The International Competition lies at the heart of the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival and reveals its curatorial direction. Comprising new works making their Asian premiere or above, the selection also represents the present and future of documentary cinema. These nine bold, pioneering, and courageous films confront the threat the climate crisis poses to life, along with war, inequality, discrimination, and violence in many forms. Spanning a wide range of regions, terrains, and modes of documentary practice, they aim to surprise and delight audiences and industry professionals alike.
Some call for action on the world’s most urgent issues; others follow people resisting the contradictions of tradition or everyday life, or celebrate alternative ways of living beyond conventional standards. Together, they relay the positions documentary filmmakers take before the complexities of the world. Power relations shaped by race, gender, and class form another central thread, illuminating how structures of domination operate on individuals and on entire communities. These refined cinematic inquiries into challenging subjects have captivated audiences at leading festivals worldwide and bear full witness to the audiovisual and narrative possibilities of documentary cinema.