The Macao International Documentary Film Festival (MOIDF) will return for its seventh edition from Sep. 8 to 24, with a Venice Film Festival Golden Lion winning film opening.
This year’s opening film is ‘All the Beauty and Bloodshed,’ the Golden Lion winner at the Venice Film Festival and a biographical documentary film directed by contemporary personal photography pioneer Nan Goldin.
The distinguished Cambodian-French director Davy Chou will be the Director in Focus for this year’s MOIDF, and will conduct a masterclass in Macau to offer valuable insights.
This year, the Festival will showcase a selection of 29 outstanding films with thought-provoking themes. Among its highlights is the new work titled Mama Dream of Family by emerging directors from Macao, Hao Chit and Kiwi Chan, which delves into the stories of a group of women who illegally migrated to Macau in the 1980s.
Amidst the ongoing war in Ukraine, ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ produced by the Associated Press (AP) serves as a powerful cautionary tale of war that local journalists have risked their lives to report; the bloodshed, tears and bravery shown by countless individuals have resulted in Myanmar Diaries, covering the aftermath of a military coup that altered the fate of the Myanmar people two years ago; while ‘And Miles to Go Before I Sleep’ seeks to reconstruct the truth surrounding the fatal shooting of a Vietnamese migrant worker in Taiwan from multiple perspectives.
Over 6,000 parents lost their children in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and this melancholy has continued to haunt the grieving parents despite the arrival of newborns. ‘After the Rain’ delicately captures the subtle scars entwining these two generations of people. Meanwhile, ‘Seven Winters in Tehran’ and ‘Smoke Sauna Sisterhood’ showcase the brilliance and agency of women in the midst of darkness.
The ‘Taste of Portuguese’ section features two highly acclaimed works, including ‘Rising Sun Blues,’ with filmmaker Renata Ferraz skillfully incorporating elements of collective creation from theater into the work, and inviting the legendary 65-year-old sex worker, Maria Roxo, to co-direct, and co-star in, the film.
Portuguese-language film ‘Astrakan 79’ also delves into the realm of secrets, revolving around the memories of a 15-year-old Lisbon boy who was sent to live in the Soviet Union in 1979.
‘Center Stage (Restored Version),’ a feature film by Hong Kong renowned filmmaker Stanley Kwan Kam Pang will also be screened, which portrays the life of a legendary Chinese actress in the 1940s.
The MOIDF is organized by Comuna de Han-Ian and sponsored by the Macao Cultural Development Fund. The full lineup of the festival is available at www.moidf.com.
