The best of world’s documentaries are already screening at the 37th edition of Cinéma du Réel in Paris opening today and lasting till March 29. 

As each year, the festival will be presenting a polymorphic world state program. As Maria Bonsanti, the artistic director of Cinéma du Réel, says "Today’s documentary production is marked by multi-faceted films that are always different, sometimes ‘impure’, which refuse to be restricted by being pigeon-holed into defined categories, described in just one word or branded with just one adjective. They are films in which reality is rewritten, reimagined and retold through the lens of other forms of expression.” 

On the tributes and retrospectives there will be, among others, a selection of films by British producer and director Keith Griffiths, another selection of the films of living legend Haskell Wexler and a program dedicated to Indian filmmaker Amit Dutta. In this frame, the festival, in collaboration with the Greek Film Archive has prepared a selection of Greek documentaries called A Story Through Images: The Greek Film Archive in Focus.

An evocation of the history of the Greek Film Archive through a selection of key films made between 1924 and 2012, the documentaries mirror the development of the Archive, from its creation by a small group of enthusiasts in the 1950s to its recognition as the official film heritage institution of Greece, despite the lack of a consistent State policy.

All screenings of the five sections, will be presented by Maria Komninos (programming officer at the Greek Film Archive), with filmmakers Stella Theodoraki and Yorgos Tsemberopoulos attending the event.

The Adventures of Villar by Joseph Hepp, Greece, 1924, 23΄

Monastiraki by Gay Angelis, Greece, 1976, 19΄

Athens or Three Visits to Acropolis by Theo Angelopoulos, Greece, 1983, 43΄

100 Hours of May by Fotos Lambrinos & Dimos Theos, Greece, 1964, 28΄

The Vest by Iris Zachmanidi, Greece, 1976, 7΄

Betty by Dimitris Stavrakas, Greece, 1979, 33΄

Megara by Yorgos Tsemberopoulos & Sakis Maniatis, Greece, 1974, 69΄

Aluminium of Greece by Roussos Koundouros, Greece, 1965, 20΄

The Letter from Charleroi by Lambros Liaropoulos, Greece, 1965, 12΄

Raw Material by Christos Karakepelis, Greece, 2011, 79΄

Amnesia Diaries by Stella Theodoraki, Greece, 2012, 103΄

Greek Civil War by Roviros Manthoulis, France/Greece, 1996, 60΄

Cinéma du Réel 2015 has also programmed its regular 4 competition sections, the International Competition, wich includes the Bulgarian/French production And the Party Goes on and on... by Georgi Balabanov (2015), the First Films International Competition where we find the German/FYROM film Margina by Ljupcho Temelkovski (2015), the French Competition and the Short Films International Competition.

Additionally, Cinéma du Réel will be screening a selection of the films presented in the four Competition sections via VoD on UniversCiné.