Cinéma Vérité announces lineup of COVID-19 category

The 14th Cinéma Vérité, major international Iranian documentary festival, has announced the lineup for the special category of this year entitled COVID-19.   

The COVID-19 section of the 2020 Cinéma Vérité, which will be held online from December 8 to 15, has been set up this year to attract attention to this disease.

According to the Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) as the main organizer of the event, the selected works in this category will be honored at the closing ceremony.

The official selection in the COVID-19 category includes ‘It’s Not Permanent’ by Majid Faraji, ‘Jihad Narrative’ by Milad Amini-Movahhed, ‘Mask Symphony’ by Masoud Babai and ‘Night Shift’ by Mohammad-Hossein Hemmatinejad and Mohsen Fazili.

The list goes on with ‘Mobile Doctor’ by Mehdi Zaghian, ‘Special Operation’ by Hojjatollah Edalatpanah, ‘Quarantine’ Payam Mirtabrizian, ‘Section 19’ by Masoud Dehnavi, ‘The First Wave’ by Zahra Moslemipour and ‘When Kindness Becomes a Pandemic’ by Alireza Baghsheni.

While the international section of the festival is non-competitive this year, several A-list Iranian and international documentary filmmakers and critics, including Betsy A. McLane, Bill Nichols, James Bertrand Longley, Mehrdad Oskui and Farhad Varahram, will hold online workshops and panel discussions during the event.

Besides, a lineup of documentaries honored at various international film festivals across the globe will be reviewed in a special program entitled ‘World’s Best’.

A review on the Chilean documentary cinema is also among the special programming of this year under the name ‘Chilean Films Panorama’ which will screen a number of acclaimed documentaries by Chilean filmmakers, including Francisco Bermejo’s documentary ‘The Other One’.

Polish filmmaker Hanna Polak will also hold a virtual master class at this year’s edition of the Cinéma Vérité to discuss filmmaking in the crisis.

MM/FM