"SIFF Documentary" has always been an important unit of the Shanghai International Film Festival and has a group of loyal fans. This year, the video content of the documentary unit continues to expand in terms of geographical breadth, time span, rich themes, and ideological depth, striving to show the complexity and liveliness of the world to the audience. This list will also introduce a film from the "SIFF Rhapsody" unit, allowing these most realistic images to present the myriad aspects of the world from multiple perspectives.
"Block 3 Barranès" by the famous director Iko Costa uses film to capture the touching life in a Mozambican community; "Song of Sisters" is about Iranian female director Leila Amini who used the camera for seven years to record her sister's singing to regain her life; "The Last Encounter with the World" is about three children who traveled to 24 countries in one year before they became blind, and director Daniel Roch, who won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, tells the story of three children who traveled to 24 countries in one year before they became blind; "The Eternal Soundtrack" uses jazz to analyze the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Congo; "The Legendary Gold Miner" is about a son who invented a gold-digging machine to dig for his father; "D'Annunzio Takes the Free State of Fiume", which won the Golden Tiger Award, the highest honor of the Rotterdam International Film Festival, uses images to look back at the bizarre rule of Italy; "The Welding of Life" is about a female welder who embarks on a journey to find her relatives and welds a broken life; "The Past of Michel Legrand", a biopic of the great jazz musician and film score master Michel Legrand, uses music and images to take us back to the golden age of film.
SIFF DOCUMENTARIES
BALANE 3 (2025)
Director: Iko Costa
Highlights: The intersection of youthful vitality and real life in film documentaries
Director Iko Costa used 16mm film as a pen to write a "non-fiction youth apocalypse" in the Barané 3 block in the coastal town of Inhambane, Mozambique. The 16mm film captured those seemingly ordinary but story-filled moments in the Barané 3 block:
Girls sit around the sand dunes sharing the panic of their first kiss, boys argue about the absurdity of the presidential election next to an abandoned truck, lovers test the boundaries of physical intimacy at high tide, teenagers bombard the dusk in the slums with homemade speakers... Under Iko Costa's gaze, these fragments are woven into a prose poem about desire and existence.
This film focuses on the streets, traversing daily life and desires, breaking silence and repression, and allowing you to feel the most primitive pulse of life.
A SISTERS' TALE (2024)
Director: Leila Amini
Highlights: Discovering and realizing oneself through singing and images
Director Leila Amini used seven years of intimate filming to record the transformation of her sister Nasrin. Before marriage, Nasrin's singing often lingered in the house; after marriage, she became a "model wife". It was not until her youngest son was born that she stared at her reflection in the baby's pupils and realized that she should still realize her dream. In the end, she created 12 Persian songs, which were not commercially released but circulated in women's communities through the Internet.
Leila, in her role as a younger sister, breaks through the observation distance of traditional documentaries and witnesses up close how Nasrin, as a woman, strives to realize herself, sings loudly, and gradually grows from a fragile housewife to a self-realized woman.
The Last Encounter with the World (2024) BLINK
Director: Daniel Roch, Edmund Stenson
Highlights: See the world with love and courage, discover, cherish and remember
Faced with the diagnosis that their three children were about to go blind, the Pelletier family did not give in, but embarked on an adventure of a lifetime. In order to let their children experience the wonders of the world, they raced against time and traveled to 24 countries in 12 months, bravely pursuing every unforgettable moment. From the red desert of Namibia to the snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas, they crossed borders with love and laughter and discovered the meaning of life.
Director Daniel Roch, who won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, was so excited when he read the news in a newspaper full of bad news that he immediately decided to make a movie about it. Life is so short, why not make every moment shine?
SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D' ETAT (2024)
Director: Johan Görmund-Perez
Highlights: See Africa from another perspective
The film takes the rise and death of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected prime minister of Congo in the 1960s, as a clue to reveal the secrets behind the history of the African independence movement: the world powers at that time only regarded Congo as a resource plundering site rather than a sovereign state. Artists such as Louis Armstrong sent by the United States were exploited, and jazz music once became a political tool against the backdrop of the Cold War.
Director Germund Perez ingeniously combines rare historical materials such as jazz live, UN conference footage, colonial images and interviews with intelligence personnel to form an "audio-visual montage". Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" is accompanied by images of Belgian soldiers, ironically deconstructing the instrumentality of music. The film has won many honors, including a nomination for the 2025 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
THE FABULOUS GOLD HARVESTING MACHINE (2024)
Directed by: Alfredo Pray de la Plaza
Highlights: Gold mining on the survival line: How a Latin American laborer father and son seek the light of life
In Tierra del Fuego, Chile, 60-year-old gold prospector Toto has been digging with his bare hands for 40 years. Long-term physical overdraft has put his body on the verge of collapse, but he cannot stop - because he has not reached the retirement qualification, he cannot get any social security. So his son Jorge came up with a plan to change his destiny - to build an efficient gold panning machine to help his father complete this hard work.
This documentary, with sincere emotions and profound themes, shows the deep affection between father and son, as well as their tenacity and love in the face of adversity through delicate narrative and beautiful images. The director of this film is well-known for documenting the impact of climate change on South American glaciers. His work "Postcards from the Glacier" combines historical images with contemporary photography to show the melting process of the Tierra del Fuego glacier. His works often focus on environmental issues, echoing the attention of Latin American documentaries to social and ecological issues.
D'Annunzio takes the Free State of Fiume (2025) RIJEKA OR DEATH!
Director: Igor Bezinovich
Highlights: Ordinary citizens recreate a crazy experiment from a century ago
In 1919, Italian poet and military officer Gabriele D'Annunzio established the short-lived "Regency of Carnaro in Italy", which is known as one of the most bizarre regimes in history. Director Igor Bezinovich collected scattered memories of this period of history through interviews, and invited ordinary citizens to perform and experience the moment when D'Annunzio occupied Fiume in their own way, reflecting on the dangers of fascism from a modern perspective and method.
When historical images are reproduced frame by frame by contemporary people, and scenes from a hundred years ago are staged on today's streets, history is no longer confined to textbooks, but permeates urban space and public memory. The film premiered at the 54th Rotterdam International Film Festival and won the highest honors, the Golden Tiger Award and the FIPRESCI Film Critics Award.
Welding Together (2025)
Directed by: Anastasia Miroshnichenko
Highlights: Female welder pursues personal dream, welding breaks up family
This is a coming-of-age story about responsibility, forgiveness and love. Katya, a welder abandoned in childhood, embarks on a journey to find her family and tries to weld her broken family together like welding metal.
Belarusian director Anastasia Miroshnichenko is known for her delicate female perspective and powerful and realistic images. In 2017, she attracted the attention of the mainstream European documentary market with her documentary "First Show" about female prisoners. "Welding Life" continues Miroshnichenko's focus on the fate of women, telling how Katya made a difficult decision under the shadow of childhood trauma while taking care of her half-sister: pursue her personal dream or stay for a girl who is almost a stranger but deeply loved. The film was shortlisted for the 2025 Sheffield International Documentary Festival International Competition Unit.
SIFF RHAPSODIES
Once Upon a Time Michel Legrand (2024)
Director: David Deschutes
Highlights: Return to the golden age of film with the genius composer
Michel Legrand is a legendary French jazz musician and master of film score. This film tells the artistic journey of this music giant through exclusive collection of private images and flowing jazz melodies: from the raindrop-like piano sound of "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg", to the suspenseful variations of "The Case of Thomas Crown", to the affectionate chant of "Yentel".
In this musical journey, the most shining chapter is his encounter with Agnès Varda, the "Grandmother of the New Wave" - when the rhythm created by Legrand for "Cleo from 5 to 7" sounded in the Varda section of this Shanghai International Film Festival, the little-known creative highlights of the film happened to echo quietly on the other side of the screen, weaving together a brilliant career map of a talented artist. This is not only a biography of a master, but also an immersive art pilgrimage. Get ready to be conquered by his charm!
Note: If the film list changes, please refer to the actual schedule.
