05/11/2021 - The 22nd edition of the festival will unspool in hybrid form as part of its inclusiveness initiative

The 22^nd edition of the One World International Documentary Film Festival (5-11 November) in Slovakia is bracing for a hybrid gathering after its previous edition unfolded entirely virtually. The inclusivity that the virtual screenings allow reflects the festival’s theme this year: “keep in touch”, homing in on eliminating barriers. In the spirit of this central topic, the Slovakia and the Czech Republic for Human Rights programming section will make all films available to viewers with hearing and vision impairment. The festival will open with Vera Lacková’s personal documentary How I Became a Partisan [+see also:
interview: Vera Lacková
film profile], investigating the topic of Romani partisans through the life story of her great-grandfather, and the line-up consists of 50 feature-length documentaries.

The Slovakia and the Czech Republic for Human Rights international competition showcases the best docs from the region while also reflecting current topics in the two countries. The competition includes films that have already proven their worth on the festival circuit, such as Viera Čákanyová’s White on White [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Michaela Pavlátová’s animated film My Sunny Maad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michaela Pavlátová
film profile] and Jindřich Andrš’s feature debut, A New Shift [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. However, the competitive section will also introduce Barbora Sliepková’s first feature-length documentary, Lines [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Barbora Sliepková
film profile], a visual essay inspired by urban symphonies and conceptual photography, along with Mária Pinčíková’s documentary On Your Marks!, which focuses on the Sokol movement, a social organisation founded 150 years ago, and a mass gymnastic performance that it organises every six years.

The aim is to make the competition valuable for every participating filmmaker, and not just the winner. “Therefore, since last year, we have established a tradition that one of the members of the jury is an international distributor, or a distributor, whose professional role is to search for documentary talents and present them on the international film market,” says the festival’s executive director, Eva Križková.

A documentary portrait of the titular star of abstract painting, Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint by Halina Dyrschka, will screen in the Relationships section, followed by a depiction of “the grandmother of performance art”, Homecoming – Marina Abramović and Her Children [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Boris Miljković, and Miro Remo’s At Full Throttle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miro Remo
film profile]. Zuzana Piussi and Vít Janeček’s documentary essay University and Freedom [+see also:
trailer
film profile], about the commercialisation of education and how universities maintain academic freedoms, and Aliaksei Paluyan’s look at the protest after the recent Belarusian election, Courage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aliaksei Paluyan and Jörn M…
film profile], will get an airing in the Political Regimes section.

The full line-up of the One World IDFF is available to peruse here.