face of it, she was one of the few women to direct films at a time (the 1930s) when this was still a man's job, and she also helmed monumental productions of extreme formal audacity. On the flip side, this close friend of Hitler and Goebbels put her art at the service of the Nazi cause, in chilling propaganda films. What about Leni Riefenstahl? Andres Veiel doesn't give us a definitive answer (although everyone can easily make up their own mind), but his documentary, rich in archives and never-before-seen personal images, provides us with formidable food for thought about this troubled character who never hesitated to speak out, even in the face of the most unassailable of challenges.
Michel-Ciment Prize for Cinema History Documentary at the Pessac Film Festival.
LENI RIEFENSTAHL, LIGHT AND SHADOW BY ANDRES VEIEL
IN CINEMAS SINCE NOVEMBER 27, 2024
I'M STILL HERE BY WALTER SALLES
We all remember Walter Salles' breakthrough film Central do Brasil (1998). Since then, the Brazilian filmmaker has toured South America, rereading Che Guevara's notes in Carnets de voyage (2004), immersed himself in a monument to beatnik literature by adapting Jack Kerouac's On the Road in 2012, and even proposed his American remake of Hideo Nakata's Japanese horror film, Dark Water (2005). More than twelve years after his last feature, Salles is back in Brazil with a historical drama about the disappearance of a Labour MP in 1971, during the military dictatorship. A dazzling tale of intimacy and politics, it won the Audience Prize and the Student Jury Prize.
JE SUIS TOUJOURS LÀ - BY WALTER SALLES
THEATRICAL RELEASE JANUARY 15, 2025
FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DU FILM D'HISTOIRE DE PESSAC
NOVEMBER 19-24, 2024
CINEMA-HISTOIRE-PESSAC.COM
