Play-Doc will internationally premiere four short films by Chantal Akerman

In 1975, the Belgian director Chantal Akermann (Brussels, 1950-Paris, 2015) made a film-manifesto whose revolutionary approaches — his feminist vocation and experimental cinematography — continue to resonate almost fifty years later. Last December, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels he made it to the top of the long-awaited list, which is published every ten years sight and sound with the best films in the history of cinema. It was the first time a woman – and anyone other than Welles, Hitchcock or De Sicca – had topped the British Film Institute magazine’s list.

Previously, Akerman had already made several films after leaving the Belgian Institute of Performing Arts shortly after enrolling. As part of the registration process at the Film Center, in the summer of 1967, at the age of 17, he shot four short films that can now be seen at the next edition of the festival. Tui Play-Doc. The Tudense competition, which will take place from the 26th of this month to the 1st of May, dedicates a retrospective of the filmmaker focused on her early days. Four short pieces include La Foire de Midi and a short fiction split into two parts starring his mother, Natalia Akerman, and her childhood friend Marilyn Watelet, who later co-founded the production company Paradise Films with her. Watelet will travel to Tui, together with Céline Brouwez, director of the filmmakers’ foundation, to present the works.

The Play-Doc retrospective programmed the famous Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Brusselsas well as little-seen bands, such as Hanging out in Yonkersthe result of his stay in New York, where watching Warhol and Mekas films influenced films like Chamber, Hotel Monterey and News from home. The Numax cinema in Compostela also recently dedicated a cycle to Akerman: from February to this month, six films were shown in five times, in cooperation with the Filmin platform.

India, Iran, Finland

In this edition, the nineteenth, Play-Doc continues to pay attention to the unique names of filmographies that are usually difficult or not exposed at all in commercial circles. The festival will show the recently renewed work of the Indian filmmaker for the first time in Spain Aravindan Govindan, which was restored by the Film Heritage Foundation and the World Cinema Project, founded by Scorsese. The space will also be dedicated to an Iranian filmmaker Sohrab Shahid Salesfor the first time in Spain, and in Finland Mikko Niskanenfrom whom it will be offered eight fatal shots, which is considered the best film in the history of Finnish cinema. And among other contents, the Tui competition presents the first major Spanish retrospective of masters of Italian ethnographic cinematography Luigi Di Gianni.

Another planned tribute, in film form, is what will be given Calpurnius Rammerwith the presentation Cuttlas microfilms, an animated series based on the character of the same name. It’s a tribute based on a special relationship, as Calpurnio was responsible for Play-Doc’s image for nineteen issues, before his death last December.