The traditional documentary competition “The Mirror of Artdocfest” offers an impartial reflection of the mood and state of society at a given historical moment. It is well known that history is written, among other things, by documentary filmmakers, who visualize the annals. Documentary directors point their cameras at Stalinist propaganda (“Magic Komsomolets”), the epoch, which echoes with the “Island of Real Communism”, Chernobyl with its mute bell (“The Invisible City”) and howling sirens, the fundamental question of being that everyone faces (“Beyond the Fear”), throwing himself into the depth of the winter Black Sea washing the Sochi Olympics (“Long. Black. Cloud is Coming Down”) or bathing in the same intoxicating summer sea in “Dolce Vita”, or writing the saga of the doomed destiny of a small man who is like all of us (“Something Better to Come”). All these slices of life put together reflect the reality which has swallowed the world at a dangerous moment.
This year we have named our program “Reflection”. Let us take a close look at this reflection of our existence. Let us see ourselves, our actions, our clumsy attempts at hiding ourselves, evading harsh decisions, let us acknowledge the evident. Let us pause. Think. And, perhaps, purify ourselves. Take the veil off our eyes. This is what the art of documentary filmmaking calls for. This is what life calls for.

Vitaly Mansky
Curator of the program