Celebrating history and cinema, the Pessac International History Film Festival offers a fascinating array of documentaries and historical dramas each year. Here's a look back at two feature films presented at this 34th edition, each of which, in its own way, questions our perspective on 20th-century history.
LENI RIEFENSTAHL, THE LIGHT AND SHADOWS OF ANDRES VEIEL
There are few figures in film history as unsettling as Leni Riefenstahl. On the one hand, she was one of the few women to direct films in an era (the 1930s) when it was still a man's world, and she also helmed monumental productions of extreme formal audacity. On the other hand, this close associate of Hitler and Goebbels placed her entire art at the service of the Nazi cause, in chilling propaganda films. What are we to make of Leni Riefenstahl? While Andres Veiel doesn't provide a definitive answer (although everyone can easily form their own opinion), his documentary, rich in archival footage and previously unseen personal images, offers us a wealth of material to ponder regarding this enigmatic figure who never hesitated to speak out, even against the most unassailable opposition.
Michel-Ciment Prize for documentary film history at the Pessac Festival.
LENI RIEFENSTAHL, THE LIGHT AND SHADOWS OF ANDRES VEIEL
IN THEATERS SINCE NOVEMBER 27, 2024
I'M STILL HERE BY WALTER SALLES
We remember the remarkable Central Station (1998), which launched Walter Salles' career. Since then, the Brazilian filmmaker has explored South America by revisiting Che Guevara's notes in The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), immersed himself in a cornerstone of Beat literature by adapting Jack Kerouac's On the Road in 2012, and even offered his American remake of Hideo Nakata's Japanese horror film, Dark Water (2005). More than twelve years after his last feature film, Salles returns to Brazil with a historical drama about the disappearance of a Labour Party congressman in 1971, during the military dictatorship. A powerful story that blends the personal and the political, it won both the Audience Award and the Student Jury Prize.
I'M STILL HERE – BY WALTER SALLES
RELEASED IN THEATERS ON JANUARY 15, 2025
PESSAC INTERNATIONAL HISTORICAL FILM FESTIVAL
19 TO 24 NOVEMBER 2024
CINEMA-HISTOIRE-PESSAC.COM
