Montreal International Documentary Festival

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Schedule

20 - 30 Nov. 2025

Cinéma Cineplex Odeon Quartier Latin - Salle 10
Cinéma du Parc - Salle 2
Cinémathèque québécoise - Café-bar
Cinémathèque québécoise - Foyer Luce-Guilbeault
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Fernand-Seguin
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Norman-McLaren
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Principale
Grande Bibliothèque (BANQ) - Auditorium
Salle d'exposition de la Place des Arts
UQAM - Pavillon Judith-Jasmin
8h
9h
10h
11h
12h
13h
14h
15h
16h
17h
18h
19h
20h
21h
22h
23h
24h
1h
18:15 Gazan Tales
Mahmoud Nabil Ahmed | 2024 | Arabic | S.T English

In a collaborative approach, a Palestinian filmmaker authentically captures the daily lives of four men in the Gaza Strip. A rare and deeply human perspective.

See full details
20:15 Rising Through the Fray *
Courtney Montour | 2025 | English | S.T French

Through roller derby, Indigenous women discover a space of sisterhood and healing, allowing them to assert the complexity of their identity and build a community.

See full details
18:00 The Mountain Won't Move
Petra Seliškar | 2025 | Albanian, Macedonian | S.T French

Documenting the daily life of five young brothers, shepherds in the mountains of North
Macedonia, the precise and intimate camera reveals the dynamics between humans and animals penned in by the open horizon.

See full details
20:15 Green Valley *
Morgan Tams | 2025 | English

A long-standing resident of the farm, the filmmaker sets up a camera close to this community living physically and ideologically on the margins of consumer society.

See full details
15:30 Recording of a CHOQ podcast : Le monde dans mes oreilles with Arjun Talwar
Recording of a CHOQ podcast : Le monde dans mes oreilles with Arjun Talwar

FREE

Le monde dans mes oreilles, a podcast broadcast on CHOQ.ca and produced and hosted by Caroline Marcoux-Gendron, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Music at UQAM, highlights immigrants’ stories through the prism of the music that marks their journey. A special edition of the podcast will be recorded live during the RIDM, featuring filmmaker Arjun Talwar, who will discuss his documentary Letters From Wolf Street, the opening film of this year’s festival.

See full details
11:00 UXdoc : Where documentary meets new technologies
(1) All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost
Mélanie Courtinat | 2022 | English | S.T. English

A melancholic journey based on the testimony of a woman who refused to evacuate her hometown village after a terrible disaster.

See full details
(2) Empereur
Marion Burger, Ilan Cohen | 2023 | French, English

It is the story of a man who’s lost his ability to speak, and his daughter who seeks to communicate with him, exploring aphasia as if it were a distant land.

See full details
(3) Queer Utopia
Lui Avallos | 2023 |

In his living room, a retired playwright unveils a revelation to the spectator : he is losing his memories and seeks companionship to reconstruct his cherished remembrances.

See full details
(4) The Man Who Couldn't Leave
Singing Chen | 2022 | Mandarin | S.T. English

Inside the former Green Island Prison, political prisoner A-Kuen recounts stories of imprisonment and persecution that took place in Taiwan in the 1950s.

See full details
(5) Energeia
Ugo Arsac | 2023 | French

An immersive journey through France's nuclear fission and fusion plants, featuring interviews with experts on the future of energy.

See full details
18:45 Elegy for the Lost / Tigers Can Be Seen in the...*
(1) Elegy for the Lost
William Hong-xiao Wei | 2025 | Chinese, English | S.T English

Through a kaleidoscopic collection of images and memories, this personal and political visual essay reveals the effects of censorship on China's contemporary queer community.

See full details
(2) Tigers Can Be Seen in the Rain
Oscar Ruiz Navia | 2025 | Spanish | S.T English

The streets of Montreal intersect with a distant yet familiar Colombia, connecting two remote realities that unite to bear witness to the magnitude of absence.

See full details
(3) The Last Harvest
Nuno Boaventura Miranda | 2025 | Portuguese | S.T English

Between dreams and memories, three lives have been searching for an anchor since they had to leave Cape Verde for the city. This film is a hybrid, poetic work in which exile sparks nostalgia.

See full details
(4) Morning Circle
Basma Al-Sharif | 2025 | Arabic, Armenian, German | S.T English

Morning Circle follows a father and son through the home, playground, and kindergarten, where language, care, and ritual reveal the weight of exile, authority, exclusion, and quiet resistance.

See full details
17:00 A Scary Movie
Sergio Oksman | 2025 | Portuguese, Spanish | S.T English

A filmmaker and his son’s vacation in an abandoned hotel intersects with the story of a murderer from the 1830s and the personal memories of a past that shapes and haunts.

See full details
21:15 When Lightning Flashes Over the Sea
Eva Neyman | 2025 | Russian, Ukrainian, yiddish | S.T English

Through a poetic and tender pilgrimage, Eva Neymann carefully paints a portrait of Odessa and its residents, revealing the resilience of some and the absence of others.

See full details
10:30 College Student Films
College Student Films

FREE VIA RESERVATION

The eight short documentaries featured in this program were made by Cegep students across Quebec and all received a Mention RIDM during the year.

In this program :
Salut Thierry - Cégep du Vieux-Montréal
Trémailleur - Cégep de Ste-Foy
For What It Is - Dawson College
Abeilles - Cégep de Saint-Laurent
L'Enfer, c'est les autres - Cégep André-Laurendeau
Feu de joie - Cégep de l'Outaouais
IN.Habitants - Cégep Lionel-Groulx
Celui qui s'érode - Cégep de Lévis

See full details
17:00 Emerging Talent Happy Hour
Emerging Talent Happy Hour

FREE

Foosball, collaborative playlists, puzzles, board games, a microwave, beanbags and a warm atmosphere: McLaren Hall becomes a student café for happy hour!

See full details
22:00 New Talent Party: Total Bingo!
New Talent Party: Total Bingo!

FREE

Plein(s) Écran(s) invites you to Total Bingo! night with Jean-François Provençal! On the menu: colourful drinks, funky music and tons of unusual prizes, which are sure to satisfy your cravings until the end of the year (or almost).

DJ Fragman will be spinning starting at 11 p.m.!

See full details
13:30 Lesson in cinema : Jonah Malak
Lesson in cinema : Jonah Malak

As part of Emerging Talent Day, Jonah Malak will discuss his documentary approach, his threefold role as director, editor, and producer, and his latest film presented in this year’s edition and entered in the Magnus-Isacsson competition, Mais où va-t-on, Coyote?.

Jonah Malak is a director, editor, and producer of documentaries at Némésis Films, which he co-founded. His films are at the intersection of several disciplines and cultures, with two feature films and several short films to his credit.

Moderation : Simon Dugas
This activity is free (by reservation), will be held in French and is presented as part of the Emerging Talent Day.

For more information or to reserve seats for a student group, please contact Marie-Anne Sergerie.

See full details
17:30 Soul of the Foot *
Mustafa Uzuner | 2025 | Turkish | S.T French

Through personal and collective memory, this sensitive essay in three movements attempts to bring to life Turkey’s past and future potential without nostalgia.

See full details
19:30 Evidence *
Lee Anne Schmitt | 2025 | English | S.T French

In a rare fusion of art and pedagogy, this compelling essay exposes the invisible hand of the John M. Olin Foundation behind the trickling down (neo)conservatism in the United States.

See full details
21:45 CycleMahesh *
Suhel Banerjee | 2024 | Hindi, Odia, Marathi | S.T English

Vigorously blending fiction and reality, this film—full of narrative and visual discoveries—revisits the unusual story of Mahesh's 1,700-km bicycle journey.

See full details
15:45 Action Item
Paula Durinová | 2025 | English

This film revisits stories of anxiety and burnout through an aesthetic exploration that embodies them in a sensory way to invite us to transform our toxic cultures and societies.

See full details
19:30 La soirée de la relève Radio-Canada*
(1) On tire pas sur une plante pour qu'elle pousse
Gabrielle Bergeron-Leduc | 2025 | French | S.T French

It’s summer in Haute-Gaspésie, and Rosie-Roch recalls intimate memories of her youth and opens up about her burgeoning queer identity between swims and walks. (AF)

See full details
(2) Hyperlien
Juliette Poitras | 2025 | French | S.T French

Scrolling through Google Maps, photos, voice memos, and internet searches on her computer screen, the director looks back on a family breakup that distanced her from her half-sisters. (AF)

See full details
(3) Histoires d'anxiétés
Adèle Schneider | 2025 | French | S.T French

This animated documentary, with its stark yet imaginative drawings, explores the intersecting paths of people suffering from anxiety as they move toward healing.(AF)

See full details
(4) Kennedy
Pablo Antonio Vargas Venegas | 2025 | English | S.T French

Made from footage shot in Bogotá in his uncle's empty apartment while he was still alive, this film transports us to a nephew’s reflections on absence and the regrets of his vague memories. (AF)

See full details
(5) Vox Fémina
Danielle Tudor | 2024 | French | S.T French

Dreamlike paintings illustrate the resilience of three women facing their physical and relational trauma. (AF)

See full details
(6) Tisser la soie
Marguerite Ranger | 2025 | French, English, Vietnamese | S.T French

Through intimate, private interviews, women from a Vietnamese family who immigrated to Quebec in 1975 discuss exile, sacrifice, and intergenerational transmission. (AF)

See full details
19:30 La Soirée de la relève Radio-Canada
La Soirée de la relève Radio-Canada

FREE

For the past ten years, this night has allowed for emerging Quebec filmmakers and their short documentary films to be showcased. A professional jury will select the winning film, whose director will be awarded with a $10 000 grant from Radio-Canada meant to fund a future project of theirs. All of the films will be available to stream for free on ICI TOU.TV starting from November 23rd 2024.

The screening is free, first come, first served.

See full details
16:00 Burn From Absence
Emeline Courcier | 2024 | French | S.T. English

Emeline Courcier uses artificial intelligence as a tool and metaphor, drawing from her Vietnamese family’s memory and their philosophy of erasing the past to build resilience.

See full details
10:00 Networking Brunch
Networking Brunch

For the second consecutive year, as part of Emerging Talent Day, students are invited to participate in a networking event that allows them to meet with professionals from Quebec's documentary community. This activity, organized in collaboration with L’École des médias de l'UQAM, aims to introduce students to the various opportunities available to them once they have completed their studies and wish to enter the documentary field.

Places are very limited. If you want to register, please contact Marie-Anne Sergerie by Friday, November 7.
Please note that the activity will be held in French.


Professionals :

See full details
8h
9h
10h
11h
12h
13h
14h
15h
16h
17h
18h
19h
20h
21h
22h
23h
24h
1h

Activity or Event

Screening

*Director or crew member in attendance

Turn your tablet for a better navigation

10h
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Fernand-Seguin
10H30
10H30 College Student Films
College Student Films

FREE VIA RESERVATION

The eight short documentaries featured in this program were made by Cegep students across Quebec and all received a Mention RIDM during the year.

In this program :
Salut Thierry - Cégep du Vieux-Montréal
Trémailleur - Cégep de Ste-Foy
For What It Is - Dawson College
Abeilles - Cégep de Saint-Laurent
L'Enfer, c'est les autres - Cégep André-Laurendeau
Feu de joie - Cégep de l'Outaouais
IN.Habitants - Cégep Lionel-Groulx
Celui qui s'érode - Cégep de Lévis

More info
UQAM - Pavillon Judith-Jasmin
10H00 Networking Brunch
Networking Brunch

For the second consecutive year, as part of Emerging Talent Day, students are invited to participate in a networking event that allows them to meet with professionals from Quebec's documentary community. This activity, organized in collaboration with L’École des médias de l'UQAM, aims to introduce students to the various opportunities available to them once they have completed their studies and wish to enter the documentary field.

Places are very limited. If you want to register, please contact Marie-Anne Sergerie by Friday, November 7.
Please note that the activity will be held in French.


Professionals :

More info
11h
Cinémathèque québécoise - Foyer Luce-Guilbeault
11H00 UXdoc : Where documentary meets new technologies
(1) All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost
Mélanie Courtinat | 2022 | English | S.T. English

A melancholic journey based on the testimony of a woman who refused to evacuate her hometown village after a terrible disaster.

See full details (2) Empereur
Marion Burger, Ilan Cohen | 2023 | French, English

It is the story of a man who’s lost his ability to speak, and his daughter who seeks to communicate with him, exploring aphasia as if it were a distant land.

See full details (3) Queer Utopia
Lui Avallos | 2023 |

In his living room, a retired playwright unveils a revelation to the spectator : he is losing his memories and seeks companionship to reconstruct his cherished remembrances.

See full details (4) The Man Who Couldn't Leave
Singing Chen | 2022 | Mandarin | S.T. English

Inside the former Green Island Prison, political prisoner A-Kuen recounts stories of imprisonment and persecution that took place in Taiwan in the 1950s.

See full details (5) Energeia
Ugo Arsac | 2023 | French

An immersive journey through France's nuclear fission and fusion plants, featuring interviews with experts on the future of energy.

See full details
13h
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Norman-McLaren
13H30 Lesson in cinema : Jonah Malak
Lesson in cinema : Jonah Malak

As part of Emerging Talent Day, Jonah Malak will discuss his documentary approach, his threefold role as director, editor, and producer, and his latest film presented in this year’s edition and entered in the Magnus-Isacsson competition, Mais où va-t-on, Coyote?.

Jonah Malak is a director, editor, and producer of documentaries at Némésis Films, which he co-founded. His films are at the intersection of several disciplines and cultures, with two feature films and several short films to his credit.

Moderation : Simon Dugas
This activity is free (by reservation), will be held in French and is presented as part of the Emerging Talent Day.

For more information or to reserve seats for a student group, please contact Marie-Anne Sergerie.

More info
15h
Cinémathèque québécoise - Café-bar
15H30 Recording of a CHOQ podcast : Le monde dans mes oreilles with Arjun Talwar
Recording of a CHOQ podcast : Le monde dans mes oreilles with Arjun Talwar

FREE

Le monde dans mes oreilles, a podcast broadcast on CHOQ.ca and produced and hosted by Caroline Marcoux-Gendron, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Music at UQAM, highlights immigrants’ stories through the prism of the music that marks their journey. A special edition of the podcast will be recorded live during the RIDM, featuring filmmaker Arjun Talwar, who will discuss his documentary Letters From Wolf Street, the opening film of this year’s festival.

More info
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Principale
15H45 Action Item
Paula Durinová | 2025 | English

This film revisits stories of anxiety and burnout through an aesthetic exploration that embodies them in a sensory way to invite us to transform our toxic cultures and societies.

See full details
16h
Salle d'exposition de la Place des Arts
16H00 Burn From Absence
Emeline Courcier | 2024 | French | S.T. English

Emeline Courcier uses artificial intelligence as a tool and metaphor, drawing from her Vietnamese family’s memory and their philosophy of erasing the past to build resilience.

See full details
17h
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Fernand-Seguin
17H00 A Scary Movie
Sergio Oksman | 2025 | Portuguese, Spanish | S.T. English

A filmmaker and his son’s vacation in an abandoned hotel intersects with the story of a murderer from the 1830s and the personal memories of a past that shapes and haunts.

See full details
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Norman-McLaren
17H00 Emerging Talent Happy Hour
Emerging Talent Happy Hour

FREE

Foosball, collaborative playlists, puzzles, board games, a microwave, beanbags and a warm atmosphere: McLaren Hall becomes a student café for happy hour!

More info
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Principale
17H30 Soul of the Foot *
Mustafa Uzuner | 2025 | Turkish | S.T. French or English

Through personal and collective memory, this sensitive essay in three movements attempts to bring to life Turkey’s past and future potential without nostalgia.

See full details
18h
Cinéma Cineplex Odeon Quartier Latin - Salle 10
18H15 Gazan Tales
Mahmoud Nabil Ahmed | 2024 | Arabic | S.T. English

In a collaborative approach, a Palestinian filmmaker authentically captures the daily lives of four men in the Gaza Strip. A rare and deeply human perspective.

See full details
Cinéma du Parc - Salle 2
18H00 The Mountain Won't Move
Petra Seliškar | 2025 | Albanian, Macedonian | S.T. French or English

Documenting the daily life of five young brothers, shepherds in the mountains of North
Macedonia, the precise and intimate camera reveals the dynamics between humans and animals penned in by the open horizon.

See full details
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Fernand-Seguin
18H45 Elegy for the Lost / Tigers Can Be Seen in the...*
(1) Elegy for the Lost
William Hong-xiao Wei | 2025 | Chinese, English | S.T. English

Through a kaleidoscopic collection of images and memories, this personal and political visual essay reveals the effects of censorship on China's contemporary queer community.

See full details (2) Tigers Can Be Seen in the Rain
Oscar Ruiz Navia | 2025 | Spanish | S.T. English

The streets of Montreal intersect with a distant yet familiar Colombia, connecting two remote realities that unite to bear witness to the magnitude of absence.

See full details (3) The Last Harvest
Nuno Boaventura Miranda | 2025 | Portuguese | S.T. English

Between dreams and memories, three lives have been searching for an anchor since they had to leave Cape Verde for the city. This film is a hybrid, poetic work in which exile sparks nostalgia.

See full details (4) Morning Circle
Basma Al-Sharif | 2025 | Arabic, Armenian, German | S.T. English

Morning Circle follows a father and son through the home, playground, and kindergarten, where language, care, and ritual reveal the weight of exile, authority, exclusion, and quiet resistance.

See full details
19h
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Principale
19H30 Evidence *
Lee Anne Schmitt | 2025 | English | S.T. French

In a rare fusion of art and pedagogy, this compelling essay exposes the invisible hand of the John M. Olin Foundation behind the trickling down (neo)conservatism in the United States.

See full details
Grande Bibliothèque (BANQ) - Auditorium
19H30 La soirée de la relève Radio-Canada*
(1) On tire pas sur une plante pour qu'elle pousse
Gabrielle Bergeron-Leduc | 2025 | French | S.T. English

It’s summer in Haute-Gaspésie, and Rosie-Roch recalls intimate memories of her youth and opens up about her burgeoning queer identity between swims and walks. (AF)

See full details (2) Hyperlien
Juliette Poitras | 2025 | French | S.T. English

Scrolling through Google Maps, photos, voice memos, and internet searches on her computer screen, the director looks back on a family breakup that distanced her from her half-sisters. (AF)

See full details (3) Histoires d'anxiétés
Adèle Schneider | 2025 | French

This animated documentary, with its stark yet imaginative drawings, explores the intersecting paths of people suffering from anxiety as they move toward healing.(AF)

See full details (4) Kennedy
Pablo Antonio Vargas Venegas | 2025 | English | S.T. French

Made from footage shot in Bogotá in his uncle's empty apartment while he was still alive, this film transports us to a nephew’s reflections on absence and the regrets of his vague memories. (AF)

See full details (5) Vox Fémina
Danielle Tudor | 2024 | French

Dreamlike paintings illustrate the resilience of three women facing their physical and relational trauma. (AF)

See full details (6) Tisser la soie
Marguerite Ranger | 2025 | French, English, Vietnamese | S.T. French

Through intimate, private interviews, women from a Vietnamese family who immigrated to Quebec in 1975 discuss exile, sacrifice, and intergenerational transmission. (AF)

See full details
19H30 La Soirée de la relève Radio-Canada
La Soirée de la relève Radio-Canada

FREE

For the past ten years, this night has allowed for emerging Quebec filmmakers and their short documentary films to be showcased. A professional jury will select the winning film, whose director will be awarded with a $10 000 grant from Radio-Canada meant to fund a future project of theirs. All of the films will be available to stream for free on ICI TOU.TV starting from November 23rd 2024.

The screening is free, first come, first served.

More info
20h
Cinéma Cineplex Odeon Quartier Latin - Salle 10
20H15 Rising Through the Fray *
Courtney Montour | 2025 | English | S.T. French

Through roller derby, Indigenous women discover a space of sisterhood and healing, allowing them to assert the complexity of their identity and build a community.

See full details
Cinéma du Parc - Salle 2
20H15 Green Valley *
Morgan Tams | 2025 | English

A long-standing resident of the farm, the filmmaker sets up a camera close to this community living physically and ideologically on the margins of consumer society.

See full details
21h
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Fernand-Seguin
21H15 When Lightning Flashes Over the Sea
Eva Neyman | 2025 | Russian, Ukrainian, yiddish | S.T. English

Through a poetic and tender pilgrimage, Eva Neymann carefully paints a portrait of Odessa and its residents, revealing the resilience of some and the absence of others.

See full details
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Principale
21H45 CycleMahesh *
Suhel Banerjee | 2024 | Hindi, Odia, Marathi | S.T. English

Vigorously blending fiction and reality, this film—full of narrative and visual discoveries—revisits the unusual story of Mahesh's 1,700-km bicycle journey.

See full details
22h
Cinémathèque québécoise - Salle Norman-McLaren
22H00 New Talent Party: Total Bingo!
New Talent Party: Total Bingo!

FREE

Plein(s) Écran(s) invites you to Total Bingo! night with Jean-François Provençal! On the menu: colourful drinks, funky music and tons of unusual prizes, which are sure to satisfy your cravings until the end of the year (or almost).

DJ Fragman will be spinning starting at 11 p.m.!

More info
16h30After circus *

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Discover the best in documentary, take part in our year-round activities, and make the most of your festival!

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Discover the best in documentary, take part in our year-round activities, and make the most of your festival!