Film Festival begins tonight with a free film for the public at the Théâtre du Marens
The bright red boards advertising Visions du Réel are now up around the town and everything is in place for another six day film festival (bar any natural disasters – unfortunately last year’s festival was affected by the volcanic eruption in Iceland resulting in many cancelled flights for industry professionals and film fans) .
New director brings festival closer to Nyon
This year the festival has a new director – Mr Luciano Barisone at its helm, he comes to Nyon’s Visions du Réel having previously been director of the “Festival dei Popoli” film festival in Florence in Italy. With a new director comes new innovations: one of these is that this year the festival has been brought closer to the centre of Nyon. Instead of the hub of the festival being at the Usine a Gaz near the lake, all the main activities will now be focussed around Place du Réel (the Salle Communale). This will be the central point and main box office – the other two box offices will be at the Théàtre du Marens and at the Usine a Gaz. There will also be a restaurant and bar at the Place du Réel. During the festival tickets can be bought in advance either on line or at the box office (in previous years, ticket purchasing was only possible a few hours before each film).
Festival continues thoughout the year
The other new innovation is that Visions du Réel won’t be just a festival for 6 days only, it will continue in some form by showing monthly screenings of documentaries at the Capitole cinema in Nyon throughout the year.
As in previous years there are hundreds of films available for the public to see, workshops with a tribute to a particular film maker, “Premier Pas”, (first short films by self taught film makers or film school graduates and their films premiered for the first time in Switzerland). There are international films on offer, short and long films. Many films are entered into different categories of competition and the winners are announced on the final evening of the festival.
Swiss films
Under the “Helvetique category” there are various films set in Switzerland, one of these will be shown for the “Avant Premiere”, for the general public (free entry) at the Théâtre de Marens, at 19:30 on Wednesday 6th April. This film will be “Le Combat des Reines” – “The Battle of the Queens” See festival description below.
One of the most reputed gatherings in the western Alps is the “Battle of the Queens,” when pregnant cows instinctually fight it out to see who will become leader of the herd and defend the pasture. Using precise cinematographic devices, this film relishes in telling the tale of an excited and anxious world centred around one of these competitions
Another film in the Helvetique Swiss category is L’Autre Versant de Gstaad – The other side of Gstaad shown on Friday 8th April at 19:30 and repeated on Sunday at 22:30 at the Capitole 1 cinema.
Film description below by Visions du Réel – The village of Gstaad is a famous ski destination. It consists of a series of chalets surrounded by an almost pristine Alpine landscape; for years it had been a refuge for famous people who adored joining the mountain dwellers and basking in anonymity. This notoriety brought tourism in its wake and, consequently, ruined that image, which the locals still recall nostalgically.
Focus on Colombia
Amongst the hundreds of films on offer, this year there will be a special focus on the country of Colombia. Living in Nyon spoke to Mr Barisone a couple of weeks ago who said; “it’s an exciting time in Colombian film making right now, there is more government funding available enabling some superb films to be made. For this reason Visions du Réel has invited 12 delegates from Colombia to Nyon to attend the festival. There will be screenings of films and a round table discussion”.
Photo below : Visions du Réel – from the film “Apaporis” (one of the “Colombia Focus” films)
There will be much more on Visions du Réel on this site over the festival period including reviews of films.