Macao Int’l Documentary Film Festival | City still young in the face of documentary films, says curator

Despite the arrival of new cinemas, the city’s audience is still trying to get accustomed to the film festival culture, said Penny Lam, curator of the 5th Macao International Documentary Film Festival (MOIDF).
“Film festival is still a new thing to the local audience,” Lam explained. “Macau is still very young in the face of documentary films, film festivals, artistic film productions and visiting non-commercial movie house.”
Ironically, Lam finds the city quite special in terms of viewership. Many Macau documentary film viewers, he pointed out, are younger generations who are starting, or have not even started their careers. “In contrast, documentary film viewers outside of Macau are mostly older and from the middle-class,” Lam said.
Looking into the future of the festival, Lam is planning to further expand the festival not only by its duration, but also types of events in the program, such as competitions and contests, wining and dining, as well as interactive events. “If a film is about food, I’m thinking of asking a cook to make the food item depicted in the film, and allow the audience to try it,” Lam said.
Describing the festival, he said that the main aim of the film festival is to close the gap between documentary films and the audience in general, “given the fact that commercial cinemas rarely screen documentary films.”
Each of the past editions of the festival have tried to make a connection between itself and the city. It is inevitable that this year’s will touch on the Covid-19 pandemic. “But the films will not be about the pandemic,” Lam said. “It is a self-reflection of the daily lives during the pandemic.”
For example, he said, there is a film depicting the lives of passengers who are stranded, or somehow quarantined, on a cruise ship. They have to consider the ship their home for a period of time and at the same time maintain civil interactions with other passengers. “This is actually what some of us have done in the past year,” Lam said.
The range of films available has also earned a good name for the festival within or across the Greater Bay Area. Lam said that even though there is an established festival of its type in Guangzhou, the capital of the Guangdong Province, they may not screen the types of film picked in the Macau festival.
As such, documentary film enthusiasts who want to enjoy certain films on the big screen can visit Macau to watch the films they like.
This has somehow made the festival a tourism event. But this year, due to travel restrictions, Lam admitted that this group of viewers have thinned out.
Although he did not put it this way, the festival has somehow played a role in Chinese-Lusophone interactions. The city has been designated a focal point of a particular cultural export in the broader national atlas.
This upcoming festival has a segment called “Taste of Portuguese”, celebrating Portuguese productions. The three films were highly rated in the past couple of years.
The other segments of the festival are “New Release”, “Classic Doc” and “Director in Focus – Anocha Suwichakornpong.” However, the latter film “ looks for audience who is more serious and curious,” Lam explained.
Animal documentaries voiced-
over by Sir David Attenborough highlights the genre’s close proximity with common audience. However, Lam stressed that documentary films are meant for the big screen. It also has a storyline and development.
The festival is ongoing and will run until July 25.