The Launch of Documentary Futurism

Posted by in Cinema Politica, Uncategorized

On September 13th, 2018, the world will receive 15 speculative gifts. On that forward-looking day Cinema Politica launches our newest project in Montreal, Documentary Futurism. Way back in 2016 we pitched a wild idea to the Canada Council for the Arts for their New Chapter initiative (meant to mark the occasion of Canada’s supposed 150th birthday). It was audacious: seed a new film genre by commissioning 15 short films that blend documentary techniques with the speculative or imaginary. We called it The Next 150: Documentary Futurism (or Documentary Futurism for short).

Documentary Futurism takes inspiration from Afro-futurism, Indigenous futurism, speculative fiction and non-fiction, and the 15 films inaugurate a new genre which blends documentary tropes with the speculative arts. The Documentary Futurism programme offers a wide range of formal approaches and topics, from mesmerizing site-specific performances to imaginative aesthetic interfaces, from post genital sexuality to decolonization, and each filmmaking team brings an innovative and distinctive approach to documenting that which has yet to occur.

The films have all been finished and they are beautiful, strange, delectable, defiant, perverse, provocative and fantastic. They merge the real with the imagined, the past and present with the future, and together they make for a stunning program of art and politics.

For those in Montreal, see you at the launch. Otherwise, check out the Documentary Futurism site to book the programme or find a screening near you today.

*Image from THE CEREMONY