2021 EDITION

Crises often function as impulses to a search for meaning, a goal or our essence. COVID-19 not only means a health and socio-economic crisis, but also many personal and value crises. It leads us irremediably to ask ourselves again who we are, what a festival is and what we bring in particular; to focus our purpose of decelerated experience, to prioritize, to simplify and to double our creative efforts.

Part of the planet has spent this quarantine entrenched at home, entertained by films on platforms and television. And it is in this glut of domestic screens that we as festivals have a purifying task to do, to de-saturate the viewer’s gaze. First, by discovering those hidden films that pierce us and invite us to dialogue, and finally by creating the conditions in which the films represent a truly intimate, shared experience that leaves a lasting impression.

Our selection for 2021 aims to give a deeper meaning to what characterizes our welfare society. We are looking for films that are authentic and free, that move us, disturb us, unsettle us, perhaps even transform or heal us. Films directed by women and men, from all social levels, not only made in the city, but also in the countryside, not only with the support of industry, but also with minimal resources.

MajorDocs 2021 will once again be a hybrid festival, because the pandemic will not be totally overcome, but also because we want to be a space for the democratization of documentary film. The physical experience will be essential, which is why we will preserve theatrical screenings, but Majodocs PRO will continue to be a free and open forum for the exchange of knowledge between filmmakers, professionals and audiences from all over the world.

MajorDocs will focus on talent and on facilitating active encounters between filmmakers and their audiences. We fight against tiredness, against the superficiality and homogenisation imposed by the industry. We want to meet this strange, crazy, sometimes incomprehensible, always dangerous cinema. Because as Hölderlein said, where there is danger lies our salvation.