É Tudo Verdade / It's All True

On the morning of March 10, 2020, It’s All True held its traditional press conference to announce the program for its 25th edition. On the following day, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Covid-19 global pandemic. Up to that date, 118 thousand cases had been reported in 114 countries. As I write this presentation, on September the 1st, in Brazil alone the number of deaths surpasses that mark, with around 4 million confirmed cases – and with no end in sight for the most acute sanitary emergency in a century.

The party was cancelled and mourning invaded our daily lives, initially experienced in a lockdown, soon after symbolized by the obligatory use of masks in public environments. Libraries, movie theaters, museums, concert halls, theaters and cultural institutions as a whole were the first to shut their doors, with a devastating impact on the lives and finances of professionals, entities and companies directly involved in the sector – as, in fact, in all areas of economic endeavor.

At the same time, this confirmed the essential role of culture in social interaction, suddenly made impossible, and in our private lives, isolated and cloistered as never before. If the virus stalks lives, culture humanizes us.

Cinema, as a public event inaugurated by the Lumière brothers in 1895, temporarily had its collective essence precluded. Its aesthetic and economic model was, for the first time in 125 years, suspended. The reengineering of two of its main global events, the Cannes Film Festival and the next Academy Awards ceremony symbolize, by the cancelling of the presential event by the first and the postponement of the second to April 2021, the unprecedented impact of the pandemic.

It couldn’t be different with this 25th edition of It’s All True. Four days after the announcement of its vigorous selection, with programming and catalogue ready, our festival had to be revamped. Supported once again and as always by its extraordinary sponsors, partners and backers, the festival was reprogrammed in two stages.

The first part extended to over 60 hours of digital programming the special selections and retrospectives already originally prepared to the online sphere. Pioneer in Latin America of this virtual remodeling in reaction to the pandemic, It’s All True inaugurated its 2020 edition on the date originally scheduled and greatly exceeded, during that stage alone, the total public of its previous edition.

Faced with the cruel duration of the pandemic in this country, prioritizing the health, safety and well-being of the public, filmmakers, festival partners and all crews involved, It’s All True was forced to reconsider its alternative plan, which combined public sessions and digital programs in its hybrid second stage. Its programming of competitions, showcases, lectures and debates was once again redesigned, aiming at presenting the best virtual festival for all.

A festival, first and foremost, is a fellowship of people coming together to watch and discuss world-class films and historical programs. Exceptional circumstances, however, claim for extraordinary solutions. It’s All True reaches the historical mark of a quarter century reinventing itself, holding, in sync with our partners, a virtual festival – under the sign of emergency and with the same quality standards as ever.

We deeply thank the fundamental support we received, especially from our sponsors, our partners and the teams of the selected films, for making possible this celebration, remote but warm-hearted, of the talent and reflection concentrated in the best of nonfiction Brazilian and world cinema.

I wish you all a wonderful festival!

AMIR LABAKI

Founder and Director

It’s All True – International Documentary Film Festival