France’s biggest international documentary event for the general public and professionals, Fipadoc returns to Biarritz from Friday 24 January to Saturday 1 February 2025.
For this 7th edition, almost 180 documentary films will be screened in Biarritz and surrounding towns. With its roots firmly planted in the region, Fipadoc will be taking over the most emblematic venues in Biarritz and the surrounding area for 8 days, with over 230 screenings, meetings with the film teams, masterclasses, debates and conferences.
The films selected aim to offer a better understanding of the world, both through the issues facing the powerful and through the exploration of human intimacy. Their aim is to provide essential food for thought as we develop as citizens.
‘Documentary is a counter-power when it gives a voice to the forgotten, the silent, the revolted. When it resists the dominant representations, when it has constantly built itself against the omnipotence of fiction. When it opens the screen and our eyes to other, sometimes invisible, realities. It is the genre that cannot cheat in the face of the reality of the world, and even more so that must not.’
Anne Georget and Christine Camdessus, President and Deputy Director of Fipadoc
Among the works selected, three major themes stand out:
● The situation in the Middle East (I shall not hate : A doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity)
● The ongoing war in Ukraine (Songs of slow burning earth)
● Personal stories (Siblings)
A great film shown every evening at the Gare du Midi
Fipadoc opens its doors on Friday 24 January with Joana Mallwitz – Momentum, a film by Günter Atteln about the German conductor whose career has taken off in leaps and bounds, in the presence of the director and Joana Mallwitz. The Malandain Ballet Biarritz will also be opening the festival with an extract from Mozart à 2 (7′). And every evening, a major film will be screened at the Gare du Midi, including two Artes and France Télévisions previews:
● Arte preview / Tuesday 28 January at 7.30pm / Ravel en mille éclats (Ravel in a Thousand Sparkles)
● France Télévisions preview / Wednesday 29 January at 7.30pm / I Am Martin Parr, le photographe so British (I Am Martin Parr)
Dance at the heart of Fipadoc
Every year, Fipadoc ensures that the public can enjoy dance films. This year, Déliés and Inclassable tell the story of the reality that runs through the lives of dance companies, and are in the running for the Grand Prix for Music Documentary. And for the first time, two choreographies will open and close the festival, with the Malandain Ballet Biarritz and the Skorpeidon company.
A focus on the ocean
France will be hosting the 3rd United Nations Conference on the Oceans in June 2025, so this is an opportunity to take a look at the ocean in all its shades, with a conference and a selection of films. Fipadoc is organising a conference entitled ‘From the ocean to the plate’ on Thursday 30 January at 2.30pm at Le Connecteur.
