Joan González, the director of the DocsBarcelona documentary festival, has left us in no doubt whatsoever: "This is an exceptional edition. We wanted to protect the festival and its annual celebration, we wanted to protect the team that works on it, and we wanted to protect the works of brave filmmakers who use their art to bring us closer to stories that have been nurtured over months or years in order to be shared with viewers." This is why DocsBarcelona will once again be connecting with the public, this time via the Filmin platform: its full programme, including 28 features and seven short films hailing from 22 countries (55% of the total number of films are directed by women and 19 titles are feature debuts), will be viewable online between 19 and 31 May, the gathering’s original dates, plus two additional days.

In its Official Section, dubbed Panorama, there will be 13 titles duking it out for the Best Documentary Award (endowed with €5,000), which will be handed out by a jury made up of the director of the TV3 programme Sense Ficció, Montse Armengou; the head of exhibitions at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Jordi Costa; journalist Maria Xinxó; and the head of industry at DOK Leipzig, Brigid O'Shea. Standing out among them are Vivos [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] (a co-production between Germany and Mexico), helmed by Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, which condemns the corruption ravaging Mexico; Forman vs. Forman [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by the Czech Republic’s Helena Třeštíková and Jakub Hejna, a film co-produced with France about the titular Oscar-winning director which, at the same time, also takes a look at communism and the independence of his home country; Solo [+lire aussi :
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interview : Artemio Benki
fiche film] (Czech Republic/France/Argentina/Austria) by late producer Artemio Benki, which paints a portrait of composer Martín Perino; and Winter Journey [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Denmark’s Anders Østergaard, a fiction disguised as a documentary – or vice versa – which lifts the lid on the Jewish Cultural Federation, through which Goebbels’ Nazi Ministry of Propaganda allowed Jewish artists to perform for a Jewish audience (its dramatisations include a brilliant performance by Switzerland’s Bruno Ganz, in his last cinematic work).

The Panorama section will also present a range of interesting European films, such as Faith [+lire aussi :
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interview : Valentina Pedicini
fiche film] (Italy) by Valentina Pedicini, about a sect of karate fighters; Overseas [+lire aussi :
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interview : Yoon Sung-A
fiche film] (Belgium/France), in which South Korean filmmaker Sung A-Yoon talks about the fate of Filipino immigrants who go into exile in the First World, after passing through a kind of “modern slavery school”; Hi, A.I. [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Germany’s Isabella Willinger, reflecting on developments in robotics from an unusual perspective, and which is not lacking in humour; Rising from the Tsunami [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] (France) by Hélène Robert and Jeremy Perrin, about the tragedy that struck Japan in 2011; and Songs of Repression [+lire aussi :
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interview : Estephan Wagner et Mariann…
fiche film] (Denmark) by Marianne Hougen-Moraga and Estephan Wagner, which shines the spotlight on the fateful Colonia Dignidad colony in Chile.

Despite the peculiarities of the forthcoming 23^rd edition, DocsBarcelona will continue to play an important role in the development of new projects and their search for funding (in its online market and industry section, 42 European projects, among others, will be presented to professionals from all over the globe). The festival has also organised various open conferences, such as a session with Denmark’s Niels Pagh Andersen, the editor of The Act of Killing [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]. It will also broach the topic of how the ongoing health crisis is affecting the Spanish audiovisual industry and its festivals, and a round-table will be organised on unconscious prejudices during the creative process, as well as another entitled “Beyond the Director’s Eyes”, which will attempt to raise the profile of professions on the fringes of audiovisual creation.

DocsBarcelona is supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Creative Europe MEDIA programme, the Barcelona City Council, the Provincial Government of Barcelona, the ICAA and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) through its Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Culture (PICE).