As the Cannes Film Festival makes headlines for the next 12 days, you probably won't hear much about documentaries. But you can rely on TIFF's Doc Blog to fill you in. Don't be mistaken. Doc makers are here, just rarely on the red carpet.

Last year, the non-fiction sensation was WALTZ WITH BASHIR, playing in the main competition; while other sections contained gems like Terence Davies' OF TIME AND THE CITY; and the surprise from Slovakia, BLIND LOVES. All three of those went on to have their North American premieres at TIFF.  

Cannes has a lot more happening beyond the official selection. Accompanying the festival and market is an International Village comprised of tented pavilions - each representing a different country - where you can watch trailers, meet with producers and pick up brochures. I would never have the time or resources to visit all these countries separately. But here I can touch base over one week. I learned the value of this interaction on my first trip to Cannes in 2006, when I wandered into the Japan booth and saw a DVD called YOKOHAMA MARY. My intention was to sample 10 minutes on the monitor with headphones. But I wound up sitting mesmerized through the entire film. Thanks to that chance encounter, I was able to bring the film to TIFF.

Another Cannes function that receives scant media attention is the Producers Network. Started in 2004, the program links producers from around the world through speed-dating sessions and daily breakfasts. This year, the Producer¹s Network is hosting its second annual Doc Brunch as a way to give nonfiction makers a much-needed place to congregate. For another opportunity, the American Pavilion is holding a panel called "Documentary: The New Journalism" that I'll be moderating on the morning of May 19.

Getting back to this year¹s official selection, docs are absent in the main competition, but they can be found sprinkled throughout the section Séances Spéciales. Michel Gondry, best known for ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and other fiction, has a new doc called THE THORN IN THE HEART. Gondry interviews his aunt who was a teacher in rural France, according to the Cannes catalogue, But, little by little, Michel discovers some family stories that he was totally unaware of Gondry isn't a complete stranger to documentary, having previously made DAVE CHAPELLE'S BLOCK PARTY that screened at TIFF 05. Veteran doc maker Anne Aghion comes to Cannes with MY NEIGHBOR, MY KILLER, filmed in Rwanda as a follow up to her doc GACACA (2002) about the country's post-war tribunals. And from China comes PETITION: THE COURT OF THE COMPLAINANTS, directed by Zhao Liang, looking at Chinese citizens filing official complaints in Beijing about abuses committed by the local authorities.

Another specialty of Cannes are films about film. Raising my hopes in this category are TWO OF THE WAVE, a doc exploring the friendship between Jean Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, timed nicely for the 50th anniversary of FOUR HUNDRED BLOWS; and HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT'S INFERNO in which the film restorer Serge Bromberg resurrects footage from an unfinished work by the masterful director of WAGES OF FEAR. The Cannes catalogue is characteristically vague with its description, so I'm not sure whether to call the latter a doc. But I'm eager to find out.

Check back here for further Cannes reports.