What happens when nature is reduced to a problem that needs solving and a capitalizable attraction at once? Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman explore that question in their captivating feature documentary debut, taking a close look at the relationship between humans and polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba. Its status is complicated in the proclaimed Polar Bear Capital of the World, where the awe-inspiring animals venture close to residential areas. After winning Sundance’s US Documentary Competition with its breathtaking footage and nuanced approach to the conflict between human interests and animal preservation, Nuisance Bear screens at Visions du Réel. Here, the filmmakers talk with Lidanoir about coming close, but not too close, to polar bears, capturing never-before-seen wildlife images, and earning the trust of the local communities.

Social pressure, professional strains, and emotional tension come together in Viv Li’s personal and disarmingly humorous portrait of herself at a crossroads. Witty and visually arresting, her feature documentary debut finds the universal in individual issues and vice versa while meditating on identity, insecurity, and ideals. Just a couple of weeks after premiering at the Berlinale and MoMA’s ND/NF forum, Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest comes to Visions du Réel’s main competition. Before heading to her next screening in New York, the Chinese filmmaker based in Berlin spoke with Lidanoir about the detailed development process, the challenges aspiring filmmakers face, and finding the humor in everyday events.

In a world shaped by militarized conflict and displacement, Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak manage to find the love that overcomes violence and repression - on a personal and a cinematic level. Both come together in their intimate chronicle of a romance against all odds. Birds of War tells their very own love story during the Syrian Civil War and the Lebanese war, witnessing the devastation and brutal impact on people's lives but also moments of unexpected beauty. After premiering at Sundance where it won the prestigious Special Jury Award for its journalistic impact, the moving documentary is now at Visions du Réel. On site in Nyon, the filmmakers spoke with Lidanoir about bringing their own lives to the screen, the importance of not reducing people to headlines, and the future they see for themselves.

Just a few weeks ago, her gentle feature film debut, meandering between cinéma vérité and rural fairytale, won Dongnan Chen the main prize at Copenhagen's renowned CPH:DOX film festival. Now the Chinese filmmaker continues her successful festival journey at Visions du Réel where her imaginative coping-of-age story about three young girls from the Yi minority screens in the Grand Angle section. On the festivals's busy main site, Dongnan Chen spoke with Lidanoir about the delicate balance between friction and reality in Whispers in May, finding the local girls who star in it, and her personal connection to its central themes of migration, social pressure, and generational responsibilities.

Still a bit overwhelmed by the splendid success their debut documentary achieved with its Sundance premiere, Rebecca Zweig and Efraín Mojica already have graced over a dozen film festivals with their intimate look at gay Mexican cowboys at the titular traditional rodeo event. Equally gentle and daring, Jaripeo explores the multilayered tension - social, sensual, and symbolic - evoked by the performances of masculinity as well a their collision with queer identity and desire. During their most recent festival stop at Visions du Réel, the director duo spoke with Lidanoir about finding their glamorous characters, shooting in Efraín's hometown, and the vibrant queer community at a place shaped by tradition and religion.

After giving relatable instructions on mundane topics in his successful series How to with John Wilson, the American documentary filmmaker and producer struck festival gold with his first feature-length documentary. The History of Concrete takes the omnipresent material as a thematic prism to explore very different kinds of structures, industrial, sociological, and emotional. After premiering at Sundance and packing movie theaters at Copenhagen's CPH:DOX, the tragicomical doc is now at Visions du Réel. Just after the Q&A of his sold-out screening, John Wilson found time for an interview with Lidanoir, talking the challenges of independent filmmaking, his desillusioned feelings about the titular material, and making the most unfunny things comical.

In the increasingly competitive landscape of international film festivals, few artistic directors have shaped theirs as decisively as Emilie Bujès. Her nine year at Visions du Réel saw the Swiss festival grow into one of the ost important international platforms for non-fiction film, attracting an impressive range of renowned filmmakers focused on realit stories as well as a exciting new talents. Before seeking out a new challenge at the Geneva International Film Festival, her final edition of Visions du Réel asserts her bold curatorial vision with a program that challenges established perceptions of non-fiction cinema. In an interview on site with Lidanoir, Bujés reflects on the balance between artistic and social-political aspects of selected titles, why she avoids th term "documentary", the financial challenges international film festival face, and the complicated presence of AI.

In an increasingly authocratic political climate in the US, where trans kids are systemically targeted by and barred from essential medical care, Amy K. Jenkins together with her son Adam presents a tender portrait of family love, growing-up, and being truly oneself. Just about a week after Adam's Apple debuted at SXSW, the US-American director as well as co-creator and writer Adam are at Copenhagen's CPH:DOX festival for the European premiere. In the festival hub at Kunsthal, surrounded by the beautiful artworks of the museum's current exhibition, they both Jenkins and Adam took the time for an interview with Lidanoir about unconditional love, working together on the film, and normalcy as a political statement.

After 12 intense days of film festival and with theatrical screenings of festival films continuing for several days after the official end of the event, CPH:DOX Artistic Director Niklas Engstrøm has any reason to be exhausted. But that is not at all like the founding member who has been with the growing platform for international non-fiction cinema for more than 20 years. In this time, CPH:DOX has grown to one of the world's most respected and influential showcases of contemporary documentary films. Just after the 2rd edition's award ceremony, Niklas Engstrøm delayed the after show celebrations for an interview with Lidanoir. They discuss the unprecedented challenges to truth due to AI, the essential role of fact-based cinema in a populist age, and the ever-expanding future of the festival.

After debuting at Sundance where it won the prestigious World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazićs powerful portrait of resistance, community, and the beleaguered balance between progress and preservation celebrates its European premiere in the Highlights section of CPH:DOX. To Hold a Mountain shows a mother’s fight for the lands of her remote mountain community which are about to be turned into military training grounds. Between screenings of their work, the Serbian director and her Montenegrin colleague took the time for an interview with Lidanoir, discussing the challenging shoot over seven years, female heroes, and the universal meaning of local struggle.