La Première Fois, a festival of first documentaries, celebrates its 10th anniversary in Marseilles from February 26th to March 3rd. Organized by Les films du gabian, this festival seeks out films by documentary makers with a personal point of view, while encouraging young film-makers to come and exchange ideas. Non-competitive, it presents an international selection of 15 first documentary films, screened in the presence of their directors.
Each year the festival also invites an established documentary maker, giving audiences the chance to rediscover part of her or his filmography and attend a masterclass. For this 10th edition, the organisers have invited Iranian film-maker Mehran Tamadon, following Jean-Gabriel Périot last year. The festival opened on February 26th with a screening of Tamadon’s 2009 film Bassidji at the Gyptis Cinema.
The following day audiences saw Iranian, in which Tamadon spends two days talking to four mullahs who support the Islamic Republic of Iran. The festival committee also gave him a free hand to present three films: he chose Nathan Nicholovitch’s Avant l’aurore, Anna Roussillon’s Je suis le peuple and Close up by Abbas Kiarostami.
As well as the public screenings the festival is organizing “Premier Jet” (First Draft), a one-day workshop for documentary films in progress. Two projects were selected for the workshop: Je me suis mordue la langue by Nina Khada and Histoires d’Ovalie by Clémentine Giovanetti. With advice from film professionals, the workshop will guide the development of these film projects.
Note also a specific programme for young audiences with, on the one hand, screenings for 6th form students, and, on the other, an animation film workshop for children.
The complete programme of the festival can be found here: http://www.festival-lapremierefois.org/festival-2019/programmation/
