Documentary films are typically viewed as a way to simply portray reality as we know it. In pursuit of this, filmmakers gave employed a variety of approaches and experimental techniques to communicate ideas and deeper truths that are not immediately self evident in a form whose parameters seem rather straightforward at least, upon first glance. Blending historical accounts with archival footage, and re-creating or including completely fictionalized scenes are some of the innovative ways in which filmmakers have pushed at the self-contained boundaries of the documentary form. By blurring the lines between a documentary's mission to represent social phenomena, and narrative cinema's attempt to imagine new realities, a multitude of interpretations of the "truth" can be revealed.

The films highlighted throughout this program explore different ways of approaching sotrytelling either within documentary form, or by utilizing some of its central precepts. Beginning with Abbas Kiarostami's enigmatic Close-up(1990) and Lutfi O. Akad's landmark Turkish film, Law of the Border (1967), a modest historical survey of documentary/ docu-ficition films is represented, and posits the central question: can a narrative story be more truthful than a straight-on documentary?

Beyond the films presented as part of the month's Pushing Boundaries : Documentaries and storytelling program , our team at Cimatheque is very excited to announce an event we have been hoping to host for some time. The third season of the beloved series, Twin Peaks: The Return, has received considerable acclaim as of late, and iin and of itself seems to have willfully blurred the lines between television and cinema, with numerous critics proclaiming it to be the best "film" of 2017. To honor this- and also to bring more Twin Peaks fans into the fold - we are holding a marathon of the first season, alongside a screening of exceedingly rare short films directed by David Lynch.

For more info and details about the programme, visit the facebook link below