Several Canadian features will make their world debuts at the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) next month.

The 25th edition of the festival takes place from Nov. 17 to 27 with a lineup of 134 films from 49 countries, including 28 world premieres, 66 Canadian films, 48 Quebec titles, and 18 first feature films.

The world premiere of Montreal filmmaker Denys Desjardins’ J’ai placé ma mère (pictured) is among seven Canadian films selected for the festival’s National Feature Competition. The documentary is directed and produced by Desjardins and is a personal story of how the director and his sister worked to ensure their mother could live out her final days with dignity. It is distributed by Les Films du 3 Mars.

The other six films selected for the competition include previously announced titles Geographies of Solitude, directed by Jacquelyn Mills, and ROJEK, directed by Zaynê Akyol, as well as Antoine Bourges’ Concrete Valley; Lina Rodriguez’s My Two Voices; Sofía Brockenshire’s The Dependents; and Joële Walinga’s Self-Portrait.

An additional two Canadian world premieres have been selected to compete in the New Visions Competition, which recognizes debut features.

The world premieres are Perihan Incegöz and Jonathan Tremblay’s Thai- and English-language film L’île de Sukwan, produced by Dominique Dussault of Némésis Films, which follows the deep imagination of a young child in northern Thailand; and Dominique Chaumont’s Spanish-language doc Veranada, directed and produced by Chaumont, which shows a small community in Argentina struggling to maintain their way of life due the impact of global warming and climate change.

The other debut features selected for the competition are the previously announced Bloom by Fanie Pelletier, as well as Nisha Platzer’s doc back home.

A number Canadian world premieres will debut as part of RIDM’s Panorama programs. Three of the films were selected for the Horizons section, including David contre Goliath, directed and produced by David B. Ricard; Lessandro Socrates’ De l’autre côté, produced by Socrates and Carolina Fernandes; and German Gutierrez’s Spanish-language doc L’ Histoire jugera, produced by Carmen Garcia.

David contre Goliath is an introspective look on the filmmaker’s unfinished work; De l’autre côté documents the lives of the nuns of l’Abbaye Sainte-Marie des Deux-Montagnes just outside of Montreal; while L’ Histoire jugera follows guerilla fighters in Colombia as they try to settle into civilian life following the 2016 peace treaty between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Also making its world bow is 7 paysages, directed and produced by Robert Morin, in the Against the Grain section. The film captures a forest throughout the seasons through the use of static shots.

Image courtesy of Centaure Films and Les Films du 3 Mars