Muestra Internacional Documental De Bogotá (25)

Festival start: 01 November 2023      Festival end: 06 November 2023

The Bogota International Documentary Film Festival (MIDBO), organized by Colombia’s Documentary Filmmakers Guild ALADOS, is a non-fiction cinema specialized event that throughout the last 24 years has been consolidated in Colombia and Latin America as a fundamental space of the exhibition, dialogue, and thinking around non-fiction audiovisual.

Regarding the 25 MIDBO, we would like to invite local and Ibero-American filmmakers and producers to submit their audiovisual works to our 2023 call for films and to participate in the varied formative and debate spaces that will take place virtually and on-site throughout the festival.


25 MIDBO Focus:
Recreating the Real

In the curatorship of this 25 MIDBO we want to explore the documentary understood from its ability of Recreating the Real in the sense of staging the real, but also in its capability of finding new perspectives to reach a better understanding of the ‘cinema of the real’.

This year the 25th MIDBO celebrates its first quarter of a century with the commemoration of a pioneering exhibition of its kind in Latin America. We project the festival into the future by presenting the hybridizations of the cinema of reality and highlighting its historical and innovative character. In this line, this year's theme will be "Recreating the Real" with which we seek to maintain the curatorial quality that characterizes MIDBO. This year we emphasize the proximity of documentary to fiction, literature, theater and essay. "Recreating the real" also means asking ourselves about how the documentary approaches the strange, accesses worlds that are sometimes difficult to show and approaches what could be considered unrepresentable, leaving an open door to imagine possible ways to recreate our own realities.

The focus of this edition: "Recreating the Real" allows us to involve films that are on the frontier between documentary and fiction. We believe that MIDBO, with its focus on the production of the cinema of the real in Colombia, is the ideal space to open the debate about the powers and limits of working with people and in real territories. What it means to make the decision to use the recreation of people’s realities from techniques in which Colombian cinema stands out, such as working with non-professional actors or building stories through the archive.

The special program Espejos continues with a series of films that give an account of the cinema made by collectives and communities or that deals with social and political problems. In this section we seek to emphasize films that creatively explore the strengthening of communities, peace building, memories and political struggles in the territories as well as cultural transformations.

1. Registration categories
The filmmakers and / or producers can register their films in the following categories:

1.1. National films
Open to recent documentaries by authors of Colombian nationality residing in the country or abroad.

1.2. Ibero-American films
Open to Recent documentary films by authors from any Ibero-American country, residing in their countries or abroad.

1.3. Films by emerging directors / filmmakers
It offers a space for Ibero-American directors, whose films have been produced within the framework of an academic training program, as well as first works by empirical and self-taught authors.

* Includes filmmakers from Brazil and Spanish-speaking countries in Central, South America and the Caribbean.

1.4. National films produced in community processes
It offers a space for Colombian works carried out within the framework of community processes.

*Films of any length and format may be accepted in all the registration categories. The subject is free.

2. Conditions of entry
The participants of the the MIDBO’s 2023 call for films, must accept the participation conditions bellow:

2.1. Films must have been produced after January 1, 2022.

2.2. Films in any language other than Spanish must have subtitles in Spanish. Films not subtitled in Spanish will not be considered for the selection process.

2.3. There are no restrictions as to the format used for shooting the footage but we request the exhibition copies of the selected documentaries in a Full HD 1920x1080 minimum resolution.

2.4. Neither journalist coverages nor brand documentaries nor institutional videos will be considered.

2.5. When registering for the call, the directors / producers agree to present their films in the Bogota International Documentary Film Festival MIDBO without the collection of exhibition fees.

2.6. By registering for the call, the directors / producers commit to sending the advertising material, authorization, and exhibition copies on the dates and formats indicated by the 25th Bogota International Documentary Film Festival, MIDBO 2023. Participants that do not fit this condition will not be considered for the selection process.

3. DATES
Call opening:
April 13, 2023

Closing of registrations first stage:
May 2, 2023

Closing of registrations second stage:
May 31, 2023

Publication of results:
August 1, 2023

4. Film registration
The film registration process must be done in the following way:

4.1. The film registration in the categories: National films, Ibero-American films, Films by emerging directors / filmmakers will be made through the online platform Festhome.

4.2. The registration of the films in the Colombian Films modality made in community processes, will be done through the following registration form and free of charge:
https://forms.gle/e31SMiMnVpnz9vYd9

5. Registration fees
5.1. National films:
Registration for national documentaries has a fee of 2 USD in the first stage and 4 USD in the second stage, which must be paid through the platform.

5.2. Ibero-American films:
Registration for Ibero-American films has a fee of 3 USD in the first stage and 5 USD in the second stage, which must be paid through the platform.

5.3. The category of Emerging directors / filmmakers:
It has a cost of 2 USD in the first stage and 4 USD in the second stage, which must be paid through the platform.

5.4. Colombian films made in community processes:
In order to encourage the participation of this type of project and keeping on mind the conditions for carrying out said works, this modality is free of charge.

6. Final dispositions
The selection of films will be the responsibility of the programming team.
By submitting a film, the participant agrees to all terms and conditions explained.
Once the selection has been announced by MIDBO, no documentaries can be retrieved from the festival MIDBO 2023. Keep in mind that MIDBO favors international, national or Bogota premieres that have not gone through their official premiere in movie theaters or have premiered at other festivals in the city on close dates.

Request info:
convocatoriamidbo@gmail.com

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