Seven Canadian features will make their world premieres at the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM).

The full program for the 26th edition of RIDM was announced on Wednesday (Oct. 25) and includes a total of 138 films from 47 countries. Fourteen Canadian shorts will also be making their world bow at the festival, which runs from Nov. 15 to 26.

Claude Demers’ doc Journal d’un père will debut as part of the National Feature Competition. The film (pictured) mixes the past and the present as Demers explores his relationship to fatherhood. Journal d’un père is produced by Les Films de l’Autre while Maison 4:3 is the distributor.

Director and producer Shahab Mihandoust’s Canada-Iran coproduction Meezan will debut in the New Visions competition. The Farsi- and Arabic-language film explores the history of the Iranian province of Khuzestan through the lens of manual workers, looking at how colonization, industrialization, revolution and war have shaped it.

Premiering in the National Short and Medium-Length Competition is Somehow Continue by Karl Lemieux, which is produced by multimedia dance company Animals of Distinction. The film looks at the making of Creation Destruction, a multidisciplinary outdoor performance by choreographer Dana Gingras, and does not feature any dialogue.

Two of the features will premiere in the Panorama – Against the Grain section: Catherine Martin’s French- and Japanese-language Éloge de l’ombre and Olivier Godin’s French and English-language La suite canadienne.

Éloge de l’ombre is distributed by Les Films du 3 Mars, and weaves the reflections of Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki to explore the subject of light and darkness and its place in visual art and cinema. La suite canadienne is described as a hybrid between fiction and documentary, and follows a dance troupe as it pays tribute to Suite canadienne, which is “considered a cornerstone of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens.”

Mathilde Capone’s French-language Éviction will debut in the Panorama – State of the World section. The film follows the final days of the residents of an apartment building on Montreal’s Parthenais Street, which had been home to many from the city’s queer community, and their search for a new home amid a housing crisis.

Rounding the Canadian world premieres is the French and English-language title Celles qui luttent, directed by Sarah Baril Gaudet and produced by Gaudet under her banner Sarah Baril Gaudet Production. The film centres on a trio of Quebec female wrestlers and follows their battles inside and outside of the ring as they make a name for themselves in the male-dominated world of professional wrestling. It will launch in the Horizons section.

The full program for RIDM 2023 can be found on the festival’s website.

Photo courtesy of Les Films de l’Autre