Wexner Center for the Arts will host its documentary film festival Unorthodocs from Oct. 22 to 30. Credit: Kathryn D Studios
It’s a prime time of year for film enthusiasts, as the Wexner Center for the Arts’ annual documentary festival, Unorthodocs, returns for its seventh year.
Featuring film screenings and in-person talks with filmmakers, the fest — which will span from Sunday to Oct. 30 — invites attendees to reflect on “examinations of what it means to live in the world today,” according to the center’s website. Chris Stults, a film and video curator at the Wexner Center for the Arts, said the intimate and focused setting will enable the audience to engage directly with the filmmakers.
Boasting a dynamic lineup of international filmmakers, this year’s festival features rising stars such as Cecilia Aldarondo from the Puerto Rican diaspora, Milisuthando Bongela from South Africa and acclaimed director Želimir Žilnik from Serbia, Stults said.
“It really feels global, like the world is coming to Columbus, to Ohio State,” Stults said.
Stults said Unorthodocs is devoted to creative nonfiction filmmaking and demonstrates the diversity of modern-day cinema. The center endeavors to invite as many filmmakers as possible to share their ideas surrounding both the screened films and general cinematic possibilities, he said.
“There’s lots of chances to have encounters throughout the weekend and just meet other film fans or filmmakers,” he said.
Filmmaker Steve McQueen — best known for directing the 2014 Academy Awards Best Picture “12 Years a Slave” — will screen his first-ever documentary at the festival Sunday, Stults said. Titled “Occupied City,” the film explores Amsterdam’s occupation by Nazis during World War II as well as citizens’ recent experiences with COVID-19, he said.
“It’s kind of an epic, unusual film,” Stults said.
Layla Muchnik-Benali, a film and video curatorial assistant at the Wexner Center for the Arts, said she suggested bringing in the film “Q” by Lebanese filmmaker Jude Chehab, which serves as a poetic and meaningful reflection on Chehab’s own family.
“I felt like she struck a really delicate balance between the poetic, the personal, the kind of challenges of life and also the beauty,” Muchnik-Benali said.
An in-person Q&A featuring Chehab will be provided after the screening, Muchnik-Benali said.
“I think that will be a really exciting way to hear from a filmmaker and kind of get in the mood,” she said.
While the director Q&As will be spread across the week-long duration of the festival, Stults said most of the visiting filmmakers will come together to attend a filmmaker reception event Saturday, where they can participate in casual conversations with attendees.
“It is much easier to have encounters and conversations with the filmmakers throughout the weekend,” he said.
Muchnik-Benali said a perk of bringing together a wide array of artistic professionals at this year’s festival is the built-in opportunity for bonding.
“Every year of filmmakers has its own really unique relationships and dynamics that come from just being in the same place together and either getting to know each other, or some people already know each other,” Muchnik-Benali said. “I think that kind of intimacy and relationship-building seeps into every aspect of the festival.”
The festival’s full roster of films can be viewed on the center’s website, along with information about purchasing a pass for access to all offered films and talks.
