"Just two weeks before the opening of the annual creative nonfiction festival in Nyon, Switzerland, Bujès announced that she was leaving her role to join the Geneva International Film Festival in August. Her final edition in charge leaves an indelible fingerprint on the landscape-this year, VdR felt more international than ever, burrowing deeper into the global languages of nonfiction."
"From films about sperm smuggling in Palestine, to Kelly Reichardt's wild open west, to Meriem Bennani's surrealist animated worlds, cinema here was weighted with the challenges of how geography, and those who control its formalized borders, shape what we see and how we experience it-collectively and alone. Every few hours, I met someone who had been personally impacted by the wars of the world-a juror who was stranded in the UAE as bombs hit, filmmakers trying to get their teams safely out of Gaza, freelancers with family in Iran blocked from accessing the internet-with many unable to return to the places they love and call home. Still, they were here, screening their films and watching them too."
"Two projects in dialogue with the ongoing genocide in Gaza were American Doctor by Poh Si Teng, which premiered at Sundance this year, and the equally bracing short Muddy Currents by Palestinian artist and filmmaker Shadi Habib Allah. Another film that spoke to current geopolitics was In Between, a Place. Faezeh Nikoozad's prescient and emotionally exploratory feature depicts the evolving contours of the lifelong relationship between three Iranian childhood friends-themselves filmmakers-now scattered across different parts of the world due to conflict and repression."
Artistic direction was visibly present across festival events, while the director announced a departure to join another film festival. The final edition emphasized international reach and deeper engagement with global languages of nonfiction. Films addressed how geography and formalized borders influence what people see and how they experience life, including the effects of wars on jurors, filmmakers, and freelancers. Screenings continued despite disruptions, with participants unable to return home yet still present to show and watch films. Gaza-related works included a Sundance-premiered feature and a bracing short. Additional geopolitics-focused films examined shifting relationships shaped by conflict and repression, including Iranian childhood friends scattered worldwide.
Read at Filmmaker Magazine
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