Les Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM) announces opening & closing films

Montreal, October 7, 2013 – The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) will have the honour of presenting the Quebec premiere of The Square (Al Midan), the new film by Egyptian filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, as the festival’s opening on November 13. This epic documentary, as spectacular as it is moving, is a chronicle of recent events in Egypt. Ten days and 135 films later, the festival will close with world premiere of Fermières by Annie St-Pierre, which looks into the province’s oldest women’s group, the Cercles de Fermières du Québec.

Opening Film - THE SQUARE
From January 2011 to July 2013 – from the first anti-Mubarak protests to the fall of Morsi – Egyptian filmmaker Jehane Noujaim’s (Control Room) crew stayed on the front lines of events as they unfolded in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Guided by Ahmed, a charismatic incarnation of valiant Egyptian youth; his friend and enemy, Magdy, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood; and Khalid Abdalla, an actor known for The Kite Runner, the film makes the square itself its central subject: it is the beating heart of a people who have been fighting for their rights for more than two years. Updated since the early cut shown at Sundance (where it won the Audience Award), this epic documentary is both spectacular and deeply moving; it is one of the year’s absolute must-see films.

The Square, RIDM’s opening film, will be shown in the original Arabic with French subtitles on Wednesday, November 13 at 7 p.m. at the Monument-National’s Ludger-Duvernay Theatre, with director in attendance. There will also be regular screenings during the festival.

Closing Film - FERMIÈRES
They aren’t the same age, they don’t live in the same towns and they don’t even do the same things. But their eyes shine with the same vitality, determination and enthusiasm. Thérèse the artisan, Francine the perfectionist, Anne-Marie the ethnographer, Yolande the company president and so many more: all are volunteer members of one of the Cercles de Fermières du Québec. The clubs were founded in 1915 by the provincial agriculture department, and they’re still active in more than 600 municipalities. They were and remain warm, strong places where Quebec’s women can express their identity. Annie St-Pierre (Migration amoureuse) takes an affectionate look at a year in the women’s lives, built around a sense of solidarity, sharing, activism, education and joie de vivre.

Fermières, produced by micro_scope, will be shown in the original French with English subtitles at the RIDM’s closing ceremony on Saturday, November 23 at 7 p.m. at Cinéma Excentris; there will be a screening for the general public the next day. The film will open across Quebec in spring 2014.

Quebec’s only film festival dedicated to documentaries, the Montreal International Documentary Festival presents the best reality-based films, including the works of established directors and new talents.

The 16th RIDM will take place from November 13 to 24, 2013 at Cinéma du Parc, Excentris, the Cinémathèque québécoise and Concordia University.

www.ridm.qc.ca