Vision Du Réel – The Mountains Won’t Move

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Vision Du Réel is a documentary film festival that takes place every year, or almost. It is an opportunity to watch documentary films on a screen bigger than a laptop or television. Many films are screened with the director/producer but they are also screened a second time. Yesterday I went to watch The Mountains Won't Move. It is an observational, cinéma verité style film.

There is no narration. There are no subtitles. Almost everything takes place in the mountains. You watch people at work, taking care of sheep, goats and cows. They also spend time speaking about a dog they appreciate.

What differentiates observational/cinéma verité/direct cinéma from other styles of documentary is that it has time to breath. What you see is what you get. There is no breathless narrator, over the top music and fast paced editing. If we went back in time, too far, this is Vertovian Life Unaware cinéma. As with Nannok of the North this documents the end of a culture.

The culture that it documents 'the end of' in theory, is life as a sheppard. Having said this they still exist in Switzerland and other places but the job has changed since then.

Part of me thought "But if sheppard culture vanishes hiking culture, via ferrata and more can replace it. In reality, the Via Alpina, Via ferrata and more are making the mountains more attractive for a diversity of sports. Former sheppard should become guides.

Such documentaries are refreshing because at the same time as they are "about nothing", they capture a part of life that may soon vanish. That's why such documentaries have value.

For me, documentary watching is a solo experience. I have watched thousands of documentaries over the years, in solitude. It's an interesting experience to people laugh at some scenes, and to be in a cinema, with others. To be pedantic it is a Salle Communale.

I get to see these films for "free" by being a volunteer at the festival. In exchange for doing four hour shifts I get to watch any documentary I want, as long as there is space remaining.