Festival Les Étoiles du Documentaire 2016

Editorial by Christian Rouaud, President of the Stars Jury (excerpts)
“Taking the time to watch these films is obviously a great pleasure of cinema, but it is also, without being careful, a way of looking back on our own work. Because we’re very lucid about what creaks in other people’s films: a shot that’s too long here, a lack of demands on the light or the framing, a clumsy editing… And then here’s the good idea that amazes us, an audacity, a connection that we wouldn’t have dared to make, an admirable shot that overwhelms us with its beauty (…)
The documentary gives us to see the world with acuity, it is sometimes trying but that is what makes its beauty and its raison d’être: its look does not flee (…)
This obvious fact reminds me of Andrzej Wajda’s ironic recommendations about censorship: “First, don’t think. If you think, don’t speak. If you speak, don’t write. If you write, don’t publish. If you publish, don’t sign. If you sign, don’t be surprised. »
May these now starred films encourage us to continue to think, write and direct freely… and to sign, whatever it takes. »

The 2016 jury, chaired by Christian Rouaud, was composed of Amalia Escriva, Anne Gintzburger, Pauline Horovitz and Thierry de Lestrade.

The 2016 Awards
À mots couverts* by Violaine Baraduc & Alexandre Westphal
Burundi, ils ont tué la démocratie by Pierre Creisson & Charles Emptaz
Disparus, la guerre invisible de Syrie by Sophie Nivelle-Cardinale & Etienne Huver
Encerclés par l’État islamique by Xavier Muntz
Engrenages: les Jeunes face à l’Islam radical by Clarisse Feletin
Fifi hurle de joie, le chef d’œuvre inconnu de Bahman Mohasess by Mitra Farahani
Guantanamo limbo: dans l’enfer de l’oubli by Marjolaine Grappe, Christophe Barreyre et Emmanuel Chariéras
Home sweet home by Nadine Naous
I don’t belong anywhere – Le cinéma de Chantal Akerman by Marianne Lambert & Luc Jabon
Je suis le Peuple* by Anna Roussillon
Killing Time – entre deux fronts* by Lydie Wisshaupt-Claudel
La bataille de l’eau noire by Benjamin Hennot
La Révolution des femmes, un siècle de féminisme arabe by Feriel Ben Mahmoud
La Solution pacifique by Renaud Villain, Ludovic Gaillard & Camille Le Pomellec
L’Académie de la folie by Anush Hamzehian
Le Bonheur est dans le béton by Lorenz Findeisen
Le Libraire by Catherine Bernstein & Assen Vladimirov
Les Chèvres de ma mère by Sophie Audier
Les Yatzkan* by Anna-Célia Kendall Yatzkan
Maurice Utrillo, Suzanne Valadan, un duo infernal by Catherine Aventurier, Nathalie Bourdon & Erwan Luce
My American (way of) life by Sylvain Desmille
Noche Herida* (Nuit blessée) by Nicolás Rincón Gille
Qui contrôle la mer ? by Baudouin Koenig & Michel Koutouzis
Shoah, les oubliès de l’Histoire by Véronique Lagoarde-Ségot
Tutto Bianco by Morena Campani & Caroline Agrati
Un baptême du feu by Jérôme Clément-Wilz
Une bombe de trop by Audrey Valtille
Une leçon de musique by Marie-Ange Gorbanevsky
Une vie normale by Gaël Breton & Edouard Cuel
Vivre sa mort by Manu Bonmariage

* These films were supported at the writing stage by the Scam’s Brouillon d’un rêve grant..