IDFA Notes on a Festival 2023

NOTES ON A FESTIVAL

Supporting artistic, independent, and critical voices from around the world In collaboration with filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Oceania and the Caribbean, the Fund strives toward a truly international documentary industry.

IDFA Bertha Fund – Classic Funding opportunities for documentary filmmakers and producers living and working in IBF supported regions • Development: For research, script and trailer production • Production & Post-production: For all stages of production & postproduction Deadlines: 10 December 2023 & 10 June 2024

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IDFA Bertha Fund – Europe Minority Co-production Funding opportunities for producing documentary films realized through international co-productions between at least one European and one non-European producer • Minority co-production: Feature-length documentary films with potential to reach a global audience Deadline: 15 January 2024 Applications need to be submitted by a European partner.

The Netherlands Film Fund + IDFA Bertha Fund Co-production Scheme Funding opportunities for the realization of minority documentary co-productions • Feature-length documentary films which have previously been supported by IDFA Bertha Fund are eligible Deadline: 26 February 2024 Applications need to be submitted by a Dutch partner.

Visit www.professionals.idfa.nl/training-funding/funding/ for regulations, deadlines and guidelines on how to submit. Contact: idfaberthafund@idfa.nl

PARTNERS OF IDFA Premium Partners

Club IDFA Andersson Elffers Felix, ABN AMRO Bank NV, AC&R, Artsen zonder Grenzen, Everaert Advocaten, Houthoff, Human Rights Watch, JBR, Jean Mineur Mediavision, KidsRights, Loyens & Loeff, Rotaform, UNHCR and Workx Advocaten.

Donateurs AVROTROS, Better Places, Buma Music in Motion, HUMAN, KRO-NCRV, LaScam, NTR, See NL / Eye Filmmuseum and U.S. Department of State.

Travel & Stay Donateurs Cinecittà, Embassy of Sweden, IEFTA and Lutfia Rabbani Foundation

Partners

IDFA is subsidized and funded by

Suppliers Allrent, Alvero, Arti et Amicitiae, Avenu Media, BeamSystems, Bijlmerbios, Choo-Choo, Cinema De Vlugt, De Balie, De Meervaart, DeLaMar Theater, Eden Hotel Amsterdam, Event Engineers, Eye, Felix Meritis, Festivaltickets, Filmtechniek BV, Fiona Online, Frascati, Green Producers Club, Héman, Hertz, HumanitAir, Het Ketelhuis, INDYVIDEO, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA), inVision Subtitling, JMT, Koninklijk Theater Carré, Kriterion, MacBike, Mausolos, NH Hotel Leidseplein, NH Hotel Museum Quarter, Oberon, Prinsengracht Hotel, Public Relations, Rex International, Rialto, Stichting Audiovisuele Toegankelijkheid, VBVB Cultuurautomatisering, Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond, Volkshotel and Xebia.

Distribution festival trailer Jean Mineur Mediavision

Maintain the blue margins around the logo

IDFA Talent Development Program is supported by

IDFA Education Program is supported by

IDFA DocLab is supported by

IDFA DocLab Research Collaboration partners include ARTIS-Planetarium, Atlas V, Bombina Bombast, Cassette - Nu: Reality, Diversion cinema, East City Films, Eye Filmmuseum, Kaspar AI, National Film Board of Canada, Onassis ONX Studio, Polymorf, POPKRAFT, ScanLAB Projects, The Immersive Storytelling Studio (National Theatre), Tiny Planets, Unity for Humanity, Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond.

IDFA Forum is supported by

IDFA Bertha Fund is supported by

IDFA would like to thank all Friends, Special Friends, and Special Friends+ of the festival.

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Main Partners

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Choose a partner, more than a bank.

www.insingergilissen.nl

TABLE OF CONTENTS Useful information

Imagining a future market

page 06

WOUTER JANSEN page 32

ORWA NYRABIA

Toward a system that values filmmakers

page 11

BY PETRA LATASTER-CZISCH AND PETER LATASTER

The Republic of documentary

page 34

Wang Bing pays tribute to China’s independent documentary film

Industry Program

page 12

page 37

In conversation with Rosine Mbakam MELISSA THACKWAY

Get to know our markets and filmmaker support activities

page 16

page 39

The 15-minute miracle

IDFA Talks

NIKI PADIDAR

page 40

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WOOD LIN

page 20

Contagious & Queer

Industry Talks, sessions, and more page 41

SIMON(E) VAN SAARLOOS page 24

Phenomenal Friction JOOST BROEREN page 26

Rethinking the basics KEISHA KNIGHT page 30

Program sections and awards page 56

Films and projects A-Z page 58

USEFUL INFORMATION FESTIVAL CENTER - ITA

IDFA MARKETS & IDFACADEMY – FELIX MERITIS

Once again, ITA (International Theater Amsterdam) is our Festival Center. ITA is open to all accredited guests and visitors to meet up, catch a film or performance, and attend a wide range of Industry Talks and project presentations. Here you’ll find all guest information, the Guest Desk, Industry Desk, Consultancy Desk, Press Desk, and plenty of social and meeting spaces at the Brasserie, Koninklijke Foyer, Plein Foyer, and Gijsbrecht Bordes.

IDFA Markets and IDFAcademy activities will largely take place in the historical building Felix Meritis.

GUEST DESK - Ground floor

IDFA FORUM AND DOCS FOR SALE

Accredited guests can pick up their pass and get general information about the festival at the Guest Desk.

NOV 7 | 12:00–21:00 NOV 8 | 9:00–21:00 NOV 9 | 8:00–21:00 NOV 10–12 | 9:00–21:00 NOV 13 | 08:00–21:00 NOV 14–17 | 9:00–21:00 NOV 18 | 9:00–17:00* NOV 19 | CLOSED*

IDFA Forum (NOV 12–15) and Docs for Sale (NOV 10–15) are only open for Docs for Sale and IDFA Forum passholders.

• Note: Rough Cut screenings will take place at Pathé City and Vondelpark Pavilion.

The Felix Merits restaurant (ground floor) is open to the public.

NOV 11–15 | 10:00–18:00

*Guest Services will still be reachable on +31(0) 202 620 762 until 21:00 on Sat NOV 18 and between 10:00 and 14:00 on Sunday NOV 19.

INDUSTRY DESK - ITA Salon At the Industry Desk, we can help you with any questions regarding IDFA’s activities for professionals. We can help guide you through the industry side of the festival, and keep you informed on our array of talks, sessions, and meetings.

NOV 11–15 | 9:00–17:00

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CONSULTANCY DESK – Koninklijke Foyer From November 11 to 15, we have multiple consultants on-site for you to ask questions about all aspects of documentary filmmaking, from distribution and festival strategy to grant writing, impact producing, and more. Visit the Consultancy Desk to inquire into the availability of our industry consultants or queue for a last-minute seat.

NOV 11–15 | 10:00–16:00 PRESS DESK- ITA Salon The Press Desk is ready to welcome members of the press. The Press Desk can provide information about the festival programs and guests.

For interview requests, please contact one of our press officers: Lorenzo Ormando – International Press Officer lorenzoormando@idfa.nl Manon de Weerd – Dutch Press Officer manondeweerd@idfa.nl Michel Langendijk – IDFA DocLab Press Officer michellangendijk@idfa.nl NOV 9–18 | 10:00–18:00 MEETING AND WORKSPACES There are several meeting and workspaces available to you at ITA this year.

Brasserie: Meeting space NOV 7 | 12.00-21.00 NOV 8–19 | 09:00–24:00* *NOV 13: 09.00-21.00 Pleinfoyer: Workspace NOV 11–15 | 09:00–17:00 • Note: Industry sessions and project presentations will also take place in the pleinfoyer Gijbrecht Bordes: Meeting and workspace NOV 11–15 | 09:00–24:00* *NOV 13: 09.00-21.00 Café Kuyl: Meeting space NOV 8–19 | 11:00–24:00

IDFACADEMY IDFAcademy (NOV 9–12) is only open to IDFAcademy passholders and invited guests.

PRESS & INDUSTRY SCREENINGS PRESS & INDUSTRY SCREENINGS – PATHÉ CITY & TUSCHINSKI 3 All films selected for the International and Envision Competitions, all world premieres from across the program, and a number of international premieres from other sections are available to accredited press and industry. Passholders must reserve a free ticket online to gain admission.

Tickets are available the day before the screening starts and will be uploaded onto your pass.

NOV 10–15

PRESS & INDUSTRY LIBRARY Watch films from the IDFA 2023 selection online and on demand from November 9 to 19. Please note that films only become available in the Press & Industry Library after their premiere at idfa.nl/library

MARKET SCREENINGS Market Screenings for award season campaigning take place at several of our main cinemas as part of the Press & Industry Screenings schedule.

These screenings are accessible to all accredited guests. For more information and the schedule check idfa.nl/marketscreenings NOV 10–15

TICKETS •

Festival, Forum & DocLab Forum, Forum & DocLab Forum + Producers Connection or IDFAcademy passholders receive: 20 complimentary tickets for regular screenings and events. Additional tickets can be purchased with a discount.

• Press passholders receive: Unlimited complimentary tickets for regular screenings and events.

• Festival Light, Docs for Sale Acquisition or Docs for Sale Participant passholders receive: Discount available for tickets.

• All passholders receive: Discount available for tickets to special screenings.

• Note: There is no admission after the screening start time.

Tickets can be booked at idfa.nl and will be automatically uploaded to your pass. To avoid empty seats, please cancel your ticket if you can’t make it to a screening. Complimentary tickets can easily be returned through your MyIDFA account or by emailing service@idfa.nl

AVAILABLE ONLINE In addition to all the festivities in Amsterdam, we have several online services for you. The following are available to all guests.

• Talks Library: Watch a selection of talks online and on demand. Talks will be added to the Library approximately one day after happening in Amsterdam at idfa.nl/archive • Guest List: Access company profiles, biographies, and contact information of all accredited guests through our online directory at idfa.nl/guestlist

USEFUL INFORMATION DocLab is IDFA’s platform for interactive documentary and new media.

Since 2007, we have been pushing the boundaries of the documentary genre.

For the 17th edition, themed Phenomenal Friction, DocLab returns to the heart of Amsterdam to showcase digital art installations, games, AR/VR projects, live events, and experimental forms of theater and storytelling.

EXHIBITION – De Brakke Grond Free admission, reservation required IDFA DocLab’s main location is Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond. Experience a selection of new interactive documentaries, XR installations, and performances at the DocLab Exhibition in and around the building. Free guided tours are offered daily. For more information visit idfa.nl/doclab NOV 10–18 | 11:30–20:30 NOV 19 | 11:30–18:00 SPECIAL INSTALLATIONS & PERFORMANCES – Arti et Amicitiae, De Brakke Grond, Eye Filmmuseum Ticket required Several installations and performances in the IDFA DocLab program have limited capacity. We recommend you book your ticket in advance. These experiences include: (this conversation is) Off the Record, Borderline Visible (collective experience), One Two, Shadowtime, Traversing the Mist, Tuning Room, Voice in My Head, and William Quail’s Pyramid. Find more information about these projects in the A-Z or online at idfa.nl/doclab

DOCLAB: LIVE EVENTS – ARTIS Planetarium, De Brakke Grond, Eye Filmmuseum Ticket required From live music performances and fulldome screenings to interactive themed evenings and experimental theater, the projects in IDFA on Stage and DocLab: Live Events are one-of-a-kind experiences. Dive deeper into the world of digital art and immersive documentaries, meet the creators, and hear the stories behind the projects in the official IDFA DocLab and IDFA on Stage 2023 selection.

NOV 10–15

TICKETS Book all tickets to new media projects and performances at idfa.nl Register for a free ticket to the DocLab exhibition in De Brakke Grond at idfa.nl

ONLINE OFFERING Discover IDFA DocLab’s online offering at idfa.nl/doclab

Ticket required The DocLab VR Gallery is located in Arti et Amicitiae, a short walk from De Brakke Grond. Each ticket gives you a 50-minute time slot to view VR projects of your choice.

NOV 11–18 | 11:30–20:30 NOV 19 | 11:30–18:00

IDFA Campaign 2023 For the second year in a row, IDFA has invited a filmmaker to reflect on our festival to design our IDFA 2023 festival campaign. Following Louis Hothothot’s butterfly campaign last year, this edition kicks off the initial festival warm up with the emotive visuals by artist Eliane Esther Bots—inviting audiences to experience joy, love, rage, conflict and more. The campaign for the 36th edition of IDFA and has been launched in an evocative posters and festival trailers shown in cinemas across Amsterdam. Eliane Esther Bots is no stranger to IDFA. In 2020, her interactive work The Channel was selected for the DocLab Competition, followed closely by the Dutch premiere of her impressive documentary film In Flow of Words show at IDFA 2021. After she graduated cum laude from the Dutch Film Academy’s master’s program, her work has been shown at internationally renowned film festivals in Locarno, Berlin, and Paris.

For the IDFA 2023 campaign, Eliane Esther Bots used animations, archival footage, and voice recordings to underline the power of film and diversity of human encounters during IDFA. “My films all arise from my interest in how people tell stories,” says Eliane Esther Bots about the campaign. “Stories that help you cope with life. The stories exist already, as do the voices. My role as a filmmaker is to provide the context, from which people can tell their stories.”

Bots believes that encounters—between the audience and the film characters, between filmmakers, their subjects, and the festival’s visitors—form the core of what makes IDFA so special. “For me, IDFA is all about different voices coming together.” This formed the spark for Bots’s campaign, which brings twelve different encounters together as animation, each revolving around its own emotion— including conflict, pause, or surprise.

Festival poster 2023

With her background in visual arts, Bots places great emphasis on the visual aesthetics of her work.

She uses a mix of archive material for the campaign. “I wanted to use a lot of images from different contexts,” she explains. According to Bots, the different forms of voice use in the trailer—such as humming, whispering, laughing, crying, singing, and shouting—also underline the scope and diversity of cinema and the festival.

The process of creating IDFA’s campaign was both educational and inspiring for Bots: “My creative process is through experiment. I have done exactly that extensively here, especially for the trailer. They are experiments with montage, from abstraction to figuration, from found footage to animation. I can also use these experiments for my future films.”

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VR GALLERY – Arti et Amicitiae

LOCATIONS AND ACCESSIBILITY

As part of our ongoing commitment to delivering an inclusive festival experience, IDFA is working to remove several access barriers in our programming and services.

For information regarding location access, audio descriptions, closed captions, sensory-friendly screenings, screenings with amplified sound, and more, please visit idfa.nl/locations

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions about accessibility at IDFA, please get in touch with us via service@idfa.nl Arti et Amicitae (IDFA DocLab, IDFA On Stage) – Rokin 112 ARTIS-Planetarium (IDFA DocLab) – Plantage Kerklaan 38-40 De Balie (Cinema, IDFA On Stage) – Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10 Boom Chicago (Guests meet Guests) – Rozengracht 117

Het Groene Paleis (IDFA Markets) – Rokin 65 ITA (Internationaal Theater Amsterdam) (Festival Center, IDFA on Stage) – Leidseplein 26 kanaal 40 (IDFA on Stage) – Warmoesstraat 66 Kriterion (Cinema) – Roetersstraat 170 Carré (Cinema, Opening Night) – Amstel 115-125 Het Ketelhuis (Cinema) – Pazzanistraat 4 De Meervaart (Cinema) – Meer en Vaart 300

De Brakke Grond (IDFA DocLab, IDFA on Stage) – Nes 45

Pathé City (Press & Industry Screenings, Market Screenings) – Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 15-19

Bijlmerbios (Cinema) – Bijlmerplein 888

Pathé de Munt (Cinema) – Vijzelstraat 15

Cafe Kuyl (Festival café, Guests meet Guests) – Rembrandtplein 26

Pathé Tuschinski (Cinema) – Reguliersbreestraat 26

Cinema de Vlugt (Cinema) – Burgemeester de Vlugtlaan 125

Podium Mozaïek (Cinema) – Bos en Lommerweg 191

DeLaMar Theater (Cinema) – Marnixstraat 402

Rialto De Pijp (Cinema) – Ceintuurbaan 338

De Duif (IDFA Markets, Guests meet Guests) – Prinsengracht 756

Rialto VU (Cinema) – De Boelelaan 1111

De Kring (Industry meet up NBF@IDFA) – Kleine-Gartmanplatsoen 7-9

Vondelpark Pavilion (Cinema, Contagious & Queer) – Vondelpark 3

Eye Filmmuseum (Cinema, IDFA DocLab) – IJpromenade 1 Felix Meritis (IDFA Markets, IDFAcademy) – Keizersgracht 324 Frascati (IDFA on Stage) – Nes 63

Find more information at idfa.nl/locations or scan the QR code

Ammodo supports the development of

ART ARCHITECTURE SCIENCE Learn more about our programmes on ammodo.org

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35% cash rebate 35% cash rebate films & series films & series

THE REPUBLIC OF DOCUMENTARY language that we have not found yet, and then even if we won’t. We cannot cynically conform to the proposed taming, to the commercialization, formatting, or automation of the artistic process, of thinking. To think is to be critical, many said before us.

Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism As the global documentary film community gathers again in Amsterdam, the old idea that we, documentary people, are a tribe comes to mind. We all come, from our very different places, to meet and rediscover that we need each other. At such a trying moment of our world’s history, it is even more crucial that we meet, listen, speak, discuss, think, cry, and laugh together. Too much pain is going around, and pain is, again and again, reproducing more pain. Human history is stuck in this cycle. Here, together at IDFA, we do not have to agree with each other, we can disagree and still share the world. It is the Documentary Republic that we have managed to establish without geography. Not a nation, not a state.

We believe in film, in imagining it, making it, in watching it, thinking it, in showing it, and in the glory of its magical subjectivity. We believe in documentary people, as a people without a geographical claim, as the connective tissue between all warring nations, as proof that a different world is possible. This does not and will never contradict the fact that documentary film is not a space of neutrality.

Documentary takes sides, actively. It stands on the side of the oppressed, of the wretched, of the forgotten, the marginalized. When it loses this core, when it becomes another part of the massive commercial machine that commodifies everything—including change, faith, empathy, and hope—it loses its reason to be.

Documentary filmmakers and artists told us repeatedly that all this pain was coming, and although their warnings did not stop the pain, we have no choice but to keep on making and showing the many singular critical films that are made with much more love and imagination than funding. We have no choice but to keep on searching for that unique

Change might be possible only when we, collectively as a global community, accept that we are all not doing well, that we did not accomplish much to brag about, that the essential responsibility to be critical extends seriously to the self. We have not allowed the world to enter us, we kept on entering the world. We did not yet acknowledge our own limitations, blind spots, or allowed the pain of the other, the experience of the other, the joy of the other, to become part of who we are, rather than our subject.

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“None of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography. That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings.”

Film is one of the few human expressions that have a chance of helping during such times. When we grow past our obsession with success, past our false certainty that we know what a film is or should be, when we approach reality without submission, when realism does not lead to realpolitik, and when we accept that we grow only by approaching the other with humility.

Today, we at IDFA stand by every filmmaker and film professional trying to imagine a different way to do this, because it is worth it, and it is needed. This year’s edition of the festival is an open platform for ideas, no matter how conflicting they might be. It is a platform for our world to speak with itself. This year’s edition of Notes on a festival is part of this invitation, to be critical, to be open, and to believe that despite everything, and no matter how unrealistic it might seem, it is necessary to try and imagine a different path.

Welcome to IDFA 2023 Orwa Nyrabia

A FLEETING MOMENT OF FREEDOM

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Wang Bing, photo by Jean-Pierre Cousin

WANG BING PAYS TRIBUTE TO CHINA’S INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY FILM

By Wood Lin Upon graduating from art college in 1995, Wang Bing embarked on his documentary filmmaking journey in 1999.

In speaking to the uncompromising voice on present-day Chinese cinema, he described this as “a fortuitous turn” after which he dedicated almost four years to completing the epic nine-hour film Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks. Employing observational techniques, the film meticulously captures the conditions of factories and the laborers’ work environment.

The documentary film garnered acclaim at numerous international film festivals and became part of documentary history.

During this pivotal period, the emergence of DV (Digital Video Camera) technology played a crucial role. For Wang Bing, DV represented “a liberating medium, that allowed for a closer connection to oneself and others, capturing a sense of time from reality and extending one’s personal feelings towards life.” The result of this shift in technology is, according to Wang Bing, an important era in Chinese documentary film history—where accessible technology spurred independent filmmaking and offered unprecedented insight into everyday China.

As IDFA’s Guest of Honor this time around, it’s customary to curate a list of his Top 10 films. In the past, the selections usually spanned works from around the world. However, this time Wang Bing exclusively chose Chinese documentary films. He explains, “independent documentary filmmaking in China has been developing for over 20 years. I aim to present it as a special retrospective, spotlighting Chinese independent documentary filmmakers. That’s why I chose not to include international works.” With the Top 10 selection, Wang Bing invites audiences into this era of independent Chinese documentary.

DV and the Chinese independent documentary movement The earliest work on his list is the 1999 classic Old Men by Lina Yang. Yang utilized the groundbreaking Panasonic DV AG-EZ1 camera with 3CCD technology, capable of capturing colors that mirror reality much better than previous cameras at the time. The film employs an observational perspective, long-term shooting, and intimate companionship to present the lives of elderly residents in Beijing, delving into their memories, life experiences, and reflections on mortality.

Wang Bing believes that Old Men “possesses an entirely spontaneous cinematic language, markedly different from mainstream documentary films. It allows for the cinema to return to the personal, representing the emergence of a new cinematic language.”

Unearthing the period’s distinct features and representative works “DV technology facilitated easier and more accessible filmmaking,” Wang Bing observes. “Through the directors’ sustained dedication and trust established with the primary subjects, numerous profound issues could be captured through documentation, revealing the meanings and their significance.” Many works on this list adopt this approach.

Yifan Li and Yu Yan‘s Before the Flood documents the construction of the world’s largest dam. Many villages and natural landscapes are on the brink of submersion, and thousands of villagers face forced exile. Similarly, within the same dam project, Yan Feng‘s Bing’ai describes a rural woman who staunchly resists relocation, sacrificing everything for her family and defending her dignity. Both of these films took several years to finish.

Additionally, Liang Zhao’s Petition commenced filming in 1996 and, spanning twelve years, documented petitioners who journeyed to Beijing. Amidst interminable waiting and gradually losing contact with family and friends in their hometowns, they find themselves in a peculiar and disconcerting predicament. Li Ma’s Born in Beijing, which 13

“Similarly, Weijun Chen, previously entrenched in the realm of TV channels, broke away from the standardized shooting style and thematic constraints of television systems.

Armed with DV, he spent one year filming in a village catastrophically affected by AIDS in Henan, culminating in To Live Is Better Than to Die in 2003.” The film found acclaim at multiple international film festivals. It portrays a family member afflicted with AIDS who still holds aspirations for life, prompting reflection on the meaning of life.

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks by Wang Bing (2002)

took years to finalize, delves into the same subject. The title takes its inspiration from a woman named Jing Sheng (meaning Born in Beijing), who was born while her mother was en route to Beijing to petition for the first time. In the film, she is already 33 years old. The director immerses herself in the petitioner village, engaging in dialogues with petitioners from all corners of China, attentively listening to their innermost stories.

This documentary movement represents something China has never experienced in the realm of art and culture Wang Bing emphasizes, “long-term filming can be seen as a hallmark of Chinese independent documentary films during this period. However, a film’s quality is not determined by the duration of filming, but rather by the completeness of the film. These filmmakers rely on their unwavering commitment to bring their works to fruition.”

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Titles like Tong Xu’s Wheat Harvest, Dan Ji’s When the Bough Breaks, Jian Fan’s The Next Life, and Lixin Fan’s Last Train Home all narrate the stories of China’s underprivileged— encompassing sex workers, scavengers, earthquake survivors, and migrant farmers and workers. These works confront ethical dilemmas and challenge mainstream society, garnering attention and fostering discussions both domestically and internationally, thus earning their place as representative selections.

In speaking on the subject, Wang Bing reflects on the fact that “beyond this Top 10 compilation, there are still many outstanding works,” each revealing both the beauty and the sorrow of China.

Man in Black by Wang Bing (2023)

The fortunes and misfortunes of the era Wang Bing explains that because he is somewhat removed from the filmmaking community, his filmmaking is not influenced by others. He mostly watched these works through indie film festivals or underground way, particularly after 2002 when Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks was finished.

In recent years, as censorship within China has grown increasingly stringent and severe, many film festivals and platforms for showing independent documentary films have been killed. It’s now more challenging to screen independent documentary films than to make them. This cruel situation represents a significant loss for audiences.

Reviewing this list also serves as a reflection on the golden age of Chinese independent documentary films (1999–2011).

Wang Bing asserts, “this documentary movement represents something China has never experienced in the realm of art and culture, especially concerning documentary films. The current situation is the reality you have to face—which is misfortune. On the other hand, despite the many limitations, there are still so many excellent works and so many filmmakers tirelessly devoted to filmmaking. This is also a kind of fortune.”

In presenting this carefully curated selection, Wang Bing “aspires to offer audiences a comprehensive understanding of Chinese independent documentary films through the influential platform provided by IDFA. This Top 10 selection actually transcends personal preference, functioning more as a retrospective and a salute to the era.”

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1 Before the Flood

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Yifan Li, Yu Yan – China – 2005 It’s 2002, and the small Chinese port town of Fengjie is about to be demolished and completely submerged for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. In the months leading up to their move, local residents clash with the “relocation committee”.

Bing’ai

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Born in Beijing

Last Train Home

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Lixin Fan – China, Canada – 2009 Keeping the family together is the toughest job of all for the workers of the factories of a changing China, who only see their children on New Year. While the parents long for their village, the children dream of the city.

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Li Ma – China – 2011 A poignant story of petitioners in Beijing: Chinese citizens who feel they have been wronged by local authorities and seek justice in the capital. They are driven by the desire for redress, but just how far should they go to get it?

Yan Feng – China – 2007 Bing’ai is a farmer in China, and she’s refusing to move for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. While her years-long battle continues, the viewer gets a unique glimpse into her life around the turn of the millennium.

The Next Life

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Jian Fan – China – 2011 In 2008, the Chinese province of Sichuan was struck by a devastating earthquake. A couple who lost their only child in the disaster turns to IVF, hoping a new pregnancy will again give meaning to their life.

Old Men

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Petition

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Liang Zhao – China, France – 2009 Behind Beijing’s South Railway Station lies “Petition Village.”

Many inhabitants of this shantytown have for years been seeking reparation from the government. Their struggle for justice is a daily fight against the indifference of the Chinese state.

Wheat Harvest Tong Xu – China – 2008 Wheat Harvest depicts a complex picture of Hongmiao, a sex worker in Beijing. During the wheat harvest, she visits her village home and aids her family. The mundaneness and rawness of her life are inseparable.

Lina Yang – China – 1999 Lao Liu, Lao Cao and a dozen others—the film portrays a group of retired men in their 70s and 80s. Gathering every afternoon in their Beijing neighborhood, they lament and laugh about old age and dying.

To Live Is Better Than to Die

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Weijun Chen – China – 2003 A harrowing portrait of a Chinese farmer’s family that tries to live with HIV—a result of the trade in blood in the 1990s. While his wife suffers from AIDS and two of his children are seropositive, Shengyi Ma desperately tries to make ends meet.

When the Bough Breaks Dan Ji – China – 2011 An observant portrait of a Chinese migrant family living on the margins of society and struggling to build a chance for a better future out of an existence without prospects. Even if it’s just for one of them.

ROSINE MBAKAM 16

By Melissa Thackway

Rosine Mbakam photographed by Jean-Dominique Burton

IN CONVERSATION WITH

Mambar Pierrette mixes the techniques of documentary and fiction. After directing three feature-length documentaries, what sparked your desire to make fiction?

Fiction was always my first desire. I discovered cinema through fiction. In Cameroon, I had no access to creative documentary. I saw reports on TV, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do. The fictions I had access to were European and American; they weren’t films that allowed me to question my reality. They distanced me from what I saw every day. I discovered creative documentary in Belgium when I came to film school. I also discovered the history of documentary and how it also contributed to constructing stereotypes about Africa. For me, documentary is a tool to deconstruct all the colonial ideology surrounding my identity, my history. I take up documentary as an arm to deconstruct, to show my own history, that of my cinema, and as a way of telling stories that reveals itself with the people I film. When I decided to make a fiction, documentary allowed me to explore—I’m still exploring; Mambar Pierrette is my first fiction—to tell myself that I could do things differently, to concretely come to the conclusion that the way in which people make fiction in Europe doesn’t correspond to how I want to at all. In drawing on my documentary experience, I sought to make a fiction rooting myself in the reality that I film.

Mambar Pierrette by Rosine Mbakam (2023)

What changed for you with the move to fiction? You have continued to draw strongly on documentary codes; in what way did they influence Mambar Pierrette, its subject, writing, choice of actors, mise-en-scène, editing?

One thing I take from documentary is that I don’t think in terms of actors, a word that’s related to fiction, because they are people, characters, who play their own lives.

Documentary helped me realize that I also need to construct the imaginative realm of the characters I film in relation to what they are. These are people who thought their lives were trivial, uninteresting, and who never thought they could be film characters.

For me, documentary is a tool to deconstruct all the colonial ideology surrounding my identity, my history.

They became actors during the filmmaking process, but in the beginning, when I was in Cameroon with Pierrette, it was just about my documentary relations, my relation to the other, like when I go alone with my camera to film someone. It was the same because, even though I wrote the story, there were things in her life that I hadn’t imagined.

This documentary relation remained the same, but we are in a system that loves genre categories. My relationship with her when making the film wasn’t that of a director and an actor. These are people from my family. When I first wanted to make films, it was my family who inspired me. The stories that came to me were these people I saw, who I wanted to

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Exploring the unique relationship of trust between documentary film and audiences, Focus Program: Fabrications tests the limits of the format’s promise of truth. Rosine Mbakam’s Mambar Pierette is one of the ten films in the selection, each probing the difference between reality and realism. Lecturer and researcher Melissa Thackway speaks to filmmaker Rosine Mbakam to explore the extent to which our realities inform our fictions, and vice versa.

recount, their daily lives, their way of living and expressing themselves. My cinema is rooted in that.

Was the film very scripted—the dialogues, notably, which are extremely sober—or did you leave room for improvisation?

It was very scripted because I love writing! Yet at the same time, what is wonderful is that we share a very rich language which, as it is rooted in people’s lives, gave me a richer palette, and took me beyond what I had written. What is beautiful is when the documentary aspect takes over from the fiction, and that’s what I love about this confrontation in my way of directing—how the fiction confronts reality. As a director, I have the humility to observe how reality deploys all its plenitude, its force. Pierrette and the other members of my family allowed me to have confidence in my aesthetic choices because this process gave them confidence too; they realized we have things to recount, things to say that can be heard, that can touch not only our community, but people from elsewhere, whose stories make us dream too.

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What did fiction offer you in terms of mise-en-scène, your precision work on the framing, the extremely choreographed aspect of the film, its rhythm?

Fiction allowed me to go beyond reality in the narration. The political aspect wasn’t visible in Pierrette’s life, but her life is the consequence of all these factors. Fiction allowed me to bring out what was difficult to see in Pierrette’s reality, without being artificial. If I had tried to force that, she would have said things that are not part of her daily life; I would have imposed them on her reality, whereas fiction allowed me to weave in the invisible, to bring it to the fore Mambar Pierrette by Rosine Mbakam (2023)

in the real. Fiction brought me a richness; it allowed me to complexify the story and to take it beyond Pierrette’s reality because it’s not just Pierrette’s; what she experiences is just an infinite consequence of political choices that go beyond her. I wanted to show that and to extend it to the political situation of a country.

The pioneering Senegalese filmmaker Safi Faye, whose film Kaddu Beykat (1975) is also in this focus program, said during a masterclass at the Creteil Festival de Films de Femme in 2010 that, after Mossane, she wasn’t convinced she was capable of making fiction because, and I cite her: “my imagination comes from what I have lived, the values that have been instilled in me,” adding, “I think it is very difficult for an African to put a boundary between fiction and documentary.” Would you agree?

She put it perfectly! To me, there is no boundary. It’s difficult because there is a history of cinema that belongs to the West, and we Africans learn cinema in the mould of that history, and I think that there is a style from Africa and the colonized nations—whether fiction or documentary—that has not yet totally manifested itself. What Faye said is very true; it is hard to dissociate, which is why, even if my stories are fictional, when I imagine them, I see people, not actors.

I see them in their daily lives doing this, saying that. Even if they are imaginary, everything is related to a very strong reality that exists, that’s true. Cinema remains an industry that sometimes reinforces these boundaries, and I’m happy that they are being deconstructed and questioned because you can’t confine cinema to categories. Cinema is more than that, like humans, we who tell these film stories. My characters are more than what I attempt to capture, and it is this “more than” that I am looking for.

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PARTNER IDFA 2023

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Headprickles by Katarzyna Miechowicz (2022)

THE 15-MINUTE MIRACLE For this year’s IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary, we worked with a new programmer.

This was filmmaker Niki Padidar, whose most recent film, All You See, opened IDFA 2022, and who has previously won the Youth Competition’s Best Film Award in 2015 with her film Ninnoc.

For a long time, IDFA has been dedicated to supporting the making and exhibiting of documentary films and new media for younger audiences. IDFA’s Education team works closely with schoolteachers and organizations, both locally and internationally, with efforts that extend to organizing workshops, talks and panels, including young audience film projects in IDFA Forum, and developing an online educational platform with access to films and resources.

At the core of this experience there are serious, difficult, and very interesting questions to discuss.

In collaboration with the Education team of IDFA, Niki Padidar took her experience working on the competition’s line-up very seriously, putting together an eclectic selection of outstanding films—ranging from exciting adventures, animated history, and truly tough family experiences, to moving, smart, and deeply impressionistic visual journeys.

With this collaboration, we set out to start a discussion that pushes the current conventions around the topic of youth documentary. To start off the debate, we asked Niki Padidar to publish a selection of notes she drafted as a statement to spark wider debate during the festival.

We invite you to reflect and consider the topic with Niki Padidar’s insightful notes, and to participate in the debate with us.

NOTES ON YOUTH PROGRAMMING

By Niki Padidar

Children are often underestimated. Parents hide condoms, thinking children won’t have sex. Grandparents hide illnesses, thinking children won’t get sad. Teachers block websites thinking children won’t find another way. And we as film professionals simplify reality thinking children otherwise won’t understand.

This simplifying of reality happens in different ways. All based on the assumption that children are stupid.

Studies found that one third of Dutch children under 10 years of age has already watched porn. Denial will not change this. It will leave them vulnerable, with no tools to process what they see and experience. Can we help them to look critically at what they see, instead of trying to keep them from seeing it?

HAPPIFYING Films for youth have to be cheerful and end happily. When broadcasters seek films for youth, a usual requirement is for the film to be “optimistic, feel-good, with lots of room for lightness and downplaying of hardship.”

WITHHOLDING

So, when you watch a youth documentary, you know that whatever disease, problem, or disaster lies ahead, will be solved within 15 minutes and everyone will end up cured, rescued, and unwrinkled.

Some subjects, like death, abuse, or sexuality for instance, are often avoided for a young audience. But in real life, children see it, hear about it, and will experience it whether we hide it or not. Telling them porn is bad, forbidding and blocking it will not keep them from seeing it.

Young people deal with depression, chronic illness, fears, abuse, poverty, violence, and other uncertainties. Seeing these issues represented can help them feel relief, feel seen, help them empathize with others, and give them tools to cope.

Boyz by Sylvain Cruiziat (2023)

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A father turns to his 10-year-old son: “I think it’s time we had a talk about sex.”

His son nods and says: “What would you like to know?”

OVEREXPLAINING A very popular way of simplifying reality is overexplaining.

Making easy-to-digest youth content. First something will be announced. God forbid a child is taken by surprise.

A narrator says: “Laura didn’t know her ice cream was about to fall.” Then we see the actual thing happen. Laura walks, her ice cream falls. In some instances, also extra titles, arrows, and toddler like animations are used. One arrow pointing to the ice cream saying “ice cream” and one pointing to Laura, saying “Laura”.

Then we hear Laura’s own thoughts: “Oh no my ice cream fell.” And finally, a recapitulation with someone else. “What happened Laura?” “My ice cream fell Tiffany.”

FORMULIZING To make sure we get the simplifying right every time, we have standardized it all. Youth films should be made and judged according to one clear formula.

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1.

Protagonist has a painful—but not too painful—problem, goal, or disease 2. Protagonist works on this painful—but not too painful— goal, problem or, disease 3. Protagonist encounters adversity but also happy advantages of this painful—but not too painful— problem, goal, or disease 4. Protagonist solves this painful—but not too painful— problem, goal, or disease.

This forces filmmakers to invent or exaggerate a problem, force the problem to evolve, and impose a solution. Youth films become badly scripted reality. What about films that are experimental? Films that can be experienced with senses, other than with reason? Films with no clear beginning, ending, or conclusion? Films that are absurd or confusing? Films that leave you wondering what the hell it was that you just watched. Offering children more diversity would boost their creativity and help them discover that there are more ways of storytelling than just one.

Offering children more diversity would boost their creativity and help them discover that there are more ways of storytelling than just one.

ONE-DIMENSIONALIZING One of the most damaging ways of simplifying reality in my opinion is by reducing people and issues to one clear and undisputed thing. Leaving out all the other (contradictory) layers. A transgender person in youth films is always busy transitioning. A Muslim is always dealing with religion.

Why can’t we see a transgender person or a Muslim fighting climate change?

Reducing people to one dimension reinforces prejudices and shapes our world in a harmful way. Children learn to box everyone in and never get to challenge their preconceived ideas or learn that reality is never this clear-cut.

Children learn to box everyone in and never get to challenge their preconceived ideas or learn that reality is never this clear-cut.

POLARIZING To clarify things more, we tend to seek out differences, to magnify and reinforce them. At my first job, a news program for children, a director made a story about a Christian girl spending a day with a Muslim boy. The script was filled with lines like: “The girl drinks diet coke and the boy drinks traditional Arabic tea in Moroccan tea set.” I later found out that the director had never actually talked to these children.

The script was based on her own preconceived notions and these children just served as actors for her scenario. We do this all the time. Going out to reaffirm our biases instead of dealing with the reality in front of us.

This need for anomalies results in treating children differently, depending on the country they live in. Children from the West are often portrayed showcasing talent, working towards a goal, overcoming their fears and struggles. In control of their circumstances. While children from other parts of the world—less developed in our eyes— are often portrayed as victims of their circumstances. Poor, being sold as a child bride, sad because of a war, etc.

LET CHILDREN MAKE UP THEIR OWN MIND These simple, happy formula films turn children into apathetic consumers—telling them what is going on, why, what they should think, and how they should feel.

It is not our responsibility to dictate the truth and provide them with answers. Not to teach them what to think, but to show them that there are different ways of thinking.

SHOW CHILDREN THE UNPOLISHED WORLD When I lived in Tehran as a child, the city used to be bombed and we often sat in bomb shelters. My grandpa, after hearing the bomb alarm, used to first finish cooking my dinner and come to the shelter later carrying a chicken skewer. Because he knew I liked them.

These kinds of details are surprising, confusing, conflicting, and will turn a cliché war image into a personal story and the two ‘victims’ into a child and her loving and somewhat crazy grandpa. Why do we smooth things over?

Squeeze our protagonists to fit in our own narrative? Can we be more open to inconsistencies that don’t fit our ideas and scripts? It is such details that make protagonists more human, layered, surprising, and relatable.

EMBRACE ‘FAILURE’ Letting go of the safe formula means not knowing what the outcome will be. We should allow experiments and ‘failures’. I watched over 200 films for youth for IDFA this year and every time I saw a director take a risk it was a breath of fresh air. A film that takes risks and doesn’t fully ‘succeed’ is still more interesting than a safe film that looks like all the others. Failure can spur creativity and innovation and has great potential to help us grow.

Wanting to be safe creates stagnation. The youth genre has to keep innovating and many innovations have been born out of total failure.

Children are capable of being interested in complicated stories. Just like normal human beings.

Let’s trust on the fact that we are the stupid ones.

Not them.

The start of something new

IDFA in the Vondelpark Pavilion

YOUTH AT IDFA 2023

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This year, I was excited to find out that IDFA had decided to challenge itself and their young audience even more. By allowing Dutch premieres, adult films, and more diversity in the type of filmmaking in the competition, they have put the films and filmmakers first and the rules second. I think this allows for a selection that showcases just how seriously you can take a young audience.

These films are just as interesting for adults to watch as they are for children. It’s a mixture of what children want to see and what we would like them to see. We are confident that they will be amused, confused, and challenged. Confident that they can handle it. That they will love the films. Hate them. Criticize them. At least be activated out of their apathy. And help them to step outside the box; instead of falling asleep inside of it. They are capable of being interested in complicated stories. Just like normal human beings. Let’s trust on the fact that we are the stupid ones.

Not them.

Find more information at idfa.nl/youthdocumentary or scan the QR code

Visit idfa.nl/vondelpark for more information

Filmstill caption nog in te vullen bij beeldmateriaal

CONTAGIOUS & QUEER

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UKI by Shu Lea Cheang (2023)

By Simon(e) van Saarloos

Would you love trans, if trans spread around the world like wildfires today? Would you love trans, if LGBT characters in books make your kids gay? Would you love trans, if there is no cure, no protection against catching trans, no residue of assigned genders at birth, no leftovers of heterosexual familiarity? Would you transition, if trans is just a trend—our worst kept secret? Can you love trans, not as a box ticking identity, but as a contagious inevitability?

of writing and speaking and trans living without defense. Why defend our experience, identity, projected otherness, and prove the use of its existence in relation to the norm? I want an understanding of importance and value without defense.

Call me high maintenance but that is the love I want. I do not want to be accepted for who I am and then get used to it (a self as it). I want to be changed by you and you by me and I want us all to have no self to name—just some spare change and messy mutual exchange.

Living in the U.S., I feel a growing desire to find a different response to the Don’t Say Gay laws. I do not want to qualm anyone’s worries by proving that queers are born a biological minority (#BornThisWay). Who says the right wing and moderate majority deserve such pacifying? Instead, I argue saying gay indeed makes you desire gay. I study the power of language and the language of power; the way words attach to bodies and vice versa. Hearing something, makes it present. Saying something, makes it possibly true.

This year’s IDFA queer program is called Contagious & Queer, because I’m sick of defending queer and trans life.* In progressive circles, our existence is often excused as a normal natural variation. To be clear: My problem is not with our existence, but with the idea that proof itself is needed.

Ultimately, and idealistically, I’m interested in the possibility

Repeating something, makes it recognizable. The more recognizable a word, name, history, concept is, the truer it appears. The Don’t Say Gay laws are not extraordinary or even outrageous: they just show an extremely homophobic understanding of the power of language. At worst, the Don’t Say Gay Laws make queer life impossible. At medium, the

As a public program, Contagious & Queer is not going to shy away from saying gay. But saying gay out loud and clear with the premise of contagion is not the same as coming out for self-actualization. It is not the individual that is set free when queer is understood as contagious, it is queerness let loose.

In Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones, a novel by Torrey Peters (famous for her bestseller Detransition, Baby), an angry trans girl develops a bacterial infection that blocks the body’s natural production of all sex hormones. The molecular biology student did this because: “I was thinking that I want to live in a world where everyone has to choose their gender.” Patient zero is this 2016 novel’s protagonist. She gets infected because another angry trans girl injects her, vengeful because their t4t fling has gone sour. From infection on, she is contagious. Instructed to quarantine for a week, she speed walks home. In the park near her apartment, she gets cornered by a group of men. This is a repetitive scene, a known situation. Exhaustion leads her to do the only logical thing: she coughs in her perpetrator’s face.

It is not the individual that is set free when queer is understood as contagious, it is queerness let loose.

Contagion happens in many ways. Trans does not start with some hormonal level, a favorite color, a choice of toys, or a brain explained. It starts in community with others. It means avoiding an aggressive cough in the face by choosing to kiss instead. It can start with someone who we desire to fuck, or desire to be, or desire to be and fuck simultaneously. It can start with the desire to desire. It can begin in reaction to patriarchal violence, it can grow in response to sexual assault.

It can flourish because of boredom, to bury normativity, or from a slutty desire for better orgasms. It can be the word. It can come from saying gay. As Cameron Awkward Rich writes in The Terrible We. Thinking With Trans Maladjustment: “How does one become trans? Often the answer is: by reading.”

Trans might show up in isolation. In such a case, trans appears to be a biological phenomenon, free of socialization and contagion. But such an essentialist belief ignores the fact that isolation can only be understood as isolation in relation to understanding social conceptions of loneliness and exclusion. Being isolated is itself an anti-queer form of living and thus already lives in reaction to queerness. The nuclear family fights with queerness, even or especially when queerness is muted and anxiously absent.

It is through exposure to transness that trans can develop.

Exposure also lives in our disappearance, our forgottenness, our unwantedness. Exposure does not just refer to the visible and concrete presence of trans and queer people. Queerness doesn’t stick to people. It is more viral than personal: it travels through language, gesture, imagery, air, traditions, movement, objects.

The films screened at IDFA’s Contagious & Queer are not secretly conveying gayness or explicitly spreading trans.

My belief in contagion is so much greater than making trans a missionary tale. Contagious & Queer adopts a more structural point of view: Everything that can be witnessed, tasted, sensed, viewed already is legible through some level of contagion. Without contagion, meaning is impossible. Contagious qualities are not rare. But queer is especially contagious, because the spread of trans is continuously and ever-increasingly feared. Because we are feared to leak and spread, our contagion is extra luring and effective. Those who are barred from trans by parents, states, institutions, borders, liberal tolerance, and capitalist acceptance, learn to spot queer in the slightest glimpse and slippage.

This is why I propose a trans viewing practice. In a film festival, this could go like this: Whenever you see something queer, you yell out “trans!”. A good queer viewer will not wait for something obvious on screen. Instead, the trans viewing practice is best employed in response to everything that is not yet queer and trans. The sky’s color blue and the setting pink sun, the wonky table in the room? Trans. Super trans!

Reveal the reveal of disclosure and the push for visibility by overdoing it.

Affirm the stereotypes that you are initially inclined to defend yourself against, by producing a contagious viewing and seeing trans everywhere: eh-veh-ry-whe-re. The trans viewing practice is initiated by faking it. Project the stereotypes you are told to be so incredibly present that the possibility of original image disappears. Show that there wasn’t an original visual or real meaning in the first place. This trans viewing practice teaches the lack of foundation not by denial or erasure, but by exaggeration. Make everything ooze you.

Individualization is refused by overcommitting to stereotypes otherwise projected onto you.

I’m looking forward to welcoming everyone at Contagious & Queer, on Sunday, November 12, and in the afternoon workshop sessions between November 13-17 in the Contagion Practice Room in IDFA Vondelpark Pavilion. However, queer contagion spreads fastest when its presence is least expected. To engage in a trans viewing practice, I recommend: Go to films that are not marked as queer and trans and gay, go to those films that appear to not even remotely engage with queer and trans and fill the room by seeing it everywhere. Queerness cannot be quarantined: may it spread dangerously.

queer and trans life* While in an academic, every day and alphabet (LGBTQIA+) context it is common to differentiate trans and queer and gay, I’m here using these terms interchangeably. This is not meant to reduce the experience of trans, queer and gay or conflate the differentiations. I choose to do this as an aesthetic intervention, meant to push for the inter-contagiousness of these experiences.

If trans and queer and gay are contagious, they cannot exist as safeguarded categories. Within LGBTQIA discourse, the differences between Q and G and T might not always be clearly mapped, but their distinction is generally accepted and assumed. Without desiring to conflate axes of difference, I choose this aesthetic interchangeability as a way to push against the increase of taxonomic thinking. Kadji Amin’s talk and article We Are All Non-Binary: A Brief History of Accidents points to the coloniality of pretending that it is possible to correctly name and mark identities, as if the identities themselves can be excavated as inherent truths. This negates the relational existence of language, desire, identity.

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Don’t Say Gay Laws scares queers. At best, the Don’t Say Gay laws are a perfect recognition of queerness’s dangerous appeal.

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FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES BEYOND CONVENIENCE

PHENOMENAL FRICTION

by Joost Broeren

“We’re here on earth to fart around.

And, of course, the computers will do us out of that.

What the computer people don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals.

We love to move around.

And now we’re not supposed to dance at all anymore.”

Kurt Vonnegut, interviewed by David Brancaccio, NOW (PBS, 7 October 2005)

When DocLab started in 2007, the challenge was to take experimental digital art out of its boring home computer context into a more communal and physical space. A decade and a half on, as DocLab grew into a space where the human animal could dance with the computer, the relationship between technology and physical reality has shifted fundamentally. The “computer people” Vonnegut was railing against have won the day, blanketing society in a layer of ever-increasing efficiency. No time for farting around, there’s streaming content and doomscrolling to get to.

Meanwhile, immersive storytelling is trying to move into physical reality in a multitude of ways, from VR headsets in living rooms to warehouse-sized shows bringing classic paintings to life. But the challenges of truly reaching an audience for experimental immersive and interactive projects seem only to have multiplied. Is there room for artistic friction and unknown experiences in a world where tech companies seem hellbent on digitally smoothing over every aspect of our day-to-day experience?

It’s a question that has gained new relevance with the explosion into the public eye of generative large language models. “I feel like a lot of the AI cheerleaders are trying to get rid of any humanness and any friction, saying that all the edges will be smoothed away,” says Ingrid Kopp; co-founder Dancing with Dead Animals by Maarten Isaäk de Heer, photo by Jurre Rompa

and co-director of Electric South, a Cape Town-based nonprofit organization working with interdisciplinary artists across Africa to develop, produce and distribute immersive work. “And I feel like a lot of the tech solutionism and tech optimism, with this ‘there’s an app for that’ attitude, is also getting rid of all the friction in our lives—which often means people.”

Paul Bouchard, responsible for VR Acquisitions & Distribution at Diversion Cinema, which specializes in technical solutions for the distribution and exhibition of digital artworks, has a slightly different angle. “Our job is to reduce friction between the creators and the audience.

But that’s about technical issues—all the misunderstandings between the artists, the technology, the potential exhibitor, and the audience. We don’t want to make everything really clean and smooth and look the same. Removing the technical frictions allows the artistic friction, between a work of art and the audience.”

I feel like a lot of the tech solutionism and tech optimism is getting rid of all the friction in our lives­—which often means people .

Diversion founder Camille Lopato adds: “One of the beauties of immersive is the fact that there is no standard, so you’re free to do anything. But to have freedom, you also need to have money. So, there is friction between the market and profitability on one side, and creativity on the other.” But standardization should not be the way out of that tension, Bouchard stresses. “What is more important is flexibility, the capacity to move from one format or one size to another.”

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Vonnegut’s cautionary words are a message from a bygone era. They came a month before YouTube became fully operational, half a year before the launch of Twitter and the addition of the verb “to google” to the Oxford English Dictionary, a year before Facebook went worldwide. Soon after that, festivals and events like IDFA DocLab started reflecting on the experiments bubbling up in the fringes of that online world.

It’s a subject that VR creator Darren Emerson, whose In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats won the IDFA DocLab Award for Immersive Non-Fiction in 2022, has been grappling with for a while now. “After I made Indefinite in 2016, which was a really political piece about asylum detention, I came to a point where I saw how preposterous it was to make a protest piece that is meant to engender change on a platform where only maybe 500 people are going to see it.”

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Part of the impetus behind In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats, a multi-sensory room-scale documentary VR about UK rave culture, was the ambition to reach a larger audience. “It felt like we had to get out of the festivals,” Emerson says.

“Festivals are great as a platform to talk about and to launch the work. But what we really wanted was for it to go to other venues, to make something that people would be excited about and buy tickets to see.”

Emerson and his team wanted to reach venues outside the festival spaces, and have been “moderately successful” in doing so, he says. But it’s been a lot of hard work. In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats has been touring festivals all over the world, both as the “full fat” experience as well as a “light” version which requires less equipment and is easier to install and run. But a 35-minute single person experience requiring a 4 by 6-meter area is a big financial ask. “The real friction now for us is in throughput,” Emerson says. “In making it, I didn’t consider the business model; how many people I could get in per hour. We could adapt it for at least 50 people an hour, to start making money and be self-sustaining. But that brings an artistic friction: What am I willing to compromise to do that? In a sense, I would rather do something new that incorporates the question of throughput from the earliest, embryonic creative stage. So that it’s not an afterthought, it’s not a cut-up, it’s not a remix.”

Okawari by Landia Egal and Amaury Laburthe, photo by Jurre Rompa

And then there’s the most fundamental friction: Should we be doing this at all? Is it more sustainable, maybe, to only distribute immersive art digitally, on headsets in people’s living rooms? That’s an underlying question for the research that Landia Egal and Amaury La Burthe have undertaken over the past year and a bit, with their VR installation Okawari and a new research project into the climate costs of the XR industry. since the Venice 2022 premiere of VR project Okawari, which also screened at IDFA DocLab last year. Using Okawari as a use case, they are trying to evaluate the environmental impact of the XR industry, measured in CO2 emissions, pollution, use of rare earth elements, et cetera. La Burthe: “We are trying to take a step back and say, given all of the challenges we are facing around CO2 emissions, pollution, depletion of rare earth materials, et cetera, does it even make sense to participate in the explosion of the VR industry? The key thing we want to share is: Start to measure, start to be conscious of what you’re doing. And then ask yourself if you think you’re contributing in a positive way.”

Does it even make sense to participate in the explosion of the VR industry?

For La Burthe: “I’ve been in love with this medium since 2013. But when you start to measure the carbon footprint and the pollution footprint of sourcing the rare earth materials required to produce VR headsets, you start to realize that it’s not very realistic to have a headset in every home.”

La Burthe says the team is hoping to do a follow-up where they look at the positive impacts a work might have. “But that’s very tough. How can you measure the positive impact a work is going to create, and relate that to all the negative impacts it’s going to have? There’s a sociological aspect: Has this experience, this movie, this podcast changed your behavior? But it’s also about the type of future it’s projecting. If the piece is projecting the same patriarchal, capitalist, hierarchy-based society, then nothing’s going to change. That’s where I personally decided to change and try to promote different futures, more based on openness, partnership, sharing.”

The power of gathering humans in a space together, whether there’s technology there or not.

It’s a sentiment echoed by Kopp. “One thing I’m really feeling at the moment is the power of gathering humans in a space together, whether there’s technology there or not,” she says. “Because after the pandemic, and with all the awful techno-fascist nonsense online, I think we all want to dial it back a little bit. It feels like a bit of a dark time—but that also means it’s a time for pushing back and trying to figure out a different path.”

Thankfully, embracing friction and exploring different paths is something immersive artists have always been at the forefront of. But the lack of a sustainable exhibition and distribution model to connect with wider audiences is becoming a fundamental issue. In fields like cinema and

theater, festivals exist to celebrate the more challenging works, selected from a much wider range of productions that have their own distribution network. But for most works of immersive art, as it stands now, festivals have been the key platform to find an audience. What good is a launch pad if there’s no place to land?

The good news is, the interest from traditional physical exhibition venues is growing, and the audiences are there.

A good example is the Dutch Nu:Reality distribution pilot, successfully bringing XR into regular cinemas. Diversion is a technical partner in the project, which has been running for a year. “For most of the spectators it was the first time they put on a VR headset,” Bouchard recounts. And within IDFA too, the new home at the IDFA Vondelpark Pavilion will create opportunities to experiment throughout the year. “In a world dominated by convenient consumption, it can feel like there’s less and less appetite for any kind of complex, friction-filled experience,” says Head of IDFA DocLab Caspar Sonnen. “But even the most mainstream audiences crave to be surprised. So maybe we should focus on creating more spaces that are flexible to grow and adapt to the unknown instead of presenting things we already knew we liked.”

Discover more at idfa.nl/phenomenalfriction or scan the QR code

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In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats by Darren Emerson, photo by Jurre Rompa

RETHINKING THE BASICS

By Keisha Knight

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Photo by Coen Dijkstra

IDFA’s Filmmaker Support department runs several training programs and activities throughout the year. We set out to safeguard a free space for filmmakers, to provide guidance and expert feedback in their creative development. When given the opportunity, however, to attend such workshops, and upon entering the marketplace, filmmakers are frequently confronted with institutional expectations, shortcomings, and challenges. To address these obstacles and catalyze envisioning a way forward, we invited IDA’s Director of Funds and Advocacy Keisha Knight to critically reflect on filmmaker support and labs. In response, Knight contemplates on the conditions required to create a more supportive and sustainable ecosystem for films truly pushing the boundaries of documentary.

Last year at IDFA 2022—sitting in the audience at Carré which may have been right after a screening of Laura Poitras’ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed or perhaps, more accurately, at the interview with Poitras that I arrived too late and left early, regardless—there was a moment on the stage where two fierce documentary filmmakers, Orwa Nyrabia and Laura Poitras, went head-to-head in kinship and in the holding a mirror to truth that our community requires. I felt honored to watch these leaders of the field entering discourse in service of us. There was a moment in the conversation where Nyrabia asked Poitras, and I am paraphrasing here: “You did this deep digging for love, right?”. My heart rose. I was elated! Poitras evaded the question, probably because the politics of love are tricky (especially when it comes to State secrets), but I will have eternal gratitude to Nyrabia for putting the question out there.

What I would like to sketch out briefly here, and somewhat vaguely (since my thoughts are still in development), is a methodology, maybe more of a positionality/practice, of “emergence” (taking inspiration from Adrienne Maree

Brown’s well-known 2017 book Emergent Strategy). Don’t let the framing turn you away. This is something that has to do with all of us, it’s what Nyrabia and Poitras animated on stage. “Emergence”, as I understand it and am using it in this piece, is an orientation that looks to create conditions for the futures we want to bring into being rather than relying upon logics of transactional value creation.

The question of love, though impossible in most cases to address directly, is one that we should always have, in this writer’s opinion, at the forefront of our practices—be they industrial, creative, or otherwise (not that any of these practices are mutually exclusive nor should they be). I would venture to guess that love, or some version of it, is the reason most of you taking the time to read this are doing what you’re doing.

Perhaps what we’re circling is a politics of love or perhaps what we’re doing is setting a foundation of love to manifest a politics of something else, something that can be relied upon and trusted to not be just a binary approximation of the past. What I mean here is that grounding ourselves in

With change as a constant, Adrienne Maree Brown uses the example of fractals (never ending patterns that are found in nature and self-similar across scale) to illustrate that “How we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale. The patterns of the universe repeat at scale.” For me what resonates here is the idea that the micro-climates we create within our programs and organizations will reflect and also co-create the macro-climate of our industry. If we center process as political and consider artist support programs not as product pipelines (where the product is the artist and/or their project) but rather world-building opportunities, might we create more sustainable networks of, not just financial support for artists, but also resource sharing, capacity sharing, and relationship exchange. Can we relinquish the territorial for the collective? Can we step away from centering the shiny objects that institutions and programs produce in order to understand and respond to the conditions these institutions and programs create for themselves, their constituents, and for the field?

An emergent orientation is one that situates the individual, be you a broadcaster, a funder, a filmmaker, or a development exec, as part of an ecosystem with shared and dynamic values. Yes, agreed, it’s easier to pick films, pick filmmakers, pick winners, pick losers then move on. But is what’s easy truly easier? If we step out of a transactional mode of easy that narrowly defines value by profit and loss, maybe what’s easy looks a bit different.

Is it easy to uphold a status quo that allows abundance in the present to the detriment of the future? Or perhaps we might envision that easy is not about the ease we can provide for Photo by Coen Dijkstra

ourselves now but the conditions of ease we can help create for those who will follow us. There’s nothing more beautiful, to this writer anyway, than giving your heart fully to a thing that is tenuous and almost beyond imagination.

The micro-climates we create within our programs and organizations will reflect and also co-create the macro-climate of our industry.

What conditions can I create? What does this have to do with me? What do I have to do with the future? How can I manifest a practice and community that starts with love?

These might be questions to start with as you think about shifting towards a more emergent orientation. Is there one thing you can do, however small, communication-wise, program-design-wise, or logistics-wise as an experiment?

These shifts can even start at the level of language. For example, the question: “What type of artists do you support?” is not an uninteresting one—“Why?” is a more interesting question and “How?” even more interesting.

Yet in this simple question “What type of artists do you support?” the institution is centered as a type of patron.

What if we reframed the question as “What conditions do you create with and in service of the artists in your program?” Furthermore, “What conditions do you create with other organizations doing similar work in the field?”

What would happen if we de-centered our organizational egos in an effort to work more collectively—listening, responding, observing, and listening again?

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love (love of ourselves, the medium, the world, and each other) might be a way in which to dislodge the extractive logics we’ve inherited—logics that remain embedded in the infrastructures of our field.

IMAGINING A FUTURE MARKET

by Wouter Jansen

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A Picture to Remember by Olga Chernykh

A large number of creative documentaries get produced each year, while the industry simultaneously says there is no real market for them. And it’s true: The documentary market has slimmed down over the past years, making it only more difficult for these outspoken films to survive. Can we imagine a future in which some key players—markets, festivals, and sales agents—truly think outside of the box and change this course?

Why creative documentary films?

Five years ago, when I started imagining the feature slate for my sales company Square Eyes in 2018, I made the decision to really dedicate ourselves to creative films. The type of films that, even though sometimes small and fragile, are outspoken in their approach to form or storytelling, that surprise and challenge us: the type of cinema I fell in love with. Creative in form, experimental in storytelling, artistically challenging. This is the type of work I will be speaking about in this article. These films often didn’t have sales representation, with the filmmakers or producers themselves doing the bulk of the work.

I often find myself reflecting on what space these films and projects take up in our documentary ecosystem. They always find their place in festival programs, but this doesn’t change the industry’s view on how difficult it is to work with them from a commercial perspective. The fact that I frequently get asked: “How I can make a living with such a catalogue?”, shows how this type of film gets valued. Is this an issue that’s intrinsic to the films themselves? Or do we—as an industry—fail to provide them with the means to thrive, and end up trying to force them into a mold that doesn’t fit? Let’s dive deeper into these issues.

Making space at markets If we really want to include more artistically challenging works in the industry at large, and film festival markets in particular, something has to change. Their absence can be traced back to the early stages of development. It all begins with the inclusion—and exclusion—of them in markets.

Documentary film markets have traditionally been shaped around the needs of broadcasters; one of the main financing sources for most documentary films.

There can be a big mismatch when a very creative work takes the stage in a space where producers are trying to appeal to commissioning editors. The director’s intentions are often misunderstood, as becomes evident in the questions that emerge during feedback rounds or on-stage questions about the project. The hope that broadcasters will make space for more experimental work and the vision of the director leaves the pitching halls quickly.

A closer look at forum guestlists and the invited decision makers reveals that their organizers don’t really accommodate the needs of creative projects, or understand which connections would benefit them. And an even more deep-rooted question: Which people are interested in these types of non-mainstream works? The fact of the matter is that markets are exclusive, and it’s difficult for “smaller” sales agents or distributors working with films on the fringes of the industry to get invitations to attend or a seat at the decision-making table. I’ve had the privilege to gain access to these spaces relatively quickly in my career, but numerous conversations over the past months revealed to me that several interesting companies haven’t been granted the same access.

The hope that broadcasters will make space for more experimental work and the vision of the director leaves the pitching halls quickly Rethinking what festivals have to offer Where can a filmmaker go with an outspoken documentary?

There’s a steady decrease in the number of festivals with a strong artistic documentary focus, and that remain a strong place for a film to premiere—essential for the successful launch of a film. Especially within the documentaryspecialist festivals, hardly any festival can launch this type of work inside their main competition, without the film being considered an “outsider”. Festivals that used to have a more challenging curation are now opting for more audiencefriendly or bigger titles, and are moving away from truly encouraging a diversity of form.

As a sales agent you always consider: What can a certain selection, especially world premiere, offer a film? How does a filmmaker want to position their film for the industry? Who are festivals inviting to attend their festival, who will be able to see the film? What networking opportunities are there?

Will there be press attention for the films? Will they put a spotlight on a more challenging work? Can I find distributors interested in theatrical release?

It is becoming increasingly difficult for documentary festivals to get big premieres, because more fictionoriented A-festivals can create a bigger impact for the film. When considering a solution to this, I turn the focus to festivals: When inviting a creative work to be part of the festival’s selection, how can the festival help the project to get ahead? The time when a premiere at a big festival guaranteed a strong career for the film has come and gone, so we need good, new proposals.

As a sales agent, I understand the importance of these questions and how they can impact a film’s career. But when I speak to filmmakers who are handling their film by themselves, I notice that there is a gap in knowledge or awareness. It’s important that festivals take an active role in helping filmmakers grow their knowledge and skills, and by extension support the circulation of these works. The job should not be done after selecting the film, and only becomes more important from the moment the film goes out into the world.

How festivals can go beyond selection to launch a film’s career Years of experience has taught me that the selection of these diverse films doesn’t mean they will find the right connections. Festivals can make a difference by ensuring those interested in creative film get the opportunity to watch and engage with these films.

I always appreciate it when a programmer reaches out to me to recommend a film that could fit my slate—to watch a film, to meet with a project, or even just because a team could use advice. I also exchange recommendations with colleagues when I see a film that could fit their slate. With the short time available to really discover a program, be it a market selection, or the competition programs, suggestions are a way to guarantee projects are meeting the right people, even when those people are not physically attending the festival.

Connecting projects to distributors or various types of exhibition spaces that could be interested in the work is key to networking. A lot of the films that Square Eyes represents are too “risky” for distributors to take on, but we do manage to do an independent run in some countries in one or two cinemas or art-spaces interested in more challenging work.

If every festival would ensure curators willing to take “the risk” of showing more challenging films actually see the work, the reach of films could expand and a new ecosystem outside of the festivals could slowly grow.

We need to recognize and acknowledge the power imbalance between festival and filmmaker, and work for more transparency and budgeted money to pay filmmakers.

And lastly, festivals must consider the immense importance of screening fees—as festival screenings are nowadays the backbone of the revenue of creative documentaries. There are several festivals that are reluctant to pay them, or work based on “if you don’t ask, we don’t pay.” As a sales agent we always negotiate this, but most filmmakers feel like they can’t initiate this discussion and have to simply be happy with their film being included in the selection. We need to recognize and acknowledge the power imbalance between festival and filmmaker, and work for more transparency and budgeted money to pay filmmakers.

Imagining a future for creative documentaries I am optimistic about the future for creative films; there is a lot of potential for them to be seen by wider audiences, also outside of festivals. The films are out there, but we should be honest that the marketplace as we have created it isn’t suitable for creative documentaries. Less one-sizefits-all, and more of a grassroots and out-of-the-box type of approach can catalyze real and far-reaching change. We have to take an active approach, rethinking what these films need and how we—markets, festivals, and sales agents—can provide that collectively.

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The result of this for me as a sales agent with our focus is: There are usually only a handful of relevant films for me to meet during most markets, and not many new professionals for me to meet and share my catalogue with. Because of that, I’m becoming more and more selective about which markets to attend. And I assume that the same goes for filmmakers; that it doesn’t prove to be productive to attend these markets with more creative work. What could bring significant change to this is thinking more expansively and inclusively.

NOT A HOBBY! TOWARD A SYSTEM THAT VALUES FILMMAKERS

By Petra Lataster-Czisch and Peter Lataster

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The Last by Sebastiàn Peña Escobar

As documentary filmmakers and producers we feel uncomfortable with the term “industry”. We never wanted to be part of an industry. For us, film is a means of expression although it often feels like climbing a mountain.

Worldwide, documentaries are primarily made by passionate directors and producers, in small production companies.

They take risks, sometimes even risking their lives to make an urgent story cinematographically tangible and to convey it to the public. When we think of these friends and colleagues, we fail to call their work “industry”. Filmmakers, wherever they live, are too vulnerable for that. At every stage of their work, documentary filmmakers depend on the goodwill of their contemporaries, on the faith and trust of those who support documentary filmmaking. We would be bold enough to say that most industry shareholders value a good return on their investments—more than they value the quality of documentary films. But aren’t the real shareholders the people who care—our audiences and the documentary community? The return they get is not in the form of money, but our best films. Films that are meaningful, that inspire, disturb us, and galvanize our sense of solidarity.

We feel documentary belongs in the public domain. The independence of makers needed to produce true and daring films cannot be guaranteed without reliable support from governments, funds, and public broadcasters. “But hold on,” you might be thinking, “what about the streaming giants?

They have deep pockets, anything is possible, the sky is the limit.” Indeed, streamers are indispensable for documentary.

They give new impulses and help many people find work.

But it remains a volatile world; a world in which the market

rules and the money can just flow in a different direction.

We cannot leave documentaries to the whims of the free market; they are far too precious and important. Which streamer, for example, would have wanted to finance our documentary about women with breast cancer that does not show the heroic struggle of the patients, but instead focuses on the vulnerability and fears of sick women? Films like this are important for a wide audience, because many women worldwide suffer from this disease. But they are certainly not a favourite with streamers.

If we agree that the documentary belongs in the public domain, that makes it all the more poignant that despite the strong appreciation for arts and culture in Europe, the working conditions of documentary directors have deteriorated rather than improved. We live in the richest and safest part of the world and are well protected by democratic institutions, compared with many countries.

Taking this into account, it might come as a surprise to hear filmmakers in Europe are massively underpaid and expected to accept this abnormal situation: “Why complain?

You’re doing the most fantastic work in the world!” is often said by the ones in charge. But the economic need for leading German filmmakers was so great that a group of renowned directors (Andres Veiel, Irene Langeman, Marcus Vetter) took the stage at a festival in Stuttgart after being nominated and read a manifesto in which, among other things, the negative attitude of the public broadcasters was denounced.

Documentary makers often struggle immensely to make their dream film, such as the German-Ukrainian director Natalija

David Bernet, co-chairman of the German interest group of documentary filmmakers, AG DOK, summed it up as aptly as bitterly: “This is how we deal with special talent in Germany.

They learn from the start that they are not appreciated.” He notes that public broadcasters are investing increasingly less in documentary films and that budgets are structurally far too low.

A very detailed report on the income position of documentary directors was also published in France, commissioned by the interest group Addoc. The picture sketched is recognizable for everyone in the sector: The fees are structurally too low.

The gap between days worked and days paid is large. That is why France set up a system in which producers receive a bonus if they pay directors for the full production time of a film project, and not just the budgeted number of days.

In the Netherlands too, the salaries of directors have not risen for 20 years and have even decreased. Documentary budgets—and not just fees—are suffering from inflation.

Directors and producers are confronted with increasing bureaucratization and legalization too. This makes it almost impossible to respond quickly and adequately to events.

Makers and producers are also spending increasing amounts of time and money on endless legal battles with (notably tax-funded) public organizations for decent contracts and remuneration.

Young filmmakers everywhere are being taught how to appease decision makers. Think of the endless time and energy we waste while making our plan attractive for broadcasters and funders; people who frequently have no idea how documentaries are made. We feel it should be the other way around: let financers learn what it takes to make a documentary.

In 2023, a renowned Dutch research agency calculated the exact income differences between documentary filmmakers in freelance capacity and those in permanent employment with public broadcasters. The results are clear: Independent directors must receive an average of 50% in fees to keep pace. Interest groups of both directors (DDG) and producers (NAPA) informed the broadcasters that there is no longer any excuse to not immediately make adjustments to ensure fair payment. With hard figures in hand, they made a fist— even though some policymakers considered it completely unnecessary. For example, a Dutch minister recommended that a young woman studying should marry a wealthy man in order to remedy her dire financial need. We think that financial resolve can be accomplished much more simply: by forcing governments, broadcasters, and funds to adequately pay hard-working directors. Not to mention, that would prevent quite a few divorces.

Dutch directors have taken a first step in the right direction with their action. Not only are fees going up, the budgets of documentaries are also rising. In the future, this will hopefully remedy a phenomenon that has become common:

producers and directors compensate for the low budgets with their own resources (if they have such own resources, that is). It is therefore important that producers and directors jointly fight for better working conditions. Tight budgeting of documentaries was all too often a source of conflict and resentment between director and producer.

Everywhere we look we can see the same pattern. Directors are broke when they have finished their film, let alone that they have sufficient resources to stay on their feet in the period afterwards. Study after study shows that both producers and directors can build up little or no reserves to bridge the time to the next project. We (producers and directors) invest far too much energy in earning money instead of looking around, reading, taking dead ends, and lounge. We fail to invest in time when nothing is necessary, and everything is possible. Those rare moments are where the best ideas for films are born. But investing in that fruitful and creative time that you so desperately need as a documentary filmmaker is not an option for most of us. Wouldn’t it be great if directors could receive a basic income, to work on new projects in peace? It is very important that much more money is invested in the development of projects; not only for the income position of documentary makers, but also for the quality of films. At the same time, makers should be given long-term and in-depth guidance (as is already happening in Denmark). This creates opportunities for unique films that escape the standard norms and formats.

Think of the endless time and energy we waste while making our plan attractive for broadcasters and funders; people who frequently have no idea how documentaries are made.

For years, it seemed as if the power of public broadcasters was set in stone. Why do we continue to accept that broadcasters get the rights to our films indefinitely? After five or seven years, everyone has earned their money from a documentary. The producer has sold the film here and there. The broadcaster was able to repeat the film and earn something back through a pay site. After that, the maker, the creative owner of the work, should be able to regain full control over the film, to do with it what she or he wants.

Are there any encouraging developments in the documentary world? In France, yes, a bonus system has been set up that makes it worthwhile for producers to pay for a real number of working days for directors. In the Netherlands, a joint action by the documentary directors and producers has ensured that the fees and budgets are starting to increase. In Denmark, the Danish Film Institute provides guidance and ample budgets in the predevelopment phase to makers to research and grow their plans. New ways of disseminating documentaries are also being developed, such as through impact campaigns.

Let’s leave our national bubbles and learn from one another.

In the end, we can only keep up this work we love with a sense of community and solidarity—the same source for feeling filled with meaning and dignity.

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Yefimkina. Her film Garage People (IDFA 2020) was critically acclaimed and won many awards at festivals. She received some money from funds and a regional German broadcaster.

In the end, she received a paltry fee of €25,000 for more than three years of work. It was her mother and friends who kept her going financially. Her story represents many makers who cannot make a living from the profession.

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D E S I G N C AT H E R I N E Z A S K

INDUSTRY PROGRAM INTRODUCTION

The challenges in the production, distribution, and exhibition of documentary films have long histories, but their scale and the underlying economic, political, and societal conditions were brought into plain view during the pandemic. This requires continuous examination and questioning, in search of what works, and which fundamental changes need to be made.

This year’s program tackles a wide range of critical themes, including an in-depth exploration of the challenging reality of the livelihood of filmmaking. The program invites different stakeholders to reflect on the fact that we—as a market and audiences—take filmmakers unfair payment for creative labor for granted, despite the urgent importance of their work.

In the face of the rampant climate crisis, the program explores avenues for green producing and spotlights projects that approach climate issues from different angles—ranging from scientific to poetic. With the ongoing importance and challenges in finding financial and sales collaborators, the program offers space to filmmakers, creators, producers, and industry representatives to meet and exchange co-production experiences, as well as cofinancing and distribution strategies.

The state of the world and geopolitical events unfolding at this very moment reveal the need to foster a deeper understanding of one another and to listen to different perspectives and divergent realities—and that is exactly what courageous, outstanding, creative documentary film represents.

IDFA remains devoted to its goals—setting out to inspire, celebrate, and support independent filmmakers from across the globe. By inviting the industry to come together—to ignite conversation and critical reflection—we set out to work towards a fairer, more diverse, creative, artistic, more democratic documentary cinema landscape. One based on economically sustainable model that supports and promotes all kinds of voices and expressions, and in effect, enables audiences to listen to different perspectives.

Adriek van Nieuwenhuizen Head of Industry

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During the festival, the Industry Program gathers the world’s documentary community to discuss the evolution of our industry, offer surprising new perspectives, and build longlasting connections. The extensive program of high-profile talks, presentations, and matchmaking runs for six days, annually welcoming some 3,000 documentary filmmakers and professionals.

CREATIVE EUROPE MEDIA Supporting European Stories since 1991

Sultana's Dream

Creative Europe MEDIA is a proud supporter of IDFA

They Shot the Piano Player

With a sharp eye for talent, the EU is investing in top-notch European documentaries, thanks to MEDIA - the audiovisual subprogramme of Creative Europe. Not only does this programme provide funding, but it also opens new doors for training and networking across the industry. From They Shot the Piano Player to Sultana's Dream to Breaking Social, MEDIA has empowered thousands of films to gain traction in the global market.

Catch these gems and more at IDFA!

Breaking Social

photo: Janice D’Avila

What can MEDIA do for you?

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Get in touch with your local MEDIA Desk: bit.ly/contactMEDIAdesks

Co-funded by the European Union

The best of IDFA 2023 also on NPO Start

2Doc IDFA Primeur

Genderpoli

From 16 November (VPRO)

0123031 NPO Start - IDFA_advUK_212,3x157,5.indd 1

Brandmeester

From 21 November (HUMAN)

www.npostart.nl/documentaires

12-10-2023 16:29

GET TO KNOW OUR MARKETS AND FILMAKERSUPPORT ACTIVITIES On the following pages, you’ll find the comprehensive festival schedule for industry and general audiences. We also welcome over a thousand guests through our markets and filmmaker support activities. Here’s a taste of what goes on during the festival.

IDFA’S MARKETS: PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING AT FELIX MERITIS

SUPPORTING FILMMAKERS AT THE FESTIVAL

IDFA Forum is one of the most influential meeting places for filmmakers, creators, and producers working on ground-breaking creative documentaries and new media projects. Celebrating 31 years since its foundation, our co-financing and co-production market takes place at Felix Meritis where 64 of the strongest documentary projects being developed and produced globally are presented from November 12 to 15, 2023.

lDFACADEMY DURING IDFA One of our flagship talent development programs, IDFAcademy gives emerging international filmmakers the opportunity to meet a broad spectrum of highly esteemed documentary professionals willing to share their knowledge of the industry.

This year the program takes place at Felix Meritis, where 100 selected filmmakers convene from November 9 to 12. Selected participants come from all over the world, with a noteworthy presence of filmmakers who were part of IDFA’s workshops, funding, and international network. Activities include Filmmaker Talks, round table discussions, intimate group sessions, and case studies—all geared towards orienting talents within the international documentary market.

Find the IDFAcademy program at idfa.nl/idfacademy IDFA BERTHA FUND The IDFA Bertha Fund supports independent, critical, and artistic voices from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania with the aim of stimulating and empowering the creative documentary sector in these regions. In addition to providing development and production grants year-round, the Fund gives support to filmmakers during the festival through tailored consultancies, training, and industry events to broaden their international network and knowledge.

As a guest of IDFA, you can find IBF-supported filmmakers everywhere in the festival selection this year—from Best of Fests all the way to the Envision Competition—as well as in IDFAcademy, the Forum selection, the Docs for Sale catalogue, and the talks program.

Learn more about the IDFA Bertha Fund at IDFA 2023 via idfa.nl/ibf-at-idfa

IDFA FORUM

Hosting the Forum Pitches, Forum DocLab Pitches, and Producers Connection at Felix Meritis, accredited industry professionals come together to watch presentations, network, and collaborate throughout the day. Alongside predetermined meetings organized by the Forum team, ample welcoming space has been created throughout the building for formal and informal networking between accredited guests.

Rough Cut presentations are screened at IDFA cinema venues in the city.

This year, we also invite all Forum Observer passholders to join in the Producers Connection presentations. Please note that only Forum and Docs for Sale Passholders can access Felix Meritis.

Read more about the Forum at idfa.nl/idfaforum DOCS FOR SALE Docs for Sale facilitates the sales and distribution of high-end documentary films, providing networking opportunities, bespoke support services, and strategic know-how for IDFA-selected films as well as other outstanding titles on today’s market. Over the years, it has grown into one of the world’s premier markets and distribution incubators for documentary cinema, welcoming artistic documentary films from all over the world.

Located under the same roof as IDFA Forum, Docs for Sale continues to offer meeting spaces, viewing booths and happy hours, alongside its specialized how-to guides for navigating shorts, children’s documentaries, and making the most of the market for IDFA-selected film teams. Consultants are on hand and available to advise on a wide variety of topics such as distribution and PR strategies, impact, and more. Docs for Sale passholders can also take advantage of the common Markets lounges open to both Markets passholders.

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IDFA Forum Pitches. Photo by Melle Meivogel

IDFA TALKS FILMMAKER TALKS Filmmaker Talks are hour-long interviews with renowned documentary directors, focusing on their creative methods, body of work, and views on filmmaking.

Guest of Honor Talk: Wang Bing This year’s Guest of Honor at IDFA, renowned and celebrated filmmaker Wang Bing, will deliver an extensive Talk hosted by IDFA’s Artistic Director, Orwa Nyrabia. IDFA will showcase Wang Bing’s innovative artistry with a cross-section from his oeuvre, from a body of work that ushered in a new era of Chinese documentary. In addition, festival visitors can undertake a journey through a curated selection of ten recent films by independent Chinese makers hand-picked by Wang Bing.

FR 10 Nov, 15:30, Tuschinski 1

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Public

Peter Greenaway Atelier IDFA’s Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia will sit down with Peter Greenaway to discuss his rich, varied body of work. As a special treat, we’re screening Greenaway’s new, unfinished film with the working title Walking to Paris, which depicts the journey from Romania to Paris of Constantin Brâncuși, godfather of contemporary sculpture. Iconic filmmaker and artist Peter Greenaway will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award and a special tribute at IDFA this year, including a program showcasing highlights from his canonical oeuvre.

SU 12 Nov, 20:30, Tuschinski 1 Public

Filmmaker Talk: Claire Simon In an in-depth public interview, cultural journalist Ela Bittencourt dives into the world of renowned French filmmaker Claire Simon. Celebrated for an extensive body of work that blurs the lines between personal and political, documentary and fiction, Simon will candidly discuss her decades-long career and the transformative power of visual storytelling. In this engaging conversation, Simon’s enduring dedication to depicting women’s stories through prowess in filmmaking will take centre stage. This year, IDFA presents Simon’s intersectional new film Our Body.

MO 13 Nov, 13:00, ITA: Studio 1 Public

Filmmaker Talk: Maite Alberdi An inspirational hour-long conversation with Maite Alberdi. Writer Pamela Cohn speaks with Alberdi about her unstoppable success as a filmmaker with a singular creative method, as well as navigating the spotlight both at home and internationally. Having smashed box office records and become the first Chilean woman nominated for an Oscar, Alberdi’s distinct style has brought her plaudits as one of the most important voices in Latin American documentary.

TU 14 Nov, 13:00, ITA: Studio 1 Public

Filmmaker Talk: Ada Solomon An in-depth conversation with the legendary Romanian film producer Ada Solomon. Pamela Cohn will sit down with Solomon to meet the woman behind all the productions, including Arsenie. An Amazing Afterlife (2023), Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021) and Toni Erdmann (2016). Together, they will delve into Solomon’s body of work and ethos of making socially relevant films, in a session including excerpts from her 80+ projects.

WE 15 Nov, 13:00, ITA: Studio 1 Public

FILM TALKS Film Talks are extended conversations between filmmakers, experts, and moderators that directly follow the screening of a film.

On Friday November 10, directors Ekiem Barbier and Guilhem Causse will talk about their film Knit’s Island, which takes place in an entirely virtual postapocalyptic game world. On Saturday November 11, the director of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, Anna Hints, will talk about her intimate film that captures conversations between several women in a sauna in Estonia.

The Japanese director Kaori Oda will be interviewed following the screening of GAMA, selected for the Envision Competition, about the tragic events that unfolded in the caves of Okinawa during the Second World War. On Saturday November 11, the conversation will explore her artistic approach to this sad moment in Japan’s history.

On Sunday November 12, the acclaimed Indian director Anand Patwardhan will be interview about his most recent film The World is Family, selected for the International Competition. This personal film about his parents offers a sharp insight into the Indian fight for independence and the rise of Hindu nationalism.

In Tales of Oblivion, selected for the Envision Competition, director Dulce Fernandes investigates the traces left in today’s landscape by Portugal’s horrific slave trade after the recent excavation of a mass grave. Following the screening on Monday November 13, the filmmaker will delve deeper into this minimalist and moving film.

For all talks, see idfa.nl/talks

INDUSTRY TALKS

Industry Talk: Producing documentary film in a climate crisis This year’s Industry Talks program opens with a pertinent, honest talk on the one topic affecting all of us in both our everyday lives and in the industry. Or is the topic of climate change affecting the documentary industry enough? This is one of the questions to be tackled in this talk, including perspectives from funders, filmmakers and industry event organizers.

How is the documentary industry engaging with sustainability and climate change? Is it at all relevant to talk about sustainable production, when many documentary productions are small crews filming on the go? Are funders realistic about the sustainability demands put on documentary film productions? And how to be inclusive and global without travelling the world?

This panel dives into these questions and seeks honest answers to spark a wider debate.

Speakers: Phie Ambo (Viola Lucia Film), Gugi Gumilang (In-Docs), Rati Oneli (Office of Film Architecture) Moderator: Emma Davie (filmmaker) SA 11 Nov, 10:00, ITA: Studio 1 Passholders

Industry Talk: Reel Resistance – Meet the authors Jean-Marie Teno has been an indispensable filmmaker for decades now. His film work, as well as his views on film in general and on African filmmaking in particular, as well as on colonialism in film and on the questioning of documentary film’s common convictions, are essential to the current state of documentary film. We are fortunate that African film scholar Melissa Thackway and Teno decided to collaborate on a book that examines his journey in film and his vision of contemporary African cinema and its relationship to Europe and the world. IDFA 2023 recommends the resulting book Reel Resistance, and on the occasion of its launch invites its co-authors to tell us more about this work, about their collaboration, and to take us along with them on this critical, thought-provoking journey.

Speakers: Jean-Marie Teno and Melissa Thackway Moderator: Enoka Ayemba (Film Curator) SU 12 Nov, 10:00, ITA: Studio 1 Passholders

Industry Talk: The state of documentary distribution 2023 In collaboration with Variety An in-depth exploration of international distribution and sales trends, gathering some of the most exciting and important players in the field. The ‘golden age of documentary’ seems to have waned; it seems more difficult to find winning strategies in documentary land now. Professionals delve into the (im)possibilities of getting your documentary out there and seen by as many people as possible. What works and what doesn’t?

Be inspired by some of the most experienced authorities on documentary distribution. Following the opening keynote on the importance of theatrical release, international sales and distribution by Elissa Federoff (NEON), Sudu Connexion and Media Arts company Cinema Tropical will present their strategies for releasing successful films in an ever-changing industry.

Followed by a full case study from Autlook Film Sales on the multi-territory release of Sundance-winning title Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (dir. Anna Hints).

Keynote: Elissa Federoff (NEON) Speakers: Claire Diao (Sudu Connexion), Carlos Gutierrez (Cinema Tropical), Salma Abdalla (Autlook Film Sales), Graham Fulton (Conic) and Artur Liebhart (Millenium Docs Against Gravity).

Moderator: Leo Barraclough (Variety) SU 12 Nov, 15:00, ITA: Studio 1 Passholders

Industry Talk: The art of artificial cinema What happens when the art of documentary filmmaking meets Artificial Intelligence? How does this affect existing notions of authorship and storytelling? How can filmmakers and artists cut through the artificial smoke and mirrors, and actively challenge the potential and risks of one of the fastest-growing technologies? Where does the technology end and when does a new form of creation emerge? And how can the work of filmmakers and new media artists affect our understanding of the politics and societal impact of AI? Featuring various artists and filmmakers from the IDFA program working at the cutting edge of cinema and Artificial Intelligence.

Speakers: Constant Dullart (dir. William Quail’s Pyramid(italics)), Nirit Peled (dir. (this conversation is) Off the Record (italics)) Moderator: Julia Scott Stevenson MO 13 Nov, 10:00, ITA: Studio 1 Passholders

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Industry Talks dive into the key trends and urgent discussions currently defining the industry.

Industry Talk: Livelihood in the documentary industry The question of livelihood in the documentary industry is unfortunately as topical and relevant as ever and affects filmmakers globally, both seasoned and the upcoming alike. During the conference, this issue will be discussed from different perspectives. We will kick off with a keynote examining how concerns over livelihood are affecting the mental wellbeing of filmmakers in everyday production and in power relationships with financiers. Next up is a talk focusing on the experience of European film directors and findings from various European surveys examining issues such as income levels and pro bono work. This is followed by a talk discussing perspectives and experiences from producers globally and looking at whether it is at all possible to run a business based on producing documentary film – can we even call this an industry?

It might not be uplifting, but the question of livelihood is of utmost importance and chinks of light may emerge that can spark change. Whatever the case, continued knowledge-sharing is essential so we can inspire one another and build on the successes, and the mistakes, of other countries.

Keynote: Rebecca Day (Film in Mind) Speakers: Jany Ray (The Whickers), Ida Grøn (The Association of Danish Film Directors), Peter Lataster (Dutch Directors Guild), David Bernet (AG DOK), Gary Byung-Seok Kam (Mirror & Story), Toni Kamau (We are not the machine), Alexandra Galvis (BF Distribution), Martichka Bozhilova (AGITPROP) Moderator: Roisin Geraghty (The Documentary Film Council & Docs Ireland) 15:00 – 15:20: Intro + keynote by Rebecca Day 15:20 – 16:20: Focus on film directors in Europe 16:20 – 16:30: Coffee break 16:30 – 17:30: Focus on producers globally MO 13 Nov, 15:00, ITA: Studio 1 Passholders

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Industry Talk: In conversation with Ted Hope Ted Hope has been an influential figure in the U.S. independent film industry for a good while now. His filmography includes collaborations with Ang Lee, Todd Haynes, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and most recently Roger Ross Williams. Hope has also produced several documentary films, including IDFA 2023 Frontlight selection Invisible Nation. From 2014 to 2020, he headed Amazon’s Original Movies. As a writer, Hope’s critique of the independent film industry and its challenges – including the overwhelming power of huge companies over independent filmmaking – is influential and sharp. In this conversation, Nyrabia and Hope will examine the way filmmakers and audiences are trained by the major players to adapt and conform to a creative process that colors only between the lines.

Speakers: Ted Hope (Hope for Film) and Orwa Nyrabia (Artistic Director IDFA) TU 14 Nov, 10:00, ITA: Studio 1 Passholders

Industry Talk: Europe Conference - The camera in the face of the terrible In collaboration with Arte Building on its first edition in 2022, IDFA and Arte are proud to announce the second edition of their Europe Conference. Intended to take a sidestep from the whirlwind of the festival’s program, to reflect and discuss contemporary filmmaking practices and some the paradigm-shifting realities we are all confronted with, the program invites a keynote speech as well as two discussion forums. Among all the creative industries, cinema incarnates Europe’s most plural, polyphonic, and engaged fields, it is one of the continent’s most worldly accomplishments and the continent is a vital partner to film production all over the world. As filmmakers, producers, distributors, exhibitors, and critics from all over the world converge to this festival, the conference provides a unique gathering for an enriching sidestep for sharing ideas and thinking critically.

The conference begins with veteran and award-winning documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, whose prolific practice has been devoted to safeguarding the modern Indian republic’s promises of equality, justice and freedom of expression. With fearless acuity and lucidity, Patwardhan has investigated the rise of religious fundamentalism, debunked the fictions of fanatic ideologies, and explored the lingering wounds of partition. He remains undeterred by the lack of access to funding and censorship at home, and his conviction that documentary filmmaking still matters is inspiring.

Condition report of our planet: repair, restitution or survival Regardless of its perception as the “new” buzz notion, the Anthropocene is in fact a very abstract concept, and mobilizing the general public to accept a drastic shift in perspective is one of the most daunting challenges of our time. This panel of filmmakers offer stories, from different parts of the world, and in different scales, that nonetheless incarnate manifestations of the same crisis: our belief that extraction of natural resources is the key to progress and well-being.

Speakers: Sarvnik Kaur (dir. Against the Tide), Sebastián Peña Escobar (dir./ prod. The Last) and Ralf Buecheler (dir. In Wolf Country) Extended wars and regimes of images: the case of documentary This forum invites filmmakers and producers to reflect on how witnessing and capturing civil war, invasion and conflict has impacted their documentary practice, the sense of urgency and necessity in weaving dramaturgy, the point of view and antagonism, the focus and the off frame, and regimes of images.

Speakers: Muhannad Lamin (dir./prod. Donga), Jordan Bryon (dir.

Transition) 15:00 – 15:10: Welcome by Orwa Nyrabia (Artistic Director IDFA) and Fabrice Puchault (Arte) 15:10 – 15:30: Keynote by Anand Patwardhan 15:30 – 16:15: Condition report of our Planet: Repair, Restitution or Survival 16:15 – 16:30: Coffee break 16:30 – 17:30: Extended Wars and Regimes of Images: The Case of Documentary TU 14 Nov, 15:00, ITA: Studio 1 Passholders

Industry Talk: Pushing youth documentary & changing the game “A father turns to his 10-year-old son: ‘I think it’s time we had a talk about sex.’ His son nods and says: ‘What would you like to know?’”

This talk challenges the artistic and professional assumptions that teens and children know little, can’t handle reality and that documentary for youth must be an oversimplification of the real world.

Jumping off the insightful statement published in IDFA’s Notes On a Festival, written by this year’s youth competition programmer and filmmaker Niki Padidar, we look at how we can change the game.

Inspired filmmakers, including 2023 IDFA competition selected auteurs, come together to present and debate exciting, confusing, edgy and thought-provoking video’s and experiences that challenge front-running kids programming and raucously redefine boundaries of what youth cinema can and should be.

Let’s bend the genre together and push youth documentary forward.

WE 15 Nov, 10:00, ITA: Studio 1 Passholders

Industry Talk: Dutch docs day During the past year, a great deal of attention has been devoted to the visibility of Dutch film in general. Just over a year ago, the sector plan (in Dutch) for the strengthening of the position of Dutch cultural audiovisual productions appeared, setting out a number of concrete building blocks for and by the sector. Although Dutch documentaries enjoy a very good reputation internationally, this is not always reflected by viewing and audience figures inside the Netherlands. At the same time, many documentaries reach their audiences through other channels. Following the round table discussions in the morning we enter into discussion with the various players in the documentary world – from makers and producers to operators and broadcasters – on the positioning and visibility of the Dutch documentary. What is going well in this area, and where is there room for improvement? How can we, on the basis of the range of perspectives and shared ambition, increase the reach of documentaries?

For more details on the program and speakers visit idfa.nl The main language of this talk will be Dutch.

TH 16 Nov, 14:00, ITA: Studio 1 Passholders

Industry Talk: Unveiling history What does history tell us, and what hidden stories need to be retold?

Every society has its secrets and dark histories, hidden beneath a veil of time. There have always been fabricated narratives bending public opinion to the will of an individual or group, and pushing painful events into oblivion. Clashing interests among different players in the public sphere influence our readings of history every day. So it is hugely important that humanity keep an eye on history repeating cycles of violence and repression, especially now, as our universe becomes increasingly digital. Archives around the globe are valuable witnesses and fact-keepers of the past, and filmmakers often turn to them for answers while researching stories that need to be told. But how to get access to these witnesses, and how to approach often controversial images and information; how to process all that pain in a documentary film? Participating in the Reframe Sound & Vision Archive Film Award 2023, three filmmakers discuss their methods and reflect on the current need to address the narratives of the past.

Speakers: Thunska Pansittivorakul (dir. Damnatio Memoriae), Tessa Leuwsha (dir. Mother Suriname-Mama Sranan), João Pedro Bim (dir. Behind Closed Doors) Moderator: Kris Petrasova (Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision) WE 15 Nov, 15:00, ITA: Studio 1 Passholders

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Hosted by Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision

INDUSTRY SESSIONS Industry Sessions bring you up to speed on the latest developments in the industry.

Industry Session: How to sell shorts

Industry Session: How to work with VOD

Ouat Media [pronounced “what”] is a Toronto-based distribution and sales company that specializes in short film. Recognized internationally as one of the world’s primary destinations for work by the industry’s rising stars, Ouat Media boasts an award-winning catalogue of titles featuring 12 Oscar® nominees including 3 Oscar® winners to date.

Wendy Bernfeld, founder and managing director of international content consultancy Rights Stuff, offers a how-to session, focused first on a brief updated overview of latest trends, opportunities and pitfalls (including rights, windows, business models) in the international VoD/digital sector.

She goes beyond the ‘Big 5’ global platform types, into competitors and complementary niche platforms, which also buy and sometimes co-fund, both in general and particularly for the indie/documentary sector. Various OTT/SVOD/AVOD and most particularly the most recent developments in FAST channels will be outlined, along with hybrid approaches.

SA 11 Nov, 10:00, ITA: Pleinfoyer Passholders

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Industry Session: How to market your film In this hour-session, Mia Bruno (Fourth Act Films) gives insights and takes us into the big world of marketing.

Mia Bruno is a distribution consultant, sales rep, and impact producer.

Combining an expansive knowledge of film distribution with a unique skill for innovative marketing strategies, Mia thinks comprehensively about distribution and creates campaigns designed to elevate films in the marketplace and connect meaningfully with audiences. Mia provides transparency, education, and analysis on what is working so filmmakers are equipped to make the best decisions for their films in pursuit of goals both financial and impact-based. Mia was most recently the US impact producer for BAFTA and Academy award-winning documentary Navalny.

SU 12 Nov, 10:00, ITA: Pleinfoyer Passholders

Industry Session: How to work with a sales agent Tijana Djukic form Stranger Film Sales will guide you through the do’s and don’ts on everything related to the distribution of your film. How to develop a strategy for different distribution windows? How to navigate the world of festivals to find the right place to release your film? This session will also cover the questions of how, why, and when to start working with a sales agent and how to develop an individual strategy for different types of docs and collaborate as a team.

With a degree in Art History and 15+ years of cultural and cinema sector experience, Tijana has held political and operational roles. Since 2015, she’s worked as a sales agent for creative documentaries as well as factual entertainment. Currently, she is the head of sales and acquisitions at Stranger Films Sales. Among the films she has acquired and represented are The Dead Nation by Radu Jude, The Seasons in Quincy

by Tilda Swinton, Bruce Lee and the Outlaw by Joost Vandebrug, Fashion Babylon by Gianluca Matarrese, We Will Not Fade Away by Alisa Kovalenko.

In addition to her other work, she is presently involved in freelance acquisitions and programming at Current Time TV. She is overseeing the documentary slot for children and young adults, which she had a hand in creating.

SU 12 Nov, 11:00, ITA: Pleinfoyer Passholders

The short film genre is a world on its own. Questions about selling, financing, distribution potential, festival strategy and more? In this session, Inga Diev (Ouat Media) gives answers and takes you into the big world of shorts.

MO 13 Nov, 10:00, ITA: Pleinfoyer Passholders

INDUSTRY MEETUPS

Industry Meetup: NCE Masterclass with editor Michael Aaglund Editor Michael Aaglund has worked on internationally acclaimed documentaries such as The Distant Barking of Dogs (IDFA 2017) and A House Made of Splinters (Winner Best Documentary Directing Award at Sundance 2022, Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary Feature 2023), both by Danish director Simon Lereng Wilmont. Michael has also worked on several documentaries with Danish-Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel, including A World Not Ours (IDFA 2017). Many of the films Michael has edited focus on young protagonists who, directly or indirectly, have to deal with the consequences of war. What effect does this have on the editing process and the choices made in telling these young people’s stories on the big screen?

SA 11 Nov, 10:00, Vondel Pavilion: Studio Passholders

Industry Meetup: Our declaration of independence The value of independent documentary may feel glaringly obvious to those who work in the field. A unique approach, sense of purpose and fiercely guarded principle of creative independence lies at our core. Yet those outside of our community often don’t get it. In fact, the language around non-fiction is becoming so sloppy as to be meaningless.

The DISCO network has initiated The Independence Project to work with filmmakers to articulate a shared definition of independent documentary.

To describe its unique contribution to culture and society, and co-create a manifesto to enable organisations and networks to advocate directly for what they need.

From proper recognition for independent film from festivals and guilds, to advocating for a certain level of independent acquisitions, or editorial independence on films deemed independent, etc.

We are underway – having completed fifty in-depth interviews with filmmakers from every continent, we have initial findings to share and are preparing to launch the second phase in a global field-wide survey. Come join the coalition and get ambitious about this advocacy we can pursue together. thedisconetwork.com Speakers: Jad Abi-Khalil - Executive Director, Aflamuna and Representative from Doc Society SA 11 Nov, 13:00, ITA: Studio 1 Passholders

Industry Meetup: DAE Meetup at IDFA for members & nonmembers Join the DAE Meet-up during IDFA, where members and non-members can come together to discover what we are all about, reflect on the past year, and explore the future initiatives of the Documentary Association of Europe for 2024 and beyond. This event provides a unique opportunity to connect with our members and the people behind the association, learn more about what DAE does and the benefits of membership, and – most significantly – play an active role in shaping our association’s future.

SU 12 Nov, 12:30, ITA: Studio 1 Passholders

Industry Meetup: NBF@IDFA – Boundaries within documentaries Documentary filmmakers often confront challenging ethical dilemmas in their work. How far can you go in exploring the lives of your main characters? How do you handle intimate or sensitive moments in the lives of your main characters, and when is it appropriate to turn off the camera? And how can you ensure the mental well-being of all involved?

Storytelling while safeguarding boundaries is a complex matter. We will also explore how, as a documentary maker, you can best handle stories from beyond our own national borders. How do you navigate cultural sensitivities when making documentaries about diverse communities? How do the personal beliefs and biases of the filmmaker influence the documentary? How can you, as a filmmaker, recognize and manage your own role and influence? And what are the implications of cultural respect and representation?

Followed by drinks.

MO 13 Nov, 20:00, De Kring, Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 7-9 Passholders

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These gathering, organized by relations of IDFA, promote discourse, collaboration, and connection across borders.

DELEGATION PROJECT PRESENTATIONS

Delegation Project Presentation: South Korea Organized by EIDF (EBS International Documentary Festival) Industry and co-organized by the Korea Communications Agency (KCA), Korean Pitching Day presents Korean creative documentary projects in progress.

It consists of the project pitches followed by business meetings with decision-makers. These projects include: • Breakin’ Tanzania by SEO Jimin, prod. KIM Mirae / Sumfilm • Baby Jackfruit, Baby Guava by Nong Nhat Quang, prod. Dao Thi Minh Trang, Kang Sarah / Flâneur Films, Breathing Films • Nadia by Moon Chang-yong, prod. Kim Dongbin / SONAMU FILM • The Tango Lesson by Park Hyuckjee, prod. Park Hyuckjee / Hiharbor Pictures • Kabul, Year Zero by Aboozar Amini, prod. Jia Zhao, Oh Heejung, Julia Niethammer/Silk Road Film Salon, Seesaw Pictures, Chromosom Film • Every Miner Is My Father by Song Kyung / Magnum Pictures • The Laundromat Mystery by Kim Jungin, prod. Park Koonje / Malo Studio • Merry Go Round by Park Sohyeon, prod. Mo Jinsu Korean Pitching Day is a program that introduces Korean feature documentaries in development aiming at the global market.

Sponsored by the Ministry of Science and ICT and co-supported by Korea Communications Agency and Korea Radio Promotion Association. www.en.kdocs.co.kr Moderators: Jane Ray and Gary Kam SA 11 Nov, 14:30, ITA: Pleinfoyer Passholders

Delegation Project Presentation: Palestine Film Institute The Palestine Film Institute (PFI) invites you to the Palestine Documentary Hub where the upcoming feature documentary projects of three Palestinian filmmakers, Dalia Al-Kury, Elettra Bisogno and Noora Said, will be showcased. Alongside renowned international film producers, distributors, and sales agents, selected filmmakers will take centre stage during the Palestine Documentary Hub session at IDFA. In this exclusive opportunity, these visionary directors will have 15 minutes each to passionately present and discuss their projects before a captive audience of influential professionals and decision-makers. PFI is committed to championing and promoting these projects, providing a platform for the selected directors to engage with the global film community and actively participate in the festival’s industry events.

As part of our delegation, we will facilitate meetings for the directors, allowing them to connect with potential international collaborators and the broader festival network. Each director will receive a personalized program, collaboratively developed with PFI’s industry consultants, ensuring their projects receive the attention and support they deserve.

SU 12 Nov, 14:00, ITA: Pleinfoyer Passholders

Delegation Project Presentation: Poland Organized within the framework of the Polish Delegation, Polish Docs Pro Showcase presents Polish creative documentary projects in progress.

This consists of pitches for these projects, followed by individual meetings with decision-makers. The projects include: • Eastern Trees, dir. Agnieszka Zwiefka, prod.Zofia Kujawska / Chilli Productions • GO&SEE, dir. Julia Kuzka, prod. Małgorzata Małysa, Karolina Galuba / Furia Film • Hasan’s Joy, dir. Natalia Pietsch, Grzegorz Piekarski, prod. Katarzyna Kostecka / Larmo • Superhumans, dir. Małgorzata Szumowska, prod. Klaudia Śmieja, Małgorzata Szumowska, Małgorzata Kozioł / Nowhere Addressed to film professionals, Polish Docs PRO focuses primarily on the wide-ranging promotion of the Polish documentary film industry at international events. It supports filmmakers and producers in developing their projects by facilitating access to markets, pitching forums and co‑production meetings. It is organized by the Krakow Film Foundation and co-financed from the state budget out of funds provided by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. www.polishdocs.pl Moderator: Katarzyna Wilk MO 13 Nov, 14:00, ITA: Pleinfoyer Passholders

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Coming from all over the world, these professional associations attend the festival to network, offer insight into their local documentary industries and resources, and discuss possibilities for co-production.

SEE

WATCH ENJOY MEET

DOCUMENTARIES FROM THE NETHERLANDS 48

www.see-nl.com

Delegation Project Presentation: American Film Showcase American Film Showcase is the United States’ flagship international film and TV public diplomacy program. AFS supports international filmmakers through cultural exchanges and mentorships, and builds cross-cultural networks of creative professionals. AFS is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State and is produced by the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

The projects include: Will They Ever Come Back? by Ángela Carabalí (Colombia) Driving down a long Colombian road, Angela and her sister enter the indigenous land where their father, an Afro-descendant farmer, was forcibly disappeared years ago. In a dream, he asks to be found. The journey confronts them with mysticism and a violated community that resists, maintaining a deep bond with the land.

Colors of White Rock by Khoroldorj ‘Hogo’ Choijoovanchig (Mongolia) Sweeping over the Gobi Desert wastelands wrought by Mongolia’s mining boom, Colors of White Rock tells the story of Maikhuu, a rare female truck driver fighting to survive on the country’s hazardous coal roads. Her journey holds up a mirror to the increasing human and environmental cost of ‘Minegolia’ as the mining industry relentlessly continues to monopolize the country’s economy.

Baby Jackfruit Ba by Guava by Quang Nông Nhat (Vietnam) When an unplanned baby enters the lives of a conservative mother, mentally ill daughter and detached gay son, the dysfunctional trio travel back in time through their diaries to mend ruptured bonds and prepare for a new cycle of motherhood.

Tata by Lina Vdovîi & Radu Ciorniciuc (Romania) A journalist estranged from her violent father discovers he’s become a victim of employment exploitation. Equipping him with a hidden camera to gather evidence, she finds herself on a complex and emotionally poignant quest – to break the cycle of abuse for herself, the next generation, and her own abuser.

Moderators: Annie Small and Rachel Gandin Mark TU 14 Nov, 14:00, ITA: Pleinfoyer Passholders

SOCIAL EVENTS Docs for Sale: Happy hours We invite you to join us for drinks on behalf of our sponsors. Thank you to Autlook Filmsales, Lightdox, Mediawan, Millennium Docs Against Gravity, Rise and Shine World Sales and SEE NL for sponsoring the Happy Hours.

FR 10 – WE 15, 17:00, Felix Meritis: Docs for Sale Lounge Docs for Sale & IDFA Forum Passholders

Guests Meet Guests All IDFA guests are invited to meet, exchange ideas, and have a drink at the daily Guests Meet Guests cocktail hour.

TH 9 Nov, 18:00, Café Kuyl Passholders WE 15 Nov, 18:00, Café Kuyl Passholders

Guests Meet Guests – hosted by Netflix Bringing together IDFA passholders daily, the Guests Meet Guests cocktail events are a great moment to connect with other delegates and keep your finger on the pulse of the festival.

Netflix is one of the world’s leading entertainment services with over 238 million paid subscribers in over 190 countries, enjoying TV series, films and games across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can play, pause and resume watching as often as they like, anytime, anywhere, and can change their subscription at any time. www.netflix.com

IDFAcademy & Producers Connection drinks – hosted by Scenery Closing the IDFAcademy program and the first full day of Producers Connection activities, these drinks bring emerging filmmakers and experienced professionals together for celebratory toast.

SU 12 Nov, 17:00, Felix Meritis: Pillar Lounge IDFAcademy & IDFA Forum Passholders

Guests Meet Guests – hosted by Polish Docs PRO and HBO MAX Bringing together IDFA passholders daily, the Guests Meet Guests cocktail events are a great moment to connect with other delegates and keep your finger on the pulse of the festival.

Within the framework of the Polish Docs PRO project, Krakow Film Foundation promotes Polish documentaries and projects at international festivals and film markets, recommends them to festival programmers, sales agents and decision-makers. The project is co-financed from the state budget out of funds provided by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.

You can watch seven Polish films in this year’s IDFA program, while two Polish projects are in the IDFA Forum and another four at Polish Docs Pro Showcase. HBO Max is one of the most important documentary film producers in many European countries. The company’s original production focusses on feature documentaries and documentary series with high production values covering topics of importance to your society.

We invite you to celebrate our documentary films at IDFA 2023 with us! www.polishdocs.pl www.hbomax.com SU 12 Nov, 18:00, Boom Chicago Passholders

FR 10 Nov, 18:00, Café Kuyl Passholders

Guests Meet Guests – hosted by ITA – Italian Trade Agency and Doc/it Bringing together IDFA passholders daily, the Guests Meet Guests cocktail events are a great moment to connect with other delegates and keep your finger on the pulse of the festival.

ITA – Italian Trade Agency and Doc/it – Italian Documentary Association are glad to invite you to meet the Italian delegation attending IDFA 2023. For the twelfth year running, Italy is attending with an official delegation of professionals – producers, sales agents and distributors, festival representatives – organized by ITA, the governmental agency supporting the business development of Italian companies abroad and promoting the attraction of foreign investment in Italy, in collaboration with Doc/it, the official association of Italian documentary producers and filmmakers. www.ice.it www.documentaristi.it SA 11 Nov, 18:00, Boom Chicago Passholders

French Doc Drinks - hosted by LaScam Unifrance, LaScam and La Région Grand-Est, in partnership with L’OEil d’or and the European Regional Development Fund are pleased to invite you to celebrate French docs and talents on the occasion of their French Docs Drink.

SU 12 Nov, 19:00, De Balie: Bovenfoyer By invitation

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IDFA’s daily social events are unmissable occasions for guests to mingle and network.

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IDFA Markets Drinks – hosted by Chiledoc

IDFA Forum: Lunch – hosted by Chicken & Egg

Celebrating the future of documentary storytelling. The IDFA Markets will kick off this year’s editions with an informal meet and greet.

A welcome break from the busy pitch and presentation schedule, the daily lunch offers an informal setting to meet, greet, and eat.

Chile invites you to kick off this year’s IDFA industry program with the documentary community.

In honor of the recipients of the 2023 Chicken & Egg Award, Chicken & Egg Pictures cordially invites you to join us at Forum Lunch. Chicken & Egg Pictures is a U.S.-based media organization that provides a global community of women and non-binary documentary filmmakers with creative and financial support to realize their cinematic visions and build fulfilling careers within a gender-inclusive media industry.

We heartily invite you to get to know the entire Chilean delegation and learn more about the Chilean films and projects in official selection.

This invitation is made by Chiledoc, the international Chilean sector brand for documentaries, supported by the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Chile. chiledoc.cl SU 12 Nov, 21:00, De Duif

www.chickeneggpics.org MO 13 Nov, 13:00, Het Groene Paleis IDFA Forum Passholders

Docs for Sale & IDFA Forum Passholders

Guests Meet Guests – hosted by ARTE IDFA Forum: Producers Breakfast – hosted by RAPA & KCA Producers at IDFA Forum meet each other over coffee to kick-start the day together. The pre-arranged table seating ensures that participants meet colleagues from countries they’re interested in learning more about.

Korean filmmakers are ready to meet you! This Breakfast Event is co-hosted

by KCA and RAPA* Here are young, fresh filmmakers aiming at the global film market, stepping up to make waves overseas in earnest. They have diverse backgrounds in Korea, as well as original perspectives and ideas, and they want to share their visions with you. Sign up and mingle with Korean filmmakers at the Producers Breakfast! *KCA: Public company operating a documentary production support platform business. RAPA: Public institution that operates the GPA (Global Pitching Academy) for upcoming filmmakers. rapa.or.kr kca.kr MO 13, TU 14 and WE 15 Nov, 8:00, Felix Meritis: Restaurant By invitation

Bringing together IDFA passholders daily, the Guests Meet Guests cocktail events are a great moment to connect with other delegates and keep your finger on the pulse of the festival.

During this Guests Meet Guests reception, ARTE is treating you to drinks.

ARTE is a European public media. Its exceptional creativity and the high quality of its programs are the foundation of ARTE’s success and uniqueness. The culture channel ARTE builds bridges between television and the internet and can be seen by everyone, anywhere and at any time. ARTE is available in six languages. It offers, in addition to French and German versions, a selection of programs on the web with English, Spanish, Polish, and Italian subtitles. arte.tv | arte.tv/en | arte.tv/es | arte.tv/pl | arte.tv/it MO 13 Nov, 18:00, De Duif Passholders

Filmmakers’ Dinner - hosted by Apple TV+ IDFA invites a selection of filmmakers—whose films have been included in the program—to a special dinner.

Apple TV+ offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all your favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries, and series have earned 376 wins and 1,570 award nominations and counting, including multi-Emmy Award-winning comedy “Ted Lasso” and historic Oscar Best Picture winner “CODA.” MO 13 Nov, 18:00, Kitchen & Bar Van Rijn By invitation

Unity for Humanity & IDFA DocLab Mixer Unity for Humanity is supporting impact-driven projects at this year’s IDFA DocLab. Join us in raising a glass and to learn more about how Unity for Humanity supports new media makers.

TU 14 Nov, 17:00, de Brakke Grond: Rode Zaal Passholders

Guests Meet Guests – hosted by Catalan Films and Docs Barcelona

Catalan Films and DocsBarcelona invite you to meet the Catalan delegation attending IDFA 2023. Catalan Films is the driving force behind the internationalization of the Catalan audiovisual industry, establishing local, national and international connections. DocsBarcelona is a consolidated project devoted to documentary offering an international competitive festival, a financing market, an international documentary training program and the largest distribution brand and documentary exhibition network in Spain. catalanfilms.cat docsbarcelona.com TU 14 Nov, 18:00, De Duif Passholders

IDFA Forum: Awards Ceremony & Lunch – hosted by FeverFilm & Posta Join us for the announcement of this year’s IDFA Forum award winners which will be presented during the lunch hosted by FeverFilm & Posta.

The jury will announce winners in three different categories: IDFA Forum Award for Best Pitch Project IDFA Forum Award for Best Rough Cut Project IDFA DocLab Forum Award for Best Project Amsterdam-based post-production companies FeverFilm & Posta invite you for a lunch on the last day of IDFA Forum. As a key player in offering full-service picture and sound post under the same roof, we are open for collaboration on documentary co-productions. With a long and award-winning track record in sound design, re-recording mix, grading, and finishing for international documentaries, we welcome you to have a chat with us. feverfilm.nl posta.nl WE 15 Nov, 13:00, Felix Meritis: Pillar Lounge IDFA Forum Passholders

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Bringing together IDFA passholders daily, the Guests Meet Guests cocktail events are a great moment to connect with other delegates and keep your finger on the pulse of the festival.

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ADDITIONAL INDUSTRY EVENTS CONSULTANCIES WITH INDUSTRY EXPERTS Gathering experts from the field, IDFA offers group consultancies for all pass holders; whether navigating their way in the industry or seeking expert advice on a range of topics, from impact producing, distribution, and more. Consultancies are open to all accredited guests of the festival and require prior registration, which is communicated in advance of the festival.

If you missed these announcements, pass by the Consultancy Desk at ITA for last-minute slots.

IDFA PROJECT SPACE SHOWCASE IDFA’s training and funding initiatives supports filmmakers throughout the year. The training program IDFA Project Space, in its international and Dutch speaking versions, supported 22 projects in different stages of production during 2023. In this showcase, ten alumni of the program will present their projects to the international industry. As part of their program, the Dutch filmmakers have the chance to discuss local funding options by meeting interested broadcasters. Making their first steps into presenting their projects, the showcase aims to give these emerging new voices the chance to connect with possible partners and get feedback on their ideas.

DOCLAB R&D SUMMIT IDFA’s key industry event for new media professionals, DocLab R&D Summit, brings together experts from across the growing new media ecosystem to reflect on best practices, tackle burning questions faced by the industry, and explore the creative potential of XR in documentary storytelling. The Summit is a vital part of the DocLab R&D program, launched in 2018 in collaboration with the MIT Open Documentary Lab, among other partners. 2023 marks the start of the second five-year research cycle with the MIT Open Documentary Lab. THINK TANKS During the Industry Talks Days, IDFA brings together frontrunning professionals that address thorny questions concerning the industry and exchange knowledge in search of solutions. The Think Tanks ultimately aim to strengthen the documentary community, providing a platform for industry professionals to collectively tackle shared challenges. These gatherings happen in private moments and when appropriate, results are published for the community to read.

SOCIAL EVENTS IDFA believes in informal networking and creating a welcoming atmosphere. Many social events are organized by IDFA and pepper the schedule all throughout your stay. Enjoy a Guests meets Guests event every evening between November 9 and 15, pass by the festival Café Kuyl, and look out for invitations sent to your email depending on your accreditation. See a full list in the Industry Program that follows.

Find more information at idfa.nl/industry-program or scan the QR code

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IDFA organizes a whole array of events to connect film professionals and further an exchange of knowledge and ideas. Most of these industry events are available to all our accredited guests and pass holders—with a number of invite only or registration required events designed for specific groups of guests, such as Think Tanks, consultancies, and the DocLab R&D Summit.

PARTNERS OF THE INDUSTRY PROGRAM AND IDFA TALKS IDFA Markets are supported by

Guests Meet Guests are hosted by

Docs for Sale Happy Hour is hosted by

originals IDFAcademy & Producers Connection drinks are hosted by

IDFA Markets Drinks are hosted by

French Doc Drinks are hosted by

Forum Producers Breakfast is hosted by

Forum Lunches are hosted by

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Producers Connection is supported by

Filmmakers’ Dinner is hosted by

Industry Program is hosted by

Film Talks are hosted by

Maintain the blue margins around the logo

BEELD & GELUID IDFA REFRAME AWARD

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Best creative use of archive

discover our collection beeldengeluid.nl

PROGRAM SECTIONS IDFA’s program sections are a testament to the evolving world of documentary film. From emerging art forms to established cinematic traditions, our slate of competitions and non-competitive sections offer something for every filmmaker and film lover.

IDFA DOCLAB SPOTLIGHT

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

PARADOCS

The best of the art. Singular films that are artistically confident, wellrounded, and universally relevant. An international jury of five jurors will award the best film as well as other films that champion the craft and innovation of filmmaking.

Pushing the limits of the documentary form. A showcase of the year’s best experimental documentary art.

ENVISION COMPETITION

The latest films by the most interesting contemporary filmmakers whose filmographies we highly appreciate, and for whose work we wait with excitement.

With stylistic integrity and courage, these films traverse our current reality, offering visions of a documentary art form that can, might, and will be. An international jury of five jurors will award the best film as well as other films that champion the craft and innovation of filmmaking.

IDFA DOCLAB COMPETITION FOR IMMERSIVE NON-FICTION

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A testament to the power of exceptional non-fiction storytelling across media and technologies, the selected works for the IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction reveal the full spectrum of immersive art. An international jury of three jurors will award the best project in addition to handing out a special jury award.

IDFA DOCLAB COMPETITION FOR DIGITAL STORYTELLING The selected projects in the IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling illustrate all the different ways to create stories in new ways to innovate and re-imagine the potential of interactive storytelling, often moving between the digital and the physical. An international jury of three jurors will award the best project in addition to handing out a special jury award.

IDFA COMPETITION FOR SHORT DOCUMENTARY The titles in the IDFA Competition for Short Documentary showcase a healthy boom for the short film form. A mosaic of styles and themes defines this selection, exploring everything a short documentary can be.

An international jury of three jurors will award the best film.

IDFA COMPETITION FOR YOUTH DOCUMENTARY The IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary offers world-class films that challenge the definition of youth documentary. For the first time, selected titles are presented for two distinct age groups: 9- to 12-yearolds, and 13-year-olds all the way to adulthood. An international jury of three jurors will award the best film in each age group.

LUMINOUS A wide range of styles and formalist approaches dot this premiere-only section, from observational to personal to experimental. Collectively, the films in Luminous express a highly intimate engagement with our fellow humans—those who resiliently strive to overcome adversity.

FRONTLIGHT The premiere-only section takes an artistic approach to exploring the urgent issues of our time. Courageous, truth-seeking documentary filmmaking with no holds barred.

IDFA ON STAGE The IDFA on Stage selection presents a boundary-breaking program of live cinema events—bridging film, new media, and the performing arts.

Documentary art across disciplines, presenting emerging media works and research projects by established and new talents.

SIGNED

BEST OF FESTS Prize-winners, public favorites, and high-profile titles from the international festival circuit.

WANG BING’S TOP 10 A program of films selected by our Guest of Honor. In his Top 10 program, Wang Bing invites us on a contemplative journey into contemporary Chinese cinema, with ten titles dating 1999 and later.

WANG BING RETROSPECTIVE In tribute to our Guest of Honor, IDFA presents six films directed by Wang Bing from 2002 to today. An uncompromising voice of presentday Chinese filmmaking, his work fearlessly chronicles socioeconomic transformations and challenging labor conditions in China.

PETER GREENAWAY: RETROSPECTIVE A Retrospective program celebrating acclaimed and rebellious filmmaker and artist Peter Greenaway. The selection of five titles from his filmography illustrates how his approach transcends genres and refuses to adhere to the standard rules of fiction or documentary film.

FOCUS PROGRAM: FABRICATIONS Fabrications investigates the image of truth often associated with documentaries. With a selection of films, we probe the difference between reality and realism and look at how films attempt to address this through a deliberate mix of fiction and documentary technique.

FOCUS PROGRAM: 16 WORLDS ON 16 Looking back on 100 years since Kodak introduced 16mm, this focus program explores how the film format has influenced the history of documentary film.

CORRESPONDING CINEMAS Corresponding Cinemas presents a series of films and conversations on the invisible connections between filmmakers—offering a glimpse into cinema’s endless relay of creative connections.

AWARDS Every year, outstanding new films compete for IDFA’s coveted awards.

Explore the overview of all awards per competition as well as our cross-section awards and other prizes.

OTHER AWARDS:

AWARDS IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

The film that is most highly rated by festival audiences will win the NPO IDFA Audience Award. All IDFA-selected films made in the past year with a running time of over 40 minutes are eligible.

AWARDS IN THE ENVISION COMPETITION From the films selected for the Envision Competition, an international jury of five jurors will choose the winner of the IDFA Award for Best Film in the Envision Competition. The award is accompanied by a €15,000 cash prize. The jury also selects the winners of IDFA Award for Best Directing (worth €5,000) and the IDFA Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution (worth €2,500).

CROSS-SECTION AWARDS From the International Competition, Envision Competition, Luminous, and Frontlight, two international juries will choose the winners of the IDFA Award for Best First Feature (€5,000) and the FIPRESCI Award.

From the International Competition, Envision Competition, Luminous, Frontlight, and Signed, an international jury will choose the winner of the IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film supported by VEVAM Fund (€7,500).

From across the program, an international jury will choose the winner of the Beeld & Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award (€5,000).

AWARDS IN THE IDFA DOCLAB COMPETITION FOR IMMERSIVE NON-FICTION From the projects selected for the IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction, an international jury of three jurors will choose the winner of the IDFA DocLab Award for Immersive Non-Fiction. The award is accompanied by a €5,000 cash prize. The jury also selects the winner of the Special Jury Award for Creative Technology (worth €2,500).

AWARDS IN THE IDFA DOCLAB COMPETITION FOR DIGITAL STORYTELLING From the projects selected for the IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling, an international jury of three jurors will choose the winner of the IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling. The award is accompanied by a €5,000 cash prize. The jury also selects the winner of the Special Jury Award for Creative Technology (worth €2,500).

AWARD IN THE IDFA COMPETITION FOR SHORT DOCUMENTARY From the films selected for the IDFA Competition for Short Documentary, an international jury of three jurors will choose the winner of the IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary. The award is accompanied by a €5,000 cash prize.

AWARDS IN THE IDFA COMPETITION FOR YOUTH DOCUMENTARY From the films selected for the IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary, an international jury of three jurors will choose a winner of the IDFA Award for Best Youth Film 9-12 age and the IDFA Award for Best Youth Film 13+. Each award is accompanied by a €2,500 cash prize.

IDFA FORUM AWARDS From the projects selected for IDFA Forum, an international jury of three jurors will choose the winner of the IDFA Forum Award for Best Project and the IDFA Forum Award for Best Rough Cut Project.

From the projects selected for IDFA DocLab Forum, an international jury of three jurors will choose the winner of the IDFA DocLab Forum Award for Best Project.

NPO FUND TALENT AWARD This prize is awarded to one of the projects in IDFA Project Space NL. It consists of a grant of €25,000 for the development of the project and €5,000 for the production of a teaser.

IDFA SPOTLIGHT AWARD Awarded at international festivals and markets throughout the year, this prize goes to talented filmmakers and promising documentary projects.

The award consists of free travel and accommodation during IDFA in addition to accreditation and mentorship.

PRINS BERNHARD CULTUURFONDS DOCUMENTARY STIPEND With this stipend, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds awards a documentary talent with a grant of €50,000 that allows the recipient to make a documentary film about a subject of their choice. The award is intended for a documentary filmmaker with a proven track record who has already earned modest recognition in the documentary field.

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From the films selected for the International Competition, an international jury of five jurors will choose the winner of the IDFA Award for Best Film. The award is accompanied by a €15,000 cash prize. The jury also selects the winners of the IDFA Award for Best Directing (worth €5,000), the IDFA Award for Best Editing (worth €2,500), and the IDFA Award for Best Cinematography (worth €2,500).

NPO IDFA AUDIENCE AWARD

FILMS A-Z All films in the selection, from A to Z.

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A Picture to Remember

LEGEND What do the labels mean?

The colors used in the schedules and A to Z lists provide more information about the films, projects, and events.

IDFAcademy Harvest Films developed at one of IDFAcademy’s talent programs.

All screenings of films that have their European, international, or world premiere at IDFA are listed in red , as well as Press & Industry and Market Screenings.

IDFA Forum Harvest Films that previously pitched at IDFA Forum.

All screenings of films that have previously screened in Europe or the Netherlands are listed in blue.

All new media projects are listed in yellow.

All events are listed in grey.

IDFA Bertha Fund Films supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund.

#Racegirl – Das Comeback der Sophia Flörsch Sonia Otto Germany, 2023, 94′

The German race car driver Sophia Flörsch wants to make it into Formula 1. She’s determined that no accident or other setback will stop her from following her dream and excelling in a male-dominated world.

SA 11 21:00 Tuschinski 1 SU 12 10:30 Munt 11 WE 15 14:30 Tuschinski 3 TH 16 20:45 Tuschinski 2 FR 17 14:30 Munt 11

P&I

Luminous

... ned, tassot, yossot … IP Brigitte Weich Austria, 2023, 99′

The sequel to the 2009 film Hana, dul, sed… about four players from the successful North Korean national women’s soccer team. They look back on their sports career and reflect on their lives since then.

SA 11 16:00 Tuschinski 2 SU 12 13:15 Munt 1 FR 17 15:30 Munt 10 SA 18 18:45 Tuschinski 4 Luminous

1001 Days IP

Zikethiwe Ngcobo, Chloe White South Africa, United Kingdom, 2023, 94′

In a Johannesburg township fraught with problems, a group of women are devoted to supporting mothers and their babies—in the knowledge that by supporting the mental well-being of mothers, they are helping to create a better future for their children.

MO 13 17:45 Munt 12 TU 14 11:30 Tuschinski 2 TU 14 13:30 Pathé City 4 P&I FR 17 15:00 Kriterion 1 Q&A hosted by Off-Screen SU 19 13:15 Munt 9 IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

14 Paintings IP 历历如画 Dongnan Chen China, 2023, 24′

Chinese painters who once made reproductions of Western masterpieces now create their own work. Fourteen paintings and the places where they hang tell a story of creativity, hope, capitalism, and artistic freedom and constraint.

SU 12 18:15 Tuschinski 2 Shorts MO 13 11:00 Tuschinski 6 Shorts SA 18 16:15 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts SU 19 13:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 Shorts

1489 WP

International Competition

Shoghakat Vardanyan Armenia, 2023, 76′ When her brother goes missing during the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, Shoghakat decides to film her and her parents’ search and emotional process—even at times when others might have put down the camera.

SU 12 09:45 Pathé City 3 MO 13 18:30 Munt 13 WE 15 20:30 Eye: Cinema 2 FR 17 12:15 Munt 12 SA 18 10:45 Munt 12

P&I + Talk

Best of Fests

20 Days in Mariupol

Mstyslav Chernov Ukraine, 2023, 94′

Barbara Visser Netherlands, 2023, 87′

A powerful film report on the unimaginably cruel Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, from where AP journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his team send their shocking images of the besieged city around the world.

A piece of anti-art became the most influential artwork of the 20th century. But who elevated the urinal to artistic status?

Speculation about a female creator comes and goes. Who was she? And what is true, or even real, in this case?

TH 9 21:45 Eye: Cinema 2 SA 11 20:30 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 TU 14 14:45 Kriterion 1 Q&A hosted by

Room for Discussion WE 15 17:00 De Balie: Grote Zaal SU 19 10:00 Munt 11

FR 10 17:00 Tuschinski 3 FR 10 20:15 Eye: Cinema 1 SU 12 10:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema MO 13 11:30 Eye: Cinema 1 TH 16 15:00 Tuschinski 4 SA 18 12:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1

Four experimental classics from the U.S. from the forties and fifties, most projected on 16mm: starting with Deren’s influential classic, via Anger’s debut and Clarke’s choreographed short, the program concludes with Frank and Leslie’s improvised classic.

FR 10 11:45 Eye: Cinema 2 TH 16 18:00 Eye: Cinema 2

Frontlight

2G WP

Following a clampdown on people smuggling, many residents of Agadez in Niger have turned to gold mining. Director Karim Sayad observes the hard life of the desert inhabitants, as well as their resilience.

TH 9 18:45 Tuschinski 6 FR 10 11:30 Tuschinski 5 FR 10 13:30 Pathé City 3 SU 12 09:30 Tuschinski 2 TH 16 21:30 Podium Mozaïek SA 18 21:45 Munt 12

P&I

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

Africa, I Will Fleece You

Afrique, je te plumerai...

Jean Marie Téno Cameroon, France, Germany, 1992, 88′ A creative, critical and sometimes humorous film on the history of Cameroon. Using music and archive footage, this mix of fiction and documentary affirms a personal and indigenous perspective that breaks away from colonial visions of Africa.

SU 12 16:00 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal FR 17 11:30 Munt 9 Best of Fests

Against the Tide

Sarvnik Kaur India, France, 2023, 97′

+ Talk Oxfam Novib Special

TU 14 21:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 SA 18 10:00 Munt 11

Best of Fests

Al Djanat, the Original Paradise

Al Djanat, paradis originel Aïcha Chloé Boro France, Burkina Faso, Benin, Germany, 2023, 84′ Filmmaker Aïcha Chloé Boro returns from France to Burkina Faso, where an inheritance dispute has arisen after the death of her uncle. There she sees how her life might have been. A warm, wistful and multi-layered family portrait.

FR 10 14:00 Munt 9 SA 11 18:45 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal TU 14 18:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal WE 15 15:45 Tuschinski 5 FR 17 20:30 Tuschinski 4

Alone

Luminous

Amor IP

Scenes of Rome intertwine with the filmmaker’s memories of her mother, who in 1998 jumped to her death in the Tiber.

Flowing like a river, the film’s free-form and associative style lends additional power to a profoundly personal document.

SA 11 20:30 Eye: Cinema 2 MO 13 14:00 Kriterion 1 TU 14 19:00 Tuschinski 3 FR 17 17:00 Tuschinski 5 SU 19 15:45 Munt 10

P&I

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

And a Happy New Year WP

Without commentary, but still loud and clear, this short documentary shows how animals experience fireworks on New Year’s Eve. We follow the mounting stress of animals and their owners, from the perspective of dogs wearing GoPros.

MO 13 18:00 Tuschinski 5 Youth 9-12 TU 14 11:15 Munt 9 Youth 9-12 SA 18 14:00 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal

Jeugdvoorstelling Youth 9-12 Youth 9-12

And How Miserable Is the Home of Evil Va saraye setamkaaran bad manzalgaahist Saleh Kashefi Switzerland, 2023, 7′

Images from the Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s own website are skillfully edited into a new context; the desperate dictator takes refuge as protests swell outside.

FR 10 12:00 Tuschinski 2 SU 12 18:45 Tuschinski 6 MO 13 12:30 Eye: Cinema 2 TU 14 14:45 De Balie: Grote Zaal SA 18 21:45 Munt 9

孤独 Wang Bing Hong Kong, France, 2012, 89′ Three sisters, still young children, live in poverty in a village in Yunnan province, China. Their mother has left and their father works in the city. They work on the land and go to school only occasionally, with no prospects for a better future.

TH 9 13:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema MO 13 19:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn United States, United Kingdom, 2023, 80′

What impact does it have on your life to discover pornographic deepfakes of yourself? Engineering student Taylor hunts for the perpetrator in a report about online misogyny and inadequate legislation.

SA 11 17:00 Tuschinski 4 SU 12 12:30 Munt 13 TH 16 18:30 Cinema De Vlugt SU 19 12:45 Munt 13

Youth 13+ Youth 13+ Youth 13+ Youth 13+

Luminous

Edhe një ditë Eneos Carka Albania, 2023, 84′

Two likeable Albanian street performers have been traveling through Italy for years, but now they are gradually growing apart.

The cooling friendship is filmed empathetically, with a sharp eye for the subtle dynamics between two artists adrift.

FR 10 20:45 Tuschinski 4 SU 12 09:45 Munt 13 MO 13 12:00 Pathé City 4 FR 17 18:30 Munt 10 SA 18 14:30 Tuschinski 6

Arna’s Children

IDFA Special

De kinderen van Arna Juliano Mer Khamis, Danniel Danniel Netherlands, Israel, 2003, 84′ Arna Mer set up a theatre group in Jenin, engaging children to help them express their everyday frustrations, anger, bitterness and fear. Years later her son Juliano goes back to find the children.

SA 11 15:45 Munt 13 SA 18 21:15 Munt 13 Signed

Arsenie. An Amazing Afterlife

Vast numbers of Romanians venerate the monk and candidate saint Arsenie Boca. Will a pilgrimage bring insights into the roots of his increasing popularity? A lighthearted investigation into idolatry and faith.

TH 9 16:00 Tuschinski 3 SA 11 21:15 Munt 11 SU 12 15:00 Tuschinski 6 WE 15 21:30 Kriterion 1 SA 18 17:00 Eye: Cinema 1 International Competition

As the Tide Comes In WP

Juan Palacios Denmark, 2023, 89′

The 27 residents of the Danish Wadden Sea island of Mandø experience the forces of climate change in the form of severe weather and risk of flooding. Still, they stubbornly cling to normal life and their identity as islanders.

SA 11 09:45 Pathé City 2 MO 13 21:00 Tuschinski 1 TU 14 14:00 Tuschinski 1 TH 16 21:30 Tuschinski 6 SA 18 10:15 Munt 13

P&I

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Another Day WP

A poetic portrayal of audio archives in which queer Nigerians who live in the UK record their life stories. They talk about the happiness of being able to live and love in freedom. But underneath, the sadness of exile can also be heard.

At That Very Moment WP

Another Body

Retrospective: Wang Bing

Simisolaoluwa Akande United Kingdom, 2023, 25′

Arsenie. Viața de apoi Alexandru Solomon Romania, Luxembourg, 2023, 96′

Sebastian Mulder Netherlands, 2023, 21′

SA 18 15:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 SU 19 10:30 Tuschinski 4

Luminous

The Archive: Queer Nigerians IP

SA 11 20:15 Tuschinski 4 Shorts SU 12 15:00 Munt 10 Shorts FR 17 18:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts SU 19 16:15 Kriterion 1 Shorts

Paradocs

A captivating portrait of two friends, showing how the younger generation of fishers in Mumbai are trying to respond to today’s climate problems. Is it best to stick with traditional community knowledge or embrace modern fishing techniques?

FR 10 17:30 Munt 12 SA 11 13:45 Tuschinski 1

P&I

Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri Italy, Lithuania, 2023, 101′

Karim Sayad Switzerland, 2023, 77′

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

16 Worlds on 16: American Experimental

Signed

Alreadymade WP

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Frontlight

#Racegirl – The Comeback of Sophia Flörsch IP

P&I

En el mismísimo momento Rita Pauls, Federico Luis Tachella Argentina, Germany, 2023, 12′

An boy raised in the mountains films his home surroundings, while letting his thoughts flow freely. The jumbled-up images match the energy of a child, but the boy also proves to be a surprisingly deep and existential thinker.

MO 13 21:00 Kriterion 1 Shorts TU 14 12:15 Munt 13 Shorts TH 16 13:00 Tuschinski 3 Shorts FR 17 21:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts Luminous

Atirkül in the Land of Real Men IP

Janyl Jusupjan France, Czech Republic, Kyrgyzstan, 2023, 65′

Only men may join the battle in the popular Central Asian sport of Buzkashi. The players fight like rugby players on horseback. There is just one woman who dares to mingle in this patriarchal world: Atirkül.

MO 13 18:00 Tuschinski 2 TU 14 16:45 Tuschinski 3 TU 14 21:30 Tuschinski 4 FR 17 21:45 Munt 9 SU 19 13:30 Tuschinski 5

P&I

Signed

Background

A portas fechadas João Pedro Bim Brazil, 2023, 66′

Khaled Abdulwahed Germany, 2023, 64′ The director is a Syrian refugee in Germany. His father, who once studied in the DDR, ended up trapped in Syria. The son lovingly photoshops “old” photos to accompany his father’s stories about the old days. Winner of the Grand Prix at FIDMarseille.

SU 12 14:15 Pathé City 1 TU 14 17:45 Munt 13 WE 15 12:45 Munt 9 FR 17 18:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal SU 19 14:00 Tuschinski 4 Best of Fests

Bad Press

Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler United States, 2023, 98′

In most Native American tribes in the US, independent journalism is impossible, as the media is funded by tribal governments. In Oklahoma, journalists from the Muscogee Nation are fighting for freedom of the press in their constitution.

FR 10 20:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal SA 11 14:30 Tuschinski 6 WE 15 21:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 FR 17 16:15 Munt 9

+ Talk

P&I

IDFA Special

Best of IDFA: Audience Favorites

Each year, IDFA audiences select their favorite documentaries by rating films for the NPO IDFA Audience Award. Some of the best-rated films will be screened during a full day program. Buy your tickets now and be sure not to miss the 2023 audience favorites!

FR 17 10:00 DLM: Wim Sonneveld Zaal FR 17 10:30 ITA: Rabozaal SA 18 10:00 Tuschinski 1 SU 19 09:30 DLM: Wim Sonneveld Zaal

Abderrahmane Sissako France, Mali, United States, 2006, 115′ A dusty courtyard in Bamako, Mali, is the scene of a court case against the World Bank and the IMF. The witnesses, spectators and passersby are ordinary Africans who experience the consequences of globalization on a daily basis.

SA 11 20:15 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SA 18 18:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal Luminous, Focus: Fabrications

A Band of Dreamers and a Judge WP

Royabaf va ghazi Hesam Eslami Iran, France, 2023, 84′

In Iran, a group of friends struggle with financial distress. They become obsessed with treasure hunting—which is strictly prohibited—and dream of finding a pot of gold. With the judge on their heels, will they succeed in accomplishing their dreams?

FR 10 20:45 Munt 9 SA 11 13:00 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal TU 14 11:15 Pathé City 3 FR 17 15:00 Munt 12 SU 19 16:30 Tuschinski 3

Before Sandstorm WP

P&I

FR 17 09:30 DLM: Mary Dresselhuys Zaal SA 18 10:00 DLM: Mary Dresselhuys Zaal SA 18 10:30 DLM: Wim Sonneveld Zaal SU 19 10:00 ITA: Rabozaal SU 19 10:00 DLM: Mary Dresselhuys Zaal

Between Delicate and Violent WP

It’s 2002, and the small Chinese port town of Fengjie is about to be demolished and completely submerged for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. In the months leading up to their move, local residents clash with the “relocation committee”.

Blow! WP Neus Ballús Spain, 2023, 14′

Mar’s dream is to record the sound of whales “singing,” so she joins a research team studying these marine mammals. It’s only when the camera and microphone are underwater that we realize how noisy life is above sea level.

TH 9 18:00 Kriterion 1 Shorts SA 11 11:00 De Balie: Grote Zaal Shorts MO 13 15:00 Tuschinski 2 Shorts FR 17 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts Frontlight

The Gunadule, the original inhabitants of northern Panama, reenact their successful uprising in 1925 against the repressive Panamanian government every year. Keeping this past alive is crucial for the preservation of collective identity.

TU 14 09:30 Pathé City 3 TU 14 18:30 Munt 10 WE 15 21:30 Tuschinski 5 FR 17 14:30 Tuschinski 3 SU 19 16:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal

Bing’ai

P&I

Top 10

秉爱 Yan Feng China, 2007, 118′ Bing’ai is a farmer in China, and she’s refusing to move for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. While her years-long battle continues, the viewer gets a unique glimpse into her life around the turn of the millennium.

WE 15 17:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema FR 17 21:15 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal

Le fardeau Elvis Ngaibino Sabin Central African Republic, France, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, 2023, 80′

A couple with AIDS struggle in their relationship with their deeply religious and superstitious community. Prevailing prejudices about the disease affect both their financial and spiritual wellbeing.

SA 11 12:30 Tuschinski 3 SU 12 15:30 Tuschinski 2 TU 14 17:30 Eye: Cinema 1 TH 16 18:15 Munt 13 SA 18 21:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal

P&I

Luminous

Burning Out WP

Brandmeester Saskia Gubbels Netherlands, 2023, 84′ The Amsterdam fire brigade needs to change, and this is causing friction. At Amsterdam’s oldest fire station, we follow station commander Gerrie on the eve of a move and during the process to make the organization more inclusive and diverse.

Frontlight

SU 12 14:00 Pathé City 4 P&I SU 12 21:00 Carré + Talk hosted by Het Parool TU 14 18:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 TH 16 11:30 Eye: Cinema 1 SA 18 20:00 DLM: Wim Sonneveld Zaal

The Border Crossed Us WP

Loretta van der Horst Netherlands, 2023, 72′

NPO 2Doc Primeur

In the border town of La Joya, Texas, even the municipal police must assist in border enforcement. The cracks in the system slowly become apparent as three police officers deal with the implications of having to enforce the border at all costs.

SU 12 11:00 Pathé City 4 P&I SU 12 14:30 Eye: Cinema 1 TU 14 21:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 WE 15 10:00 Eye: Cinema 1 FR 17 18:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 Q&A hosted by

MKDA SU 19 13:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal

David Schickele United States, 1971, 73′ In this rediscovered film rich in subtle irony, a Nigerian drama student in San Francisco encounters racism at every turn. A fictional drama about his adventures unexpectedly turns into a documentary when he is wrongfully arrested.

FR 10 15:00 De Balie: Grote Zaal TH 16 10:30 Tuschinski 6

Bye Bye Tiberias

A poignant story of petitioners in Beijing: Chinese citizens who feel they have been wronged by local authorities and seek justice in the capital. They are driven by the desire for redress, but just how far should they go to get it?

TH 9 19:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema FR 17 14:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Boyz IP

Sylvain Cruiziat Germany, 2023, 72′

A wistfully atmospheric portrait of three student best friends in Munich. During the transition from student life to mature adulthood, Maxime, Julien and Vilas discuss their thoughts and feelings with surprising candor.

SA 11 19:00 Munt 13 Youth 13+ SU 12 12:45 De Balie: Grote Zaal Youth 13+ TH 16 21:15 Tuschinski 3 Youth 13+ SA 18 11:00 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal Youth 13+

Breaking Social

Focus: Fabrications

Bushman

Top 10

京生 Li Ma China, 2011, 244′

Hands can tap into memories that the brain can’t access. In an experimental exploration of this physical memory, Şirin Bahar Demirel edits family album photos to expose the domestic violence that lies beneath the images.

International Competition

The Burden WP

SA 11 21:00 Tuschinski 5 Shorts SU 12 12:00 Munt 10 Shorts WE 15 19:15 Munt 12 Shorts FR 17 10:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts

Born in Beijing

Zarafet ve şiddet arasında Şirin Bahar Demirel Turkey, 2023, 15′

Top 10

淹没 Yifan Li, Yu Yan China, 2005, 147′

SA 11 15:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SA 18 18:15 Tuschinski 5

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

Duiren Wagua Panama, 2023, 70′

SA 11 17:45 Munt 12 SU 12 17:15 Eye: Cinema 1 TU 14 18:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 FR 17 10:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 2 Sensory friendly SU 19 13:30 Tuschinski 2

TH 16 20:15 Tuschinski 4 SU 19 15:15 Tuschinski 6

The best films from IDFA 2023 selected by an international jury, especially compiled into a full day program.Purchase your tickets now to ensure your seat for this outstanding program!

Bila Burba WP

In the Tengger desert in northwest China, laborers press bunches of straw into the sand in an attempt to combat desertification and sandstorms. On this vast expanse, their work looks like a Sisyphean task.

Before the Flood

IDFA Special

Best of IDFA: Award Winners

Signed

听，鸟儿在叫 Hao Zhou China, 2023, 30′

An experimental, kaleidoscopic short portrait of East Jerusalem hypermasculinity.

Fragmentary, often nearly abstract shots, follow the protagonist, Ahmad, into places where men socialize: car repair shops, barbers and gyms.

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

Corresponding Cinemas

Bamako

Corresponding Cinemas

Blessed Blessed Oblivion Jumana Manna Palestine, 2010, 22′

In 1968, Brazil’s military government passed a law that ushered in the most violent period of the dictatorship. Recordings of this meeting were kept secret for decades. The documentary combines these audio tracks with propaganda films of the time.

FR 10 21:15 Munt 10 SA 11 10:00 Tuschinski 5 TH 16 18:00 Munt 10 SA 18 19:00 Tuschinski 3

60

Frontlight

Behind Closed Doors IP

Signed

Fredrik Gertten Sweden, 2023, 93′

Reflections on the consequences of growing social inequality and corruption, and the efforts of ordinary people to bring radical, positive change. Featuring expert witness Rutger Bregman, author of Humankind: A Hopeful History.

TH 9 17:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal SU 12 13:30 Carré + Talk VPRO Extra TU 14 14:15 Munt 11 FR 17 20:00 ITA: Rabozaal

Best of Fests

Bye bye Tibériade Lina Soualem France, Palestine, Belgium, Qatar, 2023, 82′ Palestinian actor Hiam Abbass (Paradise Now, Succession) left her homeland more than 30 years ago. Daughter Lina’s personal search for the reasons behind her mother’s emigration brings a fresh perspective to their family history.

TH 9 18:00 Munt 11 SA 11 10:30 Tuschinski 4 MO 13 21:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 FR 17 17:00 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal SA 18 18:45 Podium Mozaïek

A Camel

+ Talk

Corresponding Cinemas

Jamal Ibrahim Shaddad Sudan, 1981, 15′ Life is no cakewalk for this Arabian camel.

The working animal walks around in circles for hours at a time in a stifling sesame mill.

During his rest break he looks up at the birds flying free in the sky, and realizes that life could be different.

SA 11 17:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SU 19 11:00 Munt 9

La cancha WP

Envision Competition

Mustafa Uzuner Canada, 2023, 54′

Just an ordinary Saturday in Montreal on an outdoor basketball court, as Mustafa Uzuner’s handheld camera captures the rhythm of the game. The free and unstable shots make the viewer a part of this diverse community on a balmy summer evening.

SA 11 16:00 Tuschinski 5 SU 12 12:30 Pathé City 1 SU 12 21:30 Kriterion 1 TH 16 16:15 Munt 9 SU 19 14:00 Tuschinski 3

P&I

Envision Competition

Canuto’s Transformation WP

Ch’ul be, senda sagrada Humberto Gómez Pérez Mexico, 2023, 70′

A fascinating account of a mysterious story handed down in the Mbyá-Guaraní community in Brazil: once a man who lived there turned into a jaguar and then died a tragic death. The film about this story is a documentary as well as a making-of.

Capital

P&I

Mayan culture is thriving in the Mexican town of San Andrés Larrainzar, where each individual shares responsibility for the well-being of the collective—and a few are called upon to serve the gods.

SU 12 19:00 Tuschinski 3 TU 14 18:30 Tuschinski 6 WE 15 16:45 Munt 12 FR 17 19:15 Munt 9 SA 18 14:00 Tuschinski 3

P&I

Best of Fests

Citizen Sleuth

Corresponding Cinemas

Basma al-Sharif Egypt, Italy, Germany, 2023, 17′

Poverty in Egypt continues to rise, but property magnates keep developing luxury residential complexes for the ultra-rich elite. This is just one of multiple themes explored in this satirical experimental short film by Palestinian artist Basma al-Sharif.

SA 11 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SA 18 18:15 Tuschinski 5

A young woman from West Virginia directs a podcast that revolves around a suspected murder. This brings the case national exposure and makes her a celebrity. But at what point does the search for truth enter the realm of conspiracy theories?

SA 11 16:45 Munt 1 SU 12 15:15 Tuschinski 4 MO 13 11:30 Tuschinski 5 TH 16 14:00 Tuschinski 1 SA 18 11:00 Tuschinski 6

+ Talk

International Competition, Focus: Fabrications

Best of Fests

The Castle

El castillo Martín Benchimol Argentina, France, 2023, 78′ Former housekeeper Justina lives with her daughter in a castle-like mansion on the Pampas of Argentina. She inherited it from its former owner under one condition: she is not permitted to sell it.

TH 9 11:00 Tuschinski 2 SU 12 16:00 De Balie: Grote Zaal TH 16 11:15 Munt 9 FR 17 20:15 Tuschinski 5 SU 19 16:00 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal

The Clinic WP

Sei khen Midi Z Taiwan, Myanmar, 2023, 87′ A matter-of-fact yet mesmerizing portrait of a couple who are both artists and doctors. They try to alleviate the collective trauma of their damaged country in their own unique way in a shabby clinic in Yangon, Myanmar.

TH 9 17:15 Tuschinski 4 FR 10 14:00 Pathé City 4 P&I SA 11 15:30 Munt 11 TH 16 20:45 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 SA 18 10:00 Eye: Cinema 1 Tomorrow’s Classics SU 19 12:30 Tuschinski 1

Best of Fests

The Cemetery of Cinema Au cimetière de la pellicule Thierno Souleymane Diallo France, Senegal, Guinea, Saudi Arabia, 2023, 96′

A playful quest to find a lost film made in 1953—reputedly the first film by an African director in Francophone Africa—triggers reflections about the historical and cultural importance of cinema, and the importance of a good archive.

TH 9 19:30 Eye: Cinema 2 SU 12 11:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 TU 14 17:00 Munt 9 WE 15 12:00 Tuschinski 6 SA 18 18:45 Kriterion 1

Chasing the Dazzling Light WP

Yaser Kassab Syria, Qatar, Sweden, 2023, 63′ Following in the footsteps of his Syrian father, the director emigrated to Europe.

Both had the ambition to become filmmakers, and are now working together on this film. This results in both comic scenes and a beautiful portrait of a father at a distance.

FR 10 18:15 Tuschinski 2 SA 11 10:00 Pathé City 3 P&I SU 12 10:00 De Balie: Grote Zaal MO 13 15:30 Tuschinski 4 + Talk hosted by The European Cultural Foundation

SA 18 19:45 Eye: Cinema 1

Choose Me

Best of Fests

Amchilini Allamine Kader Kora Chad, France, Ivory Coast, 2023, 69′ The reintroduction of Amchilini, an Islamic custom requiring single women to select a husband in public, is greeted with great skepticism by young women in a traditional village in Chad.

FR SA FR SA

10 14:45 Tuschinski 6 11 10:30 Munt 13 17 15:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 18 16:30 Munt 12

Best of Fests

Coconut Head Generation Alain Kassanda France, Nigeria, 2023, 89′

Awarded at Cinéma du Réel, this dynamic generational portrait follows a group of impassioned and talented Nigerian students.

At their campus film club, they conduct critical and sometimes heated discussions about national and global issues.

TH 9 20:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal SA 11 11:00 Kriterion 1 SU 12 20:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 TH 16 18:45 Bijlmerbios FR 17 16:00 Podium Mozaïek Focus: Fabrications

Envision Competition

The Cemetery of Cinema

Chris Kasick United States, 2023, 82′

The Connection

Shirley Clarke United States, 1961, 110′ Eight junkies are playing jazz music together in a seedy New York apartment, while a filmmaker tries to shoot a documentary about them. In this provocative and influential classic by Shirley Clarke, the director pokes fun at cinema verité.

TH 9 11:30 Tuschinski 5 TH 16 21:15 Munt 13

Contagious & Queer Curatedby Simon(e) van Saarloos, Contagious and Queer celebrates trans and queer life as dangerously contagious.

Program includes Geo Wyex, Leila Weefur, Shu Lea Cheang and music by Sky Deep.

SU 12 16:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Studio

Contagious & Queer: Belonging & Performing the Self This workshop invites participants to talk about performative identity and what it means to ‘belong’, taking Leila Weefur’s experimental film practice on the fantasy of Black gender presentation as a starting point for discussion.

MO 13 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Franse Kamer

Contagious & Queer: Exquisite Corpse: Archival material and zine making workshop Old-school zines created community, epistolary relationships, and queer kinship. A workshop with Flip Driest (Kiosk Rotterdam) and Lani Hanna (Interference Archive) on the social aspect of zine publishing.

Frontlight

Copa 71 EP

Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine United Kingdom, 2023, 89′ Why was the hugely popular 1971 Women’s World Cup written out of sporting history?

Half a century later, the players of that time, who were welcomed as heroes in Mexico, still find their experiences unbelievable.

WE 15 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Studio

SU 12 17:15 Carré MO 13 12:15 Munt 9 WE 15 21:15 Tuschinski 1 SA 18 18:30 Cinema De Vlugt

Contagious & Queer: Image2Text < / > Text2Image

Corresponding Cinemas: Basma al-Sharif & Jumana Manna

Part artist talk, part generative workshop, Angelo Madsen Minax will present several short films and workshop his concept of “loose association-based editing” with participants.

TH 16 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Franse Kamer

Contagious & Queer: Is Isolation a Form of Experience?

Join artist Sands Murray-Wassink and Gift Science Archive collaborators Megan Hoetger and Radna Rumping for an afternoon of live painting, deep house music, and a group dive into Murray-Wassink’s gay-archive.

Corresponding Cinemas

Corresponding Cinemas presents a series of films and conversations on the invisible connections between filmmakers. This compilation program brings together the works of Basma al-Sharif and Jumana Manna.

SA 18 18:15 Tuschinski 5 Corresponding Cinemas

Corresponding Cinemas: Basma al-Sharif

Selected by fellow filmmaker Sky Hopinka, this program includes four short films

by Basma al-Sharif: The Story of Milk and Honey, Farther Than the Eye Can See, Deep Sleep and Capital.

SA 11 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

TU 14 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Studio

Contagious & Queer: Orientations for Transitioning Times In this workshop about living in transitioning times you will develop techniques/ protocols/guides for orientation for when we feel lost.

FR 17 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Studio

Contagious & Queer: Virus Becoming Calling for transgenic creatures – human, non-human and trans-mutant-variants, to join a virus-becoming performative workshop, which invites the participants to propose tactics and strategies with multiplied viral selves, to defy the controlling apparatuses and systematic repression.

MO 13 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Studio Retrospective: Peter Greenaway

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Peter Greenaway Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, 1989, 124′

In an exquisite restaurant, the Thief indulges his lust for power and gluttony. Is there still room for humanity and intimacy in this cruel world? Peter Greenaway impresses and disrupts with this grandiose fable.

FR 10 15:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema WE 15 16:30 Tuschinski 2

IDFA Hit + Talk

Corresponding Cinemas

Corresponding Cinemas: Ibrahim Shaddad

Selected by fellow filmmaker Jumana Manna, this program includes two recently restored films by Ibrahim Shaddad: A Camel and Hunting Party.

SA 11 17:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SU 19 11:00 Munt 9 Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

Daguerréotypes Agnès Varda France, 1975, 79′

They bake bread, sell accordions, style hair or teach people to drive: the business people of the Rue Daguerre in Paris talk about their lives, loves and dreams, documented by the camera of their neighbor, filmmaker Agnès Varda.

FR 10 18:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal TH 16 18:30 Eye: Cinema 1 Envision Competition

Damnatio Memoriae EP ไม่พงึ ปรารถนา Thunska Pansittivorakul Thailand, Germany, 2023, 108′

Short fragments of video clips, newsreels, news shows, and propaganda films recall historical events—some familiar, some “forgotten.” The square format of the film reinforces the oppressive sense of humanity’s destructive urges.

SU 12 21:00 Tuschinski 3 MO 13 18:15 Eye: Cinema 2 WE 15 21:00 Munt 9 FR 17 12:15 Munt 10 SA 18 17:45 Tuschinski 2

P&I

61

A transformação de Canuto Ariel Kuaray Ortega, Ernesto de Carvalho Brazil, 2023, 130′

FR 10 09:45 Pathé City 2 FR 10 17:00 Munt 9 SA 11 11:00 Tuschinski 6 TH 16 17:15 Munt 12 SA 18 21:00 Tuschinski 2

Luminous

Ch’ul be, Sacred Path IP

Echo EP

Best of Fests

Ross McClean United Kingdom, Ireland, 2023, 13′

For Allister, an amateur radio enthusiast in Northern Ireland, communication isn’t something he can take for granted. But the human need for contact and community finds its way, and Allister’s horizons steadily broaden. A layered and moving portrait.

SA 11 21:00 Tuschinski 5 Shorts SU 12 12:00 Munt 10 Shorts WE 15 19:15 Munt 12 Shorts FR 17 10:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts

International Competition

Danger Zone IP Vita Maria Drygas Poland, United Kingdom, 2023, 93′

Are we spectators or participants in the war zone tours undertaken by Rick, Andrew, Eleonora and AJ in lethal conflict areas in Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia?

Fascinating and uneasy glimpse into the lucrative world of conflict tourism.

SU 12 10:15 Pathé City 1 SU 12 20:30 Munt 11 TU 14 20:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal WE 15 18:30 Cinema De Vlugt FR 17 21:30 Tuschinski 1

P&I + Talk

Selma Doborac Austria, Germany, 2023, 130′ Showing no emotion, in a minimalist setting, two actors deliver the shocking testimonies of perpetrators, merging the genocides of recent history. These are monologues from the darkest recesses of human nature.

62

MO 13 12:00 Munt 13 TU 14 21:15 Munt 10 TH 16 17:45 Kriterion 1 FR 17 13:30 Tuschinski 5 Paradocs

Dearest Fiona

Fiona Tan Netherlands, 2023, 101′

Filmmaker Fiona Tan’s Indonesian-Chinese father comes to life in his letters, as do the Dutch people she discovered in fascinating archive material from more than a hundred years ago. A soulful exploration of time, history and identity.

TH 9 20:30 Eye: Cinema 1 FR 10 14:30 Kriterion 1 Q&A hosted by

Simulacrum SU 12 12:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema TH 16 10:00 Tuschinski 3 SA 18 21:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1

Deep Sleep

Corresponding Cinemas

Basma al-Sharif Greece, Malta, Palestine, 2014, 13′

A hypnotic trip in Super 8, taking in the ruins of Athens, Malta and Gaza—where modern civilization also lies in rubble. Filmmaker Basma al-Sharif was not allowed to visit Palestine in person, so she transcends all geographical boundaries in a trance.

SA 11 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SA 18 18:15 Tuschinski 5

Dentures

The Disappearance of Shere Hite Nicole Newnham United States, 2023, 118′

In 1976, Shere Hite dropped a feminist bombshell about the female orgasm in her book The Hite Report. A wealth of archive material reveals who she was. Why did she disappear from public life? A film that inspires to hit the barricades again.

FR 10 21:15 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal SA 11 13:30 Eye: Cinema 1 + Talk hosted by

De Groene Amsterdammer

Paradocs

De Facto

Best of Fests

Best of Fests

बत्तीसी Siddharth Potade, Nikhil Lama India, 2022, 16′ A tragicomic short film in which an Indian family gather at a hotel for the 90th birthday of the paterfamilias, who has dementia—he barely recognizes his relatives and gets lost in a confusing search for his dentures.

SA 11 21:00 Tuschinski 5 Shorts SU 12 12:00 Munt 10 Shorts WE 15 19:15 Munt 12 Shorts FR 17 10:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts

MO 13 13:45 Tuschinski 6 WE 15 21:15 Munt 11 SU 19 13:15 De Balie: Grote Zaal

Donga WP

Frontlight

‫اقنود‬ Muhannad Lamin Libya, 2023, 90′

As a youth, Donga filmed the Libyan uprising against Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, as well as later scenes of war in Libya.

Through excerpts from his videos, he looks back on how the events have changed him.

SA 11 14:45 Tuschinski 3 TU 14 21:00 Munt 12 WE 15 18:45 Tuschinski 5

FR 17 13:15 Munt 13 SA 18 20:30 Munt 10

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

Dreams About Putin WP

Nastia Korkia, Vlad Fishez Belgium, Hungary, Portugal, 2023, 30′

With the date palm as a starting point, director Terra Long weaves together impressions and voices from California’s Coachella Valley. The result is an intimate portrait of an area both formed and deformed by human hands.

FR 10 16:45 Eye: Cinema 1 SA 11 10:30 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 MO 13 18:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal TH 16 12:15 Tuschinski 2 SA 18 10:30 Munt 10

FR 10 12:30 Munt 10 SA 11 21:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal MO 13 18:00 Munt 10 TU 14 14:45 Tuschinski 6 FR 17 12:15 Tuschinski 6

+ Talk

Luminous

Embodied Chorus WP

‫رويطلا انكرتت نل‬ Mohamad Moe Sabbah, Danielle Davie Lebanon, Germany, Luxembourg, 2023, 72′

Drawing from their own experience and collaborating with actors, filmmakers Danielle Davie and Mohamad Moe Sabbah bravely open a dialogue about living with sexually transmitted infections.

MO 13 10:00 Pathé City 3 TU 14 19:00 Tuschinski 4 WE 15 15:15 Munt 9 FR 17 18:15 Tuschinski 2 SU 19 16:30 Tuschinski 4

P&I

Eternal Father IP Ömer Sami Denmark, 2023, 31′

A warm and sincere portrait of a British family, in which the father, Nasar, has decided to be cryonically frozen when he dies. It’s a decision that has a major impact on his wife and young children.

The Eternal Memory

Piet Baumgartner Switzerland, 2023, 93′

We follow a group of ambitious business management students for seven years, from their prestigious studies at the Swiss University of St. Gallen to the first years of their careers. A glimpse into a little-known world.

MO 13 17:15 Tuschinski 6 TU 14 21:30 Tuschinski 3 WE 15 15:00 Munt 11 TH 16 18:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 SA 18 18:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 SU 19 13:30 Eye: Cinema 1

Echo of You WP

P&I

Luminous

Ekko af kærlighed Zara Zerny Denmark, 2023, 76′

People in their eighties and nineties, and even some centenarians, talk candidly and eloquently about love, loneliness, grief, life and death. A poetic, tender group portrait of a Danish generation slowly saying goodbye.

SU 12 12:15 Tuschinski 3 P&I TU 14 18:00 Tuschinski 2 WE 15 18:45 Munt 13 FR 17 12:00 Eye: Cinema 1 SA 18 10:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 2 Sensory friendly SU 19 16:00 Eye: Cinema 1

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Figure WP

Jonas Sars Netherlands, 2022, 2′ A wooden mannequin gradually comes to life in a studio, and becomes increasingly aware of its body. A short, touching stop-motion film about identity and freedom, created with an eye for beauty and detail.

TU 14 17:30 Tuschinski 5 Youth 9-12 TH 16 11:45 Munt 10 Youth 9-12 SA 18 10:00 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal Youth 9-12

SA 18 15:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 Jeugdvoorstelling SU 19 10:15 Munt 13 Youth 9-12 SU 19 10:30 Eye: Cinema 1 IDFA Junior Paradocs

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

FR 10 21:00 Kriterion 1 SA 11 12:30 Tuschinski 5 MO 13 18:00 De Balie: Filmzaal SU 19 16:00 Cinema De Vlugt

The Driven Ones IP

Best of Fests

Childhood in El Eco, a remote Mexican village, is an intensive immersion into the realms of nature, animals and people. The village social mores are a frequent source of conflict for the adolescent girls, but they can still escape in daydreams.

MO 13 14:30 Munt 12 Youth 9-12 TU 14 15:45 Tuschinski 4 Youth 9-12 FR 17 17:30 Tuschinski 4 Youth 9-12 SA 18 10:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

Luminous

SA 11 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SA 18 18:15 Tuschinski 5

Terra Long United States, Canada, 2023, 90′

In this essay about the subconscious, the nightmares and hopes of many Russians, a portrayal of dreams they share on social media produces a disturbing, sometimes dryly comic film about the current state of Russian society.

Shorts Shorts Shorts Shorts

Flickering images and atonal music contrast with a calmly told story of displacement. A woman’s recollections of the Palestinian exodus from Jerusalem are told in reverse order, scattered through time and space.

Feet in Water, Head on Fire

El Eco Tatiana Huezo Sánchez Mexico, Germany, 2023, 102′

P&I Q&A hosted by Machiavelli

Basma al-Sharif Jordan, United Arab Emirates, 2012, 13′

Signed

The Echo

The Echo

Corresponding Cinemas

Farther Than the Eye Can See

Youth 9-12

Signed

La memoria infinita Maite Alberdi Chile, 2023, 85′

A tender and unforgettable portrait of a national and personal past, a great love, and Alzheimer’s disease. Chilean director Maite Alberdi (The Mole Agent, 2020) received a jury prize at Sundance.

TH 9 21:45 Munt 13 SU 12 10:30 Carré TU 14 14:45 Munt 13 FR 17 11:45 Munt 11

Facing Darkness

IDFA Hit + Talk

Signed

Affronter l’obscurité Jean-Gabriel Périot France, Switzerland, BosniaHerzegovina, 2023, 110′ Is it possible to process trauma by looking the beast in the eye? In this powerful documentary in two parts, five filmmakers re-watch their own footage shot in and around Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, 30 years ago.

TH 9 20:45 Kriterion 1 SA 11 14:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 MO 13 11:45 Munt 10 TU 14 21:15 Tuschinski 6 SA 18 11:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4

The Film You are About to See Le film que vous allez voir Maxime Martinot France, 2023, 11′

Almost all films are preceded by a disclaimer. There is a deeply embedded fear of being misunderstood—and all the attendant legal consequences. But these attempts at self-protection undermine the essence of film as a limitless imagination machine.

FR 10 21:00 Kriterion 1 SA 11 12:30 Tuschinski 5 MO 13 18:00 De Balie: Filmzaal SU 19 16:00 Cinema De Vlugt

Shorts Shorts Shorts Shorts

Filmmaker Talk: Ada Solomon An in-depth conversation with legendary Romanian film producer Ada Solomon.

Writer Pamela Cohn will sit down with Solomon to meet the woman behind the 80+ productions.

WE 15 13:00 ITA: Studio 1

Filmmaker Talk: Claire Simon An in-depth public interview with renowned French filmmaker Claire Simon.

Cultural journalist Ela Bittencourt dives into Simon’s world to discuss her decades-long career.

MO 13 13:00 ITA: Studio 1

Filmmaker Talk: Maite Alberdi An inspirational hour-long conversation with Maite Alberdi. Writer Pamela Cohn speaks with Alberdi about her unstoppable success, which has earned her plaudits as one of the most important voices in Latin American documentary.

TU 14 13:00 ITA: Studio 1

Kenneth Anger United States, 1947, 15′ “This flick is all I have to say about being 17, the United States Navy, American Christmas and the 4th of July,” said gay underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger about his debut short film from 1947, full of bizarre, disturbing dream images.

FR 10 11:45 Eye: Cinema 2 TH 16 18:00 Eye: Cinema 2

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

D’Est Chantal Akerman Belgium, France, Portugal, 1993, 110′ Slow cinema at its best, this is a visual account of travels through Eastern Europe shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union—a world about to undergo radical changes.

TH 9 13:30 Tuschinski 2 SA 18 17:00 Munt 10

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

First Case, Second Case Qazieh-e shekl-e avval... shekl-e dovvom Abbas Kiarostami Iran, 1979, 53′

GAMA IP

Envision Competition

Kaori Oda Japan, 2023, 53′

Iran, spring 1979: With revolution in the air, religious leaders, administrators and intellectuals gather to comment on a case study concerning discipline and resistance in the classroom. It’s a psychological test disguised as an instructional film.

SU 12 16:15 Kriterion 1 TH 16 21:00 Munt 9

The First Year

From the East

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

As a connector to the past, guide Mitsuo Matsunaga tells from within the caves of Okinawa the tragic story of 83 civilians who committed suicide there during the Second World War. FR 10 10:00 Pathé City 3 FR 10 18:30 Eye: Cinema 2 SA 11 11:00 Eye: Cinema 2 TH 16 18:00 Tuschinski 4 SA 18 19:15 Munt 12

P&I + Talk

Signed, Focus: Fabrications

Gasoline Rainbow Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross United States, 2023, 108′

El primer año Patricio Guzmán Chile, 1972, 90′

In 1970—President Salvador Allende’s first year in office—miners, fishermen, workers and indigenous people speak in unique recordings about their hopes for this political breakthrough in Chili, in Patricio Guzmán’s first feature-length documentary.

TU 14 14:00 Eye: Cinema 1 FR 17 11:45 Tuschinski 4 International Competition

Flickering Lights EP

Gerlach WP

Anirban Dutta, Anupama Srinivasan India, 2023, 90′ In Tora, an Indian village on the border with Myanmar, the rhythm of life is set by daylight and darkness. But the village is on the verge of change: electricity is finally coming. Will it bring this close-knit community the progress it is hoping for?

SA 11 11:45 Pathé City 3 P&I SU 12 20:00 Eye: Cinema 2 MO 13 21:30 Tuschinski 4 WE 15 14:00 Munt 12 SA 18 21:30 DLM: Mary Dresselhuys Zaal Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

Fogo, l’île de feu

Fogo, Fire Island Sarah Maldoror France, Cape Verde, 1979, 34′

Luminous

A dryly humorous portrait of Pepe, whose project after his retirement is to build his own golf course. During the making of Four Holes, the equipment and circumstances are not exactly optimal. But that’s all part of the film.

SA 11 21:00 Tuschinski 5 Shorts SU 12 12:00 Munt 10 Shorts WE 15 19:15 Munt 12 Shorts FR 17 10:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts

Friendship WP

Signed

Amizade Cao Guimarães Brazil, 2023, 85′

Aliona van der Horst, Luuk Bouwman Netherlands, 2023, 76′

P&I

In his midlife crisis, Rogier Kappers decides to pursue a boyhood dream: to become a famous musician on the glass organ. This inspiring, original and moving self-portrait is an ode to the vitalizing power of music and love.

SA 11 13:45 Pathé City 4 P&I SA 11 17:45 Tuschinski 1 WE 15 20:45 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 TH 16 14:15 Munt 12 SU 19 16:00 Tuschinski 1 IDFA Friends Screening

Goodbye CP

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

Kazuo Hara Japan, 1972, 85′

A radical, unvarnished portrait of people with cerebral palsy (CP). They speak candidly about their experiences as outsiders and their desire to live freely, documented unrelentingly by the 16mm camera of Kazuo Hara.

FR 10 14:15 Tuschinski 5 FR 17 15:00 Eye: Cinema 2

Great Photo, Lovely Life

Rachel Beth Anderson, Amanda Mustard United States, 2023, 112′ Photojournalist Amanda Mustard investigates the sexual abuse perpetrated by her grandfather, and confronts her family with their silence. A non-traditional portrait of generational trauma, exploring how abuse can be enabled by those closest to us.

FR 10 14:30 Munt 12 SU 12 11:00 Tuschinski 5 TU 14 17:00 Munt 12 WE 15 17:45 Munt 9 SA 18 20:45 Tuschinski 5

Best of Fests

Ibrahim Nash’at Germany, United States, 2023, 90′ The Taliban immediately seized power after the last American troops left Afghanistan in 2021. Egyptian filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at gets up close to the Taliban to show their transformation into a military regime.

TH 9 12:00 Munt 11 SA 11 21:00 Eye: Cinema 1 SU 12 14:30 Munt 11 TH 16 20:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal

Hotel Mokum WP

Frontlight

Squatters move into a vacant hotel in Amsterdam, and make the building habitable.

But after six weeks, the riot police arrive to throw them out. Nonetheless, the fight for the right to housing continues, because ideals can never be evicted.

SU 12 20:30 Eye: Cinema 1 MO 13 18:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 WE 15 20:30 Tuschinski 2

Shorts Shorts + Talk hosted by OneWorld Shorts IDFA Meets

Retrospective: Peter Greenaway

Het Greenaway alfabet Saskia Boddeke Netherlands, 2017, 68′

How Do You Spell Home? WP

Luminous

Louisiana Mees-Fongang Belgium, 2023, 86′

FR 10 21:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema TU 14 14:30 Munt 9 IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Headprickles

Szczypigłówki Katarzyna Miechowicz Poland, 2022, 8′

An infectious and hopeful, but also distressing portrait of a group of young people in a home for unaccompanied minor refugees in Belgium. Here they prepare for their adult lives, in which they hope to finally find a home.

SA 11 14:00 Pathé City 2 MO 13 21:00 Tuschinski 5 TU 14 15:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 TH 16 19:00 Podium Mozaïek SU 19 16:15 Rialto VU: Zaal 4

P&I

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

How to Please WP

A series of absurd, animated vignettes form a colorful audiovisual maze of fantasy, obsession, frustration, fear, delusion and wonder—everything that sometimes makes your head prickle.

FR 10 17:45 Tuschinski 6 Youth 13+ SA 11 10:15 Munt 10 Youth 13+ FR 17 15:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

Youth 13+ SA 18 17:30 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 Youth 13+

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Girls’ Stories IP

Hollywoodgate

P&I

SA 18 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts

A blueprint of the life of filmmaker Peter Greenaway, arranged in an alphabet. In playful conversations, he and his perceptive 16-year-old daughter Zoë pierce to the core of his personality and his art.

MO 13 14:30 Munt 12 Youth 9-12 TU 14 15:45 Tuschinski 4 Youth 9-12 FR 17 17:30 Tuschinski 4 Youth 9-12 SA 18 10:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

Youth 9-12 SA 18 15:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 Jeugdvoorstelling SU 19 10:30 Eye: Cinema 1 IDFA Junior

MO 13 11:45 Pathé City 3 MO 13 20:45 Munt 12 WE 15 11:00 Tuschinski 1 TH 16 17:45 De Balie: Grote Zaal SA 18 13:30 Munt 12

TH 16 14:30 Kriterion 1 FR 17 20:00 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal

FR 10 18:45 Tuschinski 1 SA 11 11:00 Pathé City 4 P&I SU 12 11:00 ITA: Rabozaal TH 16 14:45 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 FR 17 20:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal + Talk hosted

by The European Cultural Foundation SU 19 10:00 Tuschinski 1

A portrait of a resilient 13-year-old Ukrainian gymnast around the start of the war. She talks about her passion for the sport, her much-loved family and friends, and how tough it is to flee your homeland.

The fantastical tale of the otherwise unexceptional Iraqi farmer who, for eight months in 2003, hid dictator Saddam Hussein in a hole beneath a flowerbed, while 150,000 US soldiers searched for him.

Yannesh Meijman Netherlands, 2023, 30′

The Greenaway Alphabet

Simon Lereng Wilmont, Alisa Kovalenko Denmark, Norway, 2023, 22′

Frontlight

Hiding Saddam Hussein WP

Halkawt Mustafa Norway, Iraq, 2023, 96′

Glas, mijn onvervulde leven Rogier Kappers Netherlands, 2023, 94′

A lyrical and tender portrait of Gerlach van Beinum, one of the last old-school crop farmers in the Netherlands. A beacon of patience and dedication, he plows on through the seasons, as capitalist society imposes itself more and more blatantly.

Elina Talvensaari Finland, 2023, 28′

An Iraqi asylum seeker gets stuck in the rigid Finnish immigration system, aptly portrayed in this short film as an AI-generated voice on an Escher-like treadmill. You can’t come in, but you can’t get out either.

SA 11 18:00 Eye: Cinema 1 MO 13 21:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal TU 14 11:15 Tuschinski 5 FR 17 21:00 Munt 11

Luminous

Helke Sander: Cleaning House IP

Dziewczyńskie historie Aga Borzym Poland, 2023, 62′ A coming-of-age film about two Polish best friends on the threshold of their teenage years—an exciting period in which children’s games make way for more serious school concerns and philosophizing about first periods and love.

MO 13 18:00 Tuschinski 5 Youth 9-12 TU 14 11:15 Munt 9 Youth 9-12 SA 18 14:00 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal SU 19 10:30 Tuschinski 4

For 30 years, Cao Guimarães has documented fragments of his friendships with fellow artists. This mosaic of images shows how much his work is influenced by the people he spends time with as they grow older together.

TU 14 11:30 Pathé City 4 TU 14 18:45 Eye: Cinema 2 WE 15 18:45 Kriterion 1 FR 17 22:00 Tuschinski 3 SU 19 16:15 Munt 9

Signed

Girl Away from Home WP

TH 9 14:45 Tuschinski 5 TH 16 15:15 Eye: Cinema 2

Four Holes WP Cuatro hoyos Daniela Muñoz Barroso Cuba, France, 2023, 20′

+ Talk

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Revolutionary fire has given the island of Fogo a new future. Hard work and expressions of triumph prevail in this portrait of a free people, filmed shortly after the independence of Cape Verde.

Luminous

Best of Fests

In a vibrant ode to the road trip, we follow five teens from small-town Oregon on their journey to the ocean. Shifting between fiction and reality, their adventure is filled with extraordinary encounters, sadness and lots of fun.

SU 12 12:00 Tuschinski 2 MO 13 21:00 Eye: Cinema 1 WE 15 16:30 Tuschinski 4 TH 16 21:00 Cinema De Vlugt SA 18 15:15 Munt 11

Glass, My Unfulfilled Life WP

63

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

Fireworks

Youth 9-12 Youth 9-12

Corresponding Cinemas

Hunting Party Jagdpartie Ibrahim Shaddad Germany, 1964, 42′

Helke Sander: Aufräumen Claudia Richarz Germany, 2023, 82′

Director Helke Sander is cleaning house.

As she roams through her home and archive, this key figure in the German women’s movement looks back on her life and work via fascinating stories and clips.

We see an era embodied in one human lifetime.

MO 13 14:00 Pathé City 3 MO 13 20:30 Tuschinski 2 WE 15 21:30 Munt 10 TH 16 18:30 Tuschinski 3 SA 18 13:15 Tuschinski 4

P&I

A treatise on racism filmed in a German forest in the style of an American Western.

This graduate project by one of the filmmakers from the later Sudanese Film Group follows a white mob hunting for a Black farmworker.

SA 11 17:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SU 19 11:00 Munt 9

IDFA Special

I Heard It Through the Grapevine

Bill Morrison United States, 2023, 30′

Dick Fontaine United States, 1982, 91′

Film account of James Baldwin’s journey through the United States, in which the writer assesses the achievements of the civil rights movement over the preceding two decades. He and many former activists conclude that almost nothing has changed.

SU 12 13:45 ITA: Rabozaal TH 16 20:00 Munt 11 FR 17 19:45 Bijlmerbios

I Would Like to Rage

Signed

Incident

Signed

In 2018, a barber in Chicago is shot by police on his way to work. This shocking reconstruction draws on footage from security cameras and bodycams. Where do the officers’ priorities lie?

SU 12 18:00 Tuschinski 5 MO 13 18:45 Munt 9 TU 14 13:15 Tuschinski 4 TH 16 11:45 Munt 12 FR 17 14:00 Munt 9

Intensely Soulful: Docu-Concert WP

Online, anger easily becomes a grotesque expression of male aggression, captured in memes and GIFs. In a pointed and humorous “desktop documentary,” Chloé Galibert-Laîné investigates how they can express this emotion authentically.

A lyrical fusion of excerpts from Frank Scheffer’s upcoming documentary on Syrian clarinettist/composer Kinan Azmeh and live performances by Azmeh and mezzosoprano Dima Orsho, reshaping the narrative of contemporary Syria.

FR 10 21:00 Kriterion 1 SA 11 12:30 Tuschinski 5 MO 13 18:00 De Balie: Filmzaal SU 19 16:00 Cinema De Vlugt

SA 11 20:30 ITA: Rabozaal

Shorts Shorts Shorts Shorts

IDFA on Stage NTR Avond van de Wolf

Invisible Nation IP IDFA x Stedelijk: Video Club – Tell Me a Story For this latest edition of Video Club, IDFA and the Stedelijk present a screening program examining the technical, narrative and activist potential of video art as a storytelling medium.

SU 19 15:30 Stedelijk Museum

IDFA Dance Night hosted

by Oedipus Tonight, funky beats and sultry grooves courtesy of Radio Oedipus’ resident DJs. If music be the food of love, Oedipus’ beers are surely its drink. Line-up: Josie Pop, Txell & Maxi Mill, Spiritual Embassy.

SA 11 20:00 Café Kuyl

IDFA Dance Night Karaoke Edition Hit the dance floor and grab the mic during the IDFA Dance Night Karaoke Edition!

SA 18 20:00 Café Kuyl

In the Rearview

Vanessa Hope United States, Taiwan, 2023, 85′

An incisive analysis of the situation in Taiwan: progressive President Tsai Ing-wen has to balance between geopolitical forces to preserve her hard-won liberal democracy, as the country feels the growing threat from China.

TU 14 13:45 Pathé City 2 TU 14 20:45 Tuschinski 5 WE 15 15:45 Kriterion 1 TH 16 17:00 Munt 11 SA 18 16:15 Tuschinski 3

P&I

Best of Fests, Focus: Fabrications

The Island

L’île Damien Manivel France, 2023, 74′

Best of Fests

With scenes taken on his trips as a volunteer evacuation driver, filmmaker Maciek Hamela portrays heart-wrenching accounts of civilians who had to leave their homes during the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

TH 9 21:15 Munt 10 SU 12 19:45 Munt 1 WE 15 15:00 Tuschinski 1 + Talk hosted by

De Groene Amsterdammer FR 17 18:45 DLM: Mary Dresselhuys Zaal Frontlight

Im Land der Wölfe Ralf Bücheler Germany, 2023, 102′

Wolves are back in Germany. With public opinion rooted in fact-free fearmongering and fairy tales, it’s up to scientists, conservationists and shepherds to present a more objective image of this social creature.

On a summer evening, future dance student Rosa says goodbye to her friends.

This wistful coming-of-age movie is both a fiction and a making-of film, with scenes alternating between the beach party and the rehearsal room.

TH 9 21:30 Tuschinski 6 SA 11 13:45 Kriterion 1 TU 14 15:45 Eye: Cinema 2 SA 18 18:45 Munt 13

SU 12 16:30 Munt 1 MO 13 15:30 Munt 9 MO 13 18:15 Tuschinski 3 P&I TH 16 20:30 DLM: Mary Dresselhuys Zaal SA 18 10:00 Tuschinski 4

JessZilla EP

Emily Sheskin United States, 2023, 90′

TU 14 17:30 Tuschinski 5 TH 16 11:45 Munt 10 SA 18 10:00 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal SU 19 10:15 Munt 13 IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Jeugdvoorstelling WP

Youth documentaries by talented makers, all equally exceptional! In this screening, you can see Girl Away from Home, Figure, And a Happy New Year, and Nelson the Piglet. After the screening, children can put questions to the makers. The films are in Dutch or have Dutch subtitles.

IDFA Junior

Best of Fests

Joan Baez: I Am a Noise

Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky, Maeve O’Boyle United States, 2023, 113′ The iconic singer Joan Baez looks back on her 60-year career and private life.

Unique archive footage shows her political engagement, and Baez also talks candidly about her darker sides and the unhappy family she grew up in.

TH 9 20:30 Munt 12 FR 10 18:15 Munt 11 SU 12 16:15 ITA: Rabozaal TH 16 17:15 Tuschinski 1 SA 18 21:15 Podium Mozaïek

Two Argentinian lovers travel through Eastern Europe to track down the last living practitioners of the Jewish wedding music known as klezmer. The journey also becomes a requiem for Yiddish, the language of the vanished Jews of Eastern Europe.

Keeping the family together is the toughest job of all for the workers of the factories of a changing China, who only see their children on New Year. While the parents long for their village, the children dream of the city.

TH 9 20:00 Tuschinski 4 SU 12 18:30 Tuschinski 4 FR 17 20:00 Munt 13 SA 18 16:00 Podium Mozaïek SA 18 19:00 De Balie: Grote Zaal

TH 9 15:00 De Balie: Grote Zaal TH 16 17:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Best of Fests

Best of Fests

Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L’helgoualc’h France, 2023, 95′

In an entirely virtual, post-apocalyptic game world, the filmmakers talk to the people behind the digital avatars. From death squad member to church leader to solitary wanderer.

FR 10 17:15 Tuschinski 4 + Talk SU 12 21:15 Tuschinski 6 WE 15 13:30 Tuschinski 2 SA 18 10:00 Eye: Cinema 1 Tomorrow’s Classics

Kokomo City

Best of Fests

D. Smith United States, 2023, 73′ Violence, beauty and wisdom abound in this crackling portrait of four Black trans women in New York and Atlanta—on their raw reality of earning money through sex work, their place in the Black community and the path to acceptance.

The Last Year of Darkness 午夜出走 Ben Mullinkosson China, United States, 2023, 95′

Funky Town is a club in Chengdu where young and unorthodox free spirits can live their dreams. But when nighttime ends, those dreams make way for cold, hard reality. And the expansion of the subway means the club will soon vanish forever.

TH 9 14:00 Eye: Cinema 1 SA 11 20:00 Munt 1 MO 13 15:00 Munt 10 FR 17 21:00 Kriterion 1 IDFA on Stage

The Last Year of Darkness – Live Edit Party WP

Ben Mullinkosson, Bobby Moser, Gennady Baranov China, United States, Russia, 2023, 120′

TH 9 15:00 Kriterion 1 SU 12 10:00 Tuschinski 1 SA 18 21:00 Cinema De Vlugt + Talk hosted by

An Amsterdam dance event brings to life the underground techno scene of Chengdu, China, as seen in The Last Year of Darkness. Featuring DJs and a drag performer from Chengdu, alongside the film’s editor creating a live version of the film to the beats.

SU 19 16:45 Podium Mozaïek

SA 11 22:00-05:00 kanaal40

New Metropolis New West & Stichting Prisma Groep

IDFA Special

The Last WP

IDFA on Stage

International Competition

Godfrey Reggio

Los últimos Sebastiàn Peña Escobar Paraguay, Uruguay, France, 2023, 87′

This classic, groundbreaking visual essay about people, nature and technology is awe-inspiring and hypnotic in both image and sound. Nature is vast. Humans build, drive, travel, work, swarm and struggle until they can go no further.

Sebastian Peña Escobar travels with two scientists to a large nature reserve in Paraguay that is threatened by deforestation and wildfires. In this buddy movie, the three men spend the journey philosophizing infectiously.

Life Out of Balance

United States, 1982, 86′

MO 13 13:45 Pathé City 2 MO 13 18:45 Tuschinski 4 WE 15 18:00 Eye: Cinema 1 FR 17 18:30 Munt 12 SU 19 10:30 Tuschinski 2

Presentation in DocLab Live: Koyaanisqatsi Special WO 15 21:00 Eye: Cinema 1 Regular screening SU 19 11:00 Eye: Cinema 2

P&I

Best of Fests

A portrait of an inspiring and resilient teenager and her father. After years of training as a boxer for the Olympic Games, Jesselyn Silva receives a devastating diagnosis. How do you stay positive when your dream for the future collapses?

SA 18 15:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1

归途列车 Lixin Fan China, Canada, 2009, 86′

Koyaanisqatsi

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Skąd dokąd Maciek Hamela Poland, France, Ukraine, 2023, 84′

In Wolf Country IP

Frontlight

Top 10

Last Train Home

Adentro mío estoy bailando Leandro Koch, Paloma Schachmann Austria, Argentina, 2023, 115′

Knit’s Island

Frank Scheffer Netherlands, 2023, 100′

Chloé Galibert-Laîné France, 2023, 12′

64

IDFA on Stage

Best of Fests

The Klezmer Project

The Kyiv Files WP

Frontlight

Let the Canary Sing

Alison Ellwood United States, United Kingdom, 2023, 99′

Walter Stokman Netherlands, 2023, 78′

What was the impact of KGB espionage practices on the everyday lives of Ukrainians during the Soviet era? Walter Stokman delved into three dossiers that illustrate the paranoia and methodology of the Russian secret service.

A high-energy portrait of the uncompromising American singer Cyndi Lauper.

Beneath a vibrant and joyful appearance, her activist voice rings out in 80s hits like “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “True Colors.”

SU 12 17:30 Munt 11 MO 13 09:45 Pathé City 4 MO 13 14:15 Eye: Cinema 1 TH 16 12:45 Tuschinski 6

TH 9 15:00 Munt 11 SA 11 16:15 Kriterion 1 SU 12 20:00 ITA: Rabozaal SA 18 20:45 Rialto VU: Zaal 4

SA 18 17:30 Tuschinski 6 SU 19 16:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1

P&I Q&A hosted by SIB Amsterdam

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

Landslide IP

Avalancha Daniel Cortés Ramírez Colombia, 2023, 25′

A cycle of oppression and resistance, of funeral processions and protest marches, moves through time like a swelling land mass. Is history a movement forward or a repetition? In this film, composed entirely of archival footage, it is both.

SU 12 18:00 Tuschinski 5 MO 13 18:45 Munt 9 TU 14 13:15 Tuschinski 4 TH 16 11:45 Munt 12 FR 17 14:00 Munt 9

Focus: Fabrications

Letter from My Village

Kaddu beykat Safi Faye Senegal, 1975, 95′

A docufiction film about the shy romance between Ngor and Coumba. The story is set against the backdrop of a harsh life in rural Senegal, and loosely framed as the filmmaker’s audiovisual letter about the village where she was born.

FR 10 12:00 Tuschinski 6 SA 18 19:00 Munt 9

International Competition

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Life is Beautiful WP

Love, Your Neighbour WP

While on an exchange in the Norwegian city of Tromsø, young Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly is “trapped” with his host family when Gaza’s borders are closed. His struggle to obtain a work permit sparks the close-knit community into action.

When Jethro Westraad returns to Durban, South Africa during the COVID pandemic, he realizes that his neighbors have been living in isolation all along. Through their intercom, he starts conversations about guard dogs, racial profiling and security.

SA 11 17:15 Tuschinski 3 P&I MO 13 17:30 Munt 11 WE 15 10:00 Munt 9 TH 16 16:00 Podium Mozaïek FR 17 20:45 Tuschinski 2 SA 18 19:00 DLM: Mary Dresselhuys Zaal

SA 11 17:00 Tuschinski 4 SU 12 12:30 Munt 13 TH 16 18:30 Cinema De Vlugt SU 19 12:45 Munt 13

Al haya helwa Mohamed Jabaly Norway, Palestine, 2023, 90′

Jethro Westraad South Africa, Hungary, Portugal, Belgium, 2023, 8′

Limitation WP

ვადაგასული საქმე Elene Asatiani, Soso Dumbadze Georgia, 2023, 125′

Russia has a long history of conducting hybrid warfare. Limitation uses exclusively Internet-sourced footage to examine Russia’s shady involvement in the 1992 coup against Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first president of Georgia.

MO 13 09:30 Pathé City 2 TU 14 20:30 Munt 13 WE 15 14:45 Munt 10 FR 17 18:15 Tuschinski 6 SA 18 10:30 Tuschinski 5

P&I

The Lingering Now, Our Odyssey II O agora que demora Christiane Jatahy Brazil, 2019, 120′

An energized montage of archive footage that breaks with narrow-mindedness to celebrate life and queer love. The spoken word performance dances to the rhythm of freedom in a funky cinematic tribute to Eros.

SA 11 20:15 Tuschinski 4 Shorts SU 12 15:00 Munt 10 Shorts FR 17 18:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts SU 19 16:15 Kriterion 1 Shorts Best of Fests

Sonia Ben Slama Tunisia, Lebanon, France, Qatar, 2023, 82′

TH 9 20:30 Munt 9 SA 11 13:00 Tuschinski 2 SA 18 19:45 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal SU 19 16:30 Munt 12

TU 14 20:00 ITA: Rabozaal WE 15 20:00 ITA: Rabozaal

Magic Mountain

Luminous

Longing for Light IP Anhel de llum Alba Cros Pellisé Spain, 2023, 11′

A celebration of light, life and love. The analogue camera of Alba Cros Pellisé captures nostalgic scenes of the sunlit streets of Barcelona, her lovers, and her lesbian urban family.

SA 11 20:15 Tuschinski 4 Shorts SU 12 15:00 Munt 10 Shorts FR 17 18:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts SU 19 16:15 Kriterion 1 Shorts

Losing Ground

Best of Fests

Anonymous LG Team Myanmar, 2023, 23′

In his Yangon apartment, a young, anonymous artist and filmmaker reflects on how his life has changed since the military coup in Myanmar. Out of fear, he lives indoors, where a window offers his only view of the outside world.

MO 13 21:00 Kriterion 1 Shorts TU 14 12:15 Munt 13 Shorts TH 16 13:00 Tuschinski 3 Shorts FR 17 21:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts Best of Fests

The Lost Boys of Mercury Les oubliés de La Belle Étoile Clémence Davigo France, 2023, 107′

Three men in their sixties come together in Savoie, France, to share their experiences about the Catholic boys’ boarding school where they were abused. A tender and urgent portrait of men who remain hurt children inside.

SA 11 18:30 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 SU 12 12:30 Kriterion 1 TU 14 14:15 Tuschinski 5 WE 15 21:30 Munt 13 SA 18 10:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal

Best of Fests

Rosine Mbakam Belgium, Cameroon, 2023, 93′ Mambar Pierrette is busy, but the dressmaker always has a listening ear for complaining local residents. She also has her own problems: never enough money, an absent husband, a sick mother. And this is even before disaster strikes.

FR 10 11:30 Munt 12 SA 11 17:00 Eye: Cinema 2 TH 16 18:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal SU 19 13:00 Cinema De Vlugt

Man in Black

黑衣人 Wang Bing France, United States, United Kingdom, 2023, 61′

TH 9 12:15 Munt 13 SA 11 10:45 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 SU 12 20:30 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 TU 14 12:00 Tuschinski 6 WE 15 18:45 Munt 10 Frontlight

Makeover Movie IP Sue Ding United States, 2022, 19′

Sitting naked in a beautifully lit theater in Paris and sometimes drowned out by his own music, 86-year-old composer Xilin Wang tells of his persecution in the name of Chinese Communism during the Cultural Revolution.

Manu: A Visual Album WP

FR 10 21:00 Kriterion 1 SA 11 12:30 Tuschinski 5 MO 13 18:00 De Balie: Filmzaal SU 19 16:00 Cinema De Vlugt

Shorts Shorts Shorts Shorts

Best of Fests

Tana Gilbert Chile, Germany, 2023, 75′ A raw yet poetic debut film about the pain and powerlessness of mothers in a Chilean women’s prison. Using mobile phone videos secretly taken by prisoners, the experiences of multiple inmates are condensed into the moving story of one woman.

FR 10 17:15 De Balie: Grote Zaal MO 13 15:30 Munt 13 WE 15 18:00 Tuschinski 6 SA 18 16:00 Tuschinski 4

In this ethereal experimental film, two young Chinook people contemplate birth, life, death and rebirth—of the individual and of the culture of the original inhabitants of the American Northwest. A blend of melancholy and resolve.

Signed

Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros

Wiseman, master of the observational documentary, settles in with a family in central France that runs several top restaurants.

An ultimate slow-cinema experience about craftsmanship, sustainability, passing on knowledge, family ties and letting go.

TH 9 19:00 Tuschinski 3 TH 16 12:00 Munt 11 SA 18 11:00 Kriterion 1 Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

Meshes of the Afternoon

Alexandra Cuesta Ecuador, United States, 2023, 61′

Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid United States, 1943, 14′

A meditative film and counterpart to the eponymous album by composer and violinist Bryan Senti, interweaving neoclassical and indigenous Latin American music.

Memories document something distant yet also familiar.

Maya Deren’s groundbreaking experimental short film follows a woman (played by the director) through a menacing, circular dream world in which she repeatedly enters the same house.

FR 10 11:15 Tuschinski 3 SA 11 18:30 Tuschinski 5 SU 12 12:45 Tuschinski 6 TH 16 18:30 Munt 9 SU 19 13:00 Tuschinski 6

P&I

Marungka tjalatjunu Dipped in Black Derik Lynch, Matthew Thorne Australia, 2023, 25′

Derik Lynch goes on a road trip to his birthplace, which is full of stories. As a queer person and Aboriginal, he’s had enough of the humiliations in Adelaide. His memories of childhood resurface in the remote Anangu community.

SA 11 18:00 Tuschinski 6 SU 12 09:30 Munt 10 WE 15 11:00 Tuschinski 4 SA 18 13:00 Munt 13

Mast-del

FR 10 11:45 Eye: Cinema 2 TH 16 18:00 Eye: Cinema 2

Metamorphosis WP

Best of Fests

A confrontational but lighthearted essay looking at makeovers in Hollywood.

Filmmaker Sue Ding and her childhood girlfriends analyze countless clips from the films they grew up with. Was the ugly duckling that became a swan as innocent as she seemed?

Sky Hopinka United States, 2020, 81′

Frederick Wiseman France, United States, 2023, 240′

Signed

When filmmaker Mariam Chachia contracted tuberculosis, the idea of having to stay in a remote, run-down sanatorium scared her—so she decided to investigate.

After years of filming there, she returned with a documentary that transcends the personal.

Corresponding Cinemas

małni – towards the ocean, towards the shore

SA 11 10:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema TH 16 12:45 Munt 13

FR 10 12:30 Tuschinski 1 SA 11 11:00 Munt 12

ჯადოსნური მთა Mariam Chachia, Nik Voigt Georgia, Poland, 2023, 74′

Malqueridas

Signed, Focus: Fabrications

Mambar Pierrette

Retrospective: Wang Bing

Fatma and her daughters Najeh and Waffeh are wedding musicians in Tunisia.

But when the party is over, each of the two self-assured sisters turns out to have their own, very different struggles with marriage.

Brazilian writer, theater-maker and filmmaker Christiane Jatahy takes Homer’s famous epic The Odyssey as the starting point for this performance, in search of our own Odyssey. Are we in the theatre, a cinema or a concert?

IDFA on Stage IDFA on Stage

Mast-del

Jyoti Mistry Austria, South Africa, 2023, 19′

Machtat IDFA on Stage

Paradocs

Loving In Between

Paradocs

Maryam Tafakory United Kingdom, Iran, 2023, 17′ A moving and layered reflection on the complex reality of Iranian women, in which space for personal freedom and desires only exists behind closed doors, and in the imagination.

MO 13 21:30 Eye: Cinema 2 Paradocs Shorts TU 14 13:00 Eye: Cinema 2 Paradocs Shorts FR 17 15:45 Tuschinski 2 Paradocs Shorts SA 18 19:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

IDFA Meets

SA 18 21:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

IDFA Meets

Luminous

Metamorfose Pim Zwier Netherlands, 2023, 96′

An extraordinary combination of nature documentary, costume drama and art project about the life and work of naturalist and illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian (16471717), known for her study of the metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies.

SA 11 19:00 Tuschinski 2 SU 12 13:45 Pathé City 3 SU 12 21:00 Munt 13 WE 15 14:30 Eye: Cinema 2 FR 17 21:15 Munt 12 SA 18 13:45 Munt 10

Milisuthando

P&I

Best of Fests

Milisuthando Bongela South Africa, Colombia, 2023, 128′

In this personal and poetic portrait, the South African Milisuthando Bongela examines the consequences of apartheid. She grew up in “independent” Transkei, without realizing that the territory’s freedom was embedded in a deeply racist system.

TH 9 18:30 Munt 13 SA 11 20:30 Tuschinski 6 MO 13 14:30 De Balie: Filmzaal SA 18 21:30 Bijlmerbios SU 19 11:00 Podium Mozaïek

65

International Competition

Youth 13+ Youth 13+ Youth 13+ Youth 13+

My Worst Enemy

Best of Fests

Mon pire ennemi Mehran Tamadon France, 2023, 81′

Peter Greenaway United Kingdom, Poland, Canada, Netherlands, 2007, 134′

With a series of re-enacted police interrogations, filmmaker Mehran Tamadon hopes to hold up a mirror to the Iranian state. The film leads up to a tense and deadly serious role play, which exposes how alarmingly fragile humanity really is.

With his celebrated visual and intellectual flair, Peter Greenaway presents a murder mystery surrounding “The Night Watch”.

Martin Freeman plays Rembrandt in a rich film about art, love and betrayal.

TH 9 18:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal SA 11 21:45 Munt 13 SU 12 18:45 Kriterion 1 TH 16 18:00 Tuschinski 2 SU 19 10:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1

Red Flag

Best of Fests

Best of Fests

The Mission

Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine United States, 2023, 103′ A reconstruction of a one-man Christian mission, when in 2018 a young American illegally sought contact with one of the world’s last uncontacted peoples. He didn’t live to tell the tale. An exploration of the fine line between faith and madness.

TH 9 17:00 Munt 12 MO 13 20:15 Munt 11 hosted by National

Geographic Doc Films WE 15 18:00 Munt 11 SU 19 13:15 Rialto VU: Zaal 4

Mixtape La Pampa

Signed

Andrés Di Tella Argentina, Chile, 2023, 100′

Andrés Di Tella follows in the Argentinian footsteps of the enigmatic gaucho and writer William Henry Hudson. His encounters with people who share his fascination combine with found footage and personal reflections to produce an associative travelogue.

66

TH 9 17:45 Munt 9 SA 11 21:00 Munt 12 SU 12 18:45 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal FR 17 11:15 Tuschinski 3 SU 19 13:30 Kriterion 1

Hanna Badziaka, Alexander Mihalkovich Sweden, Ukraine, Norway, 2023, 96′

While activists protest Belarusian state violence in the streets of Minsk, a mother seeks justice for her son who was murdered while in military training, and a new recruit finds himself unwillingly pitted against his peers.

FR 10 15:00 Munt 11 SA 11 20:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal WE 15 18:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 FR 17 18:00 Munt 11

Shorts + Talk Shorts Shorts

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

A Movement Against the Transparency of the Stars of the Seas EP Esy Casey United States, Philippines, 2022, 31′

Many women from the Philippines are trafficked to care for families all over the world.

This visually ingenious split-screen film tells their story, allowing you to make your own connections between modern slavery and neo-colonialism.

SU 12 18:15 Tuschinski 2 Shorts MO 13 11:00 Tuschinski 6 Shorts SA 18 16:15 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts SU 19 13:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 Shorts

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

A Moment in Love

Mrs. Fang

Shirley Clarke United States, 1956, 11′

An elegant pas de deux performed by two young lovers dancing in an ever-changing landscape—from natural idyll to deserted city—which causes the first ripples in their romantic affair. A lyrical and emotionally moving dance film.

FR 10 11:45 Eye: Cinema 2 TH 16 18:00 Eye: Cinema 2 Best of Fests

The Mother of All Lies

Best of Fests

Motherland

Kadib abyad Asmae El Moudir Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, 2023, 96′ Asmae El Moudir uses unorthodox methods to reconstruct a painful period for her family and for her homeland of Morocco.

A scale model of the neighborhood where she grew up becomes the setting for unexpected insights and catharsis.

TU 14 20:30 Eye: Cinema 1 WE 15 21:00 Podium Mozaïek TH 16 20:15 Tuschinski 1 FR 17 16:00 Cinema De Vlugt + Talk (in Dutch)

hosted by Female Economy

SA 18 10:00 Eye: Cinema 1 Tomorrow’s Classics

Retrospective: Wang Bing

方绣英 Wang Bing Hong Kong, France, Germany, 2017, 86′ It is a privilege to be present at a person’s deathbed. With family members and neighbors crowded around her, Fang silently waits for her end to come. In calm observational style we experience the final days of her life.

TH 9 16:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema TU 14 11:30 Munt 11

Mud WP

Envision Competition

An impressionistic black-and-white portrait of a Russian health spa. Bureaucratic complexities and salutary health benefits coalesce in this apparent allegory for a complex society rooted in rules, prohibitions, and the illusion of security.

SA 11 17:45 Munt 12 SU 12 17:15 Tuschinski 3 SU 12 17:15 Eye: Cinema 1 TU 14 18:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 FR 17 10:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 2 SU 19 13:30 Tuschinski 2

Moeder Suriname – Mama Sranan Tessa Leuwsha Netherlands, 2023, 71′

Through narration and song, a strong-minded woman looks back on her life in a changing Suriname, illustrated by a stream of unique and fascinating colorized archival footage. A film inspired on the life of the grandmother of director Tessa Leuwsha.

SA 11 13:00 Munt 11 MO 13 14:15 Pathé City 4 MO 13 21:15 Munt 13 WE 15 12:30 Eye: Cinema 1 FR 17 18:45 Podium Mozaïek FR 17 20:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 SA 18 19:00 Bijlmerbios

P&I

Amanda Kim United States, 2023, 110′

An entertaining and richly documented portrait of the visionary South Korean video artist Nam June Paik, whose work reflected a society in which media came to play an increasingly prominent role.

TH 9 11:45 Tuschinski 1 SU 12 21:15 Tuschinski 2 TU 14 18:00 Kriterion 1 WE 15 15:30 Munt 13 TH 16 21:00 Eye: Cinema 1

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

My Father WP Pedaram Pegah Ahangarani Iran, Czech Republic, 2023, 19′

A personal, essayistic narrative using archive footage and personal photos, exploring how the lives of the filmmaker and her family have been affected by the Iranian Revolution and the shift to a religious fundamentalist state.

MO 13 21:00 Kriterion 1 Shorts TU 14 12:15 Munt 13 Shorts TH 16 13:00 Tuschinski 3 Shorts FR 17 21:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts

SU 12 10:30 Eye: Cinema 1 FR 17 20:30 Eye: Cinema 2

Nocturne for a Forest

Paradocs

Nocturno para uma floresta Catarina Vasconcelos Portugal, 2023, 16′

The ghosts of oppressed women from across the centuries still haunt the forest around an old Portuguese monastery.

When they speak up, light appears, in this mesmerizing experimental work with a creative, activist message.

MO 13 21:30 Eye: Cinema 2 TU 14 13:00 Eye: Cinema 2 FR 17 15:45 Tuschinski 2

Paradocs Shorts Paradocs Shorts Paradocs Shorts

Focus: Fabrications

WePresent Night

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Nelson the Piglet WP

Nelson het minivarken Anneke de Lind van Wijngaarden Netherlands, 2023, 15′

The family bought Nelson seven years ago believing he was a miniature pig—now he’s a 500 kilo colossus, and an annoyance to neighbors and the housing association. An upbeat short documentary about true love for a four-legged friend.

MO 13 14:30 Munt 12 Youth 9-12 TU 14 15:45 Tuschinski 4 Youth 9-12 FR 17 17:30 Tuschinski 4 Youth 9-12 SA 18 10:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Youth 9-12

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

Newsreel 242 – Sunny Railways IP

Not a Pretty Picture

Martha Coolidge United States, 1976, 83′

In this meta-documentary, Martha Coolidge makes a film of the rape she experienced as a 16-year-old. Through the production process, she examines how such an event can be viewed from different perspectives.

SU 12 10:00 Eye: Cinema 2 WE 15 17:30 Eye: Cinema 2

Nowhere Near

Paradocs

Miko Revereza Philippines, Mexico, 2023, 102′ This poetic evocation portrays the experiences of the filmmaker and his family as Filipino immigrants to America who later become American immigrants in the Philippines. A dreamlike portrait of a quest to find a place to put down roots.

Obzornik 242 – Sunčane pruge Nika Autor Slovenia, 2023, 31′

SA 11 10:45 Munt 9 SU 12 21:45 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal TH 16 15:00 Tuschinski 2 SA 18 21:45 Tuschinski 4

A tribute to the tens of thousands of politically idealistic young people who helped build a railroad between Sarajevo and Šamac in 1947. Their hope for a better world has evaporated, but their idealism is an enduring source of inspiration.

Nusa Ina WP

TH 9 18:00 Kriterion 1 Shorts SA 11 11:00 De Balie: Grote Zaal Shorts MO 13 15:00 Tuschinski 2 Shorts FR 17 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts

The Next Life

Top 10

SU 12 14:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 TH 16 17:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 2

Frontlight

Anne Jan Sijbrandij Netherlands, 2023, 34′ The pain of postcolonial rootlessness is palpable in the story of Loey Tamaëla, a Moluccan whose father was a Sergeant Major in the Dutch colonial army. He hopes one day to leave the Netherlands and return to a free homeland.

SU 12 20:30 Eye: Cinema 1 MO 13 18:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 WE 15 20:30 Tuschinski 2

In 2008, the Chinese province of Sichuan was struck by a devastating earthquake.

A couple who lost their only child in the disaster turns to IVF, hoping a new pregnancy will again give meaning to their life.

P&I Q&A hosted by Soapbox Sensory friendly

Luminous

Mother Suriname – Mama Sranan WP

Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV

活着 Jian Fan China, 2011, 79′

Грязь Ilya Povolotsky Russia, 2023, 50′

Retrospective: Peter Greenaway

Nightwatching

Shorts Shorts + Talk hosted by OneWorld Shorts

TH 16 14:30 Kriterion 1 FR 17 20:00 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal

IDFA Meets

SA 18 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Nyanga

Medhin Tewolde Serrano Mexico, 2023, 20′ Best of Fests

How do you cope with the inhumanities of a life in slavery? This beautiful handmade animation translates the history of 12 million people into the story of Nyanga, a boy who has been kidnapped to America and wants to go home. An ode to resistance.

Asylum seekers cross the snowcapped mountains at night near the French-Italian border village of Montgenèvre. A team of volunteers walk the paths to offer them help while the border police strives to arrest them and send them back.

FR 10 17:45 Tuschinski 6 Youth 13+ SA 11 10:15 Munt 10 Youth 13+ FR 17 15:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

Nightwatchers Veilleurs de nuit Juliette de Marcillac France, 2023, 69′

SA 11 18:00 Eye: Cinema 1 MO 13 21:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal TU 14 11:15 Tuschinski 5 FR 17 21:00 Munt 11

SA 18 17:30 Rialto VU: Zaal 4

Youth 13+ Youth 13+

De bezette stad Steve McQueen Netherlands, United Kingdom, 2023, 262′ Ghosts of the past find echoes in the present in this meditation on Amsterdam’s war history. Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) based his monumental film on Atlas of an Occupied City, Bianca Stigter’s book about the Nazi occupation.

SU 12 13:30 Tuschinski 1 in Dutch, no subtitles WE 15 15:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 FR 17 18:00 Eye: Cinema 1 + Talk SU 19 10:45 Munt 12 Top 10

Old Men

老头 Lina Yang China, 1999, 95′ Lao Liu, Lao Cao and a dozen others—the film portrays a group of retired men in their 70s and 80s. Gathering every afternoon in their Beijing neighborhood, they lament and laugh about old age and dying.

TH 9 14:45 Munt 9 SU 19 10:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal Luminous

Omi Nobu EP The New Man Carlos Yuri Ceuninck Cape Verde, Belgium, Germany, Sudan, 2023, 64′

Notre corps Claire Simon France, 2023, 168′ A story of life in the obstetrics and gynecology department, both deeply intimate, and clinically detailed. Claire Simon’s patient observations offer a profound insight into the female body and what it’s like to live in it.

TH 9 12:00 Tuschinski 6 SA 11 13:30 Munt 12 SU 12 19:30 Munt 12 MO 13 12:45 Tuschinski 1 SA 18 10:30 Tuschinski 2

Signed

The Adamant is a floating day center for psychiatric patients, on the River Seine in Paris. This subtle and deeply empathetic Golden Bear winner is a heartwarming portrait of several regular visitors and the people who work with them.

TH 9 20:45 Munt 11 SA 11 10:30 Munt 1 MO 13 17:00 Kriterion 1 SA 18 15:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

On the Other Island En la otra isla Sara Gómez Cuba, 1968, 40′

The filmmaker took her 16mm camera to Isla de Pinos, currently known as Isla la Juventud (“Island of Youth”) in Cuba and spoke to the workers on the collective farms, who candidly and proudly tell their unique stories.

TH 9 14:45 Tuschinski 5 TH 16 15:15 Eye: Cinema 2 Best of Fests

Orlando, My Political Biography

Orlando, ma biographie politique Paul B. Preciado France, 2023, 98′

Meena Nanji, Zippy Kimundu Kenya, United States, Portugal, Germany, 2023, 100′

Legendary Kenyan freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi was executed by the British colonial regime in 1957. When his daughter starts searching for his remains, she herself becomes a political factor in postcolonial Kenya, with swelling ranks of followers.

SA 11 19:45 Tuschinski 3 SU 12 20:45 Tuschinski 5 MO 13 12:00 Tuschinski 2 WE 15 18:15 Tuschinski 1

P&I

+ Talk Mama Cash screening

Our Special Little Secret WP

Notre petit secret un peu spécial Anna Hanslik France, 2023, 16′

Retrospective: Peter Greenaway

Luminous

Ozogoche WP

Joe Houlberg Silva Ecuador, Belgium, Qatar, 2023, 77′ A beautifully filmed account of daily life in an indigenous community in Ecuador that lives around the Ozogoche lakes.

Two forms of migration are subtly linked, moving in opposite directions.

SU 12 15:45 Munt 13 MO 13 16:00 Tuschinski 3 P&I MO 13 21:15 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 WE 15 20:45 Tuschinski 3 TH 16 10:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 2 Sensory friendly SU 19 16:00 Tuschinski 5

Paradocs Shorts

IDFA’s Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia will sit down with Peter Greenaway to discuss his rich, varied body of work. As a special treat, we are screening Greenaway’s new, unfinished film with the working title Walking to Paris.

SU 12 20:30 Tuschinski 1

Paradocs

Short film selection featuring off-the-frame, non-fiction shorts from the Paradocs program, consisting of Mast-del, Nocturne for a Forest, and We Don’t Talk Like We Used To. MO 13 21:30 Eye: Cinema 2 TU 14 13:00 Eye: Cinema 2 FR 17 15:45 Tuschinski 2

Jialai Wang Belgium, 2023, 72′

A sparklingly intelligent, genre-fluid exploration of the trans experience, in which philosopher and trans activist Paul B. Preciado directly addresses Virginia Woolf.

Her famous fictional character Orlando was the inspiration for this film.

When her grandmother’s health deteriorates, Jialai Wang, living in Belgium, goes back to visit her mother in Shanghai. A poignant, effectively designed narrative about a lack of motherly love passed down through the generations.

TH 9 14:00 Tuschinski 4 FR 10 17:45 Kriterion 1 MO 13 17:30 Eye: Cinema 1 + Conversation TH 16 21:15 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal SA 18 16:00 Kriterion 1

FR 10 21:00 Munt 12 SA 11 10:30 Tuschinski 2 SA 11 12:00 Pathé City 2 TH 16 13:45 Munt 9 SU 19 14:00 Eye: Cinema 2

P&I

Robert Frank, Alfred Leslie United States, 1959, 28′

A pleasant dinner with a bishop takes a bizarre turn when Allen Ginsberg and friends drop by unannounced. Robert Frank’s debut film was loosely based on a play by Jack Kerouac, who also provides an ironic voice-over and some freewheeling beat poetry.

FR 10 11:45 Eye: Cinema 2 TH 16 18:00 Eye: Cinema 2 Best of Fests

Agniia Galdanova France, United States, 2023, 98′ Born and raised in Magadan, a city in the far east of Russia notorious for its gulag past, 21-year-old non-binary Gena combines radical performance art with activism. At the risk of her own life.

TH 9 18:30 Munt 10 SA 11 10:00 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal MO 13 17:15 Tuschinski 1 Oxfam Novib Special WE 15 13:15 Tuschinski 4 SA 18 13:30 Podium Mozaïek

Behind Beijing’s South Railway Station lies “Petition Village.” Many inhabitants of this shantytown have for years been seeking reparation from the government. Their struggle for justice is a daily fight against the indifference of the Chinese state.

Envision Competition

Victoria Linares Villegas Dominican Republic, 2023, 82′ In preparation for a film role, an actress talks to pregnant teenage girls in the Dominican Republic. The girls gradually start to steer the direction of the film with their stories.

SA 11 17:00 Munt 9 SU 12 10:15 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal MO 13 18:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 Q&A hosted SA 18 17:00 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal SU 19 11:00 Kriterion 1

by CUT

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

Foto na pam’yat Olga Chernykh Ukraine, France, Germany, 2023, 72′ A personal, essay-style account of the war in Ukraine, as viewed through the prism of three female generations. The Kyiv-based filmmaker uses old family films in her attempt to bridge the distance between her and her grandmother in Donetsk.

WE 8 20:00 Carré TH 9 15:00 Tuschinski 1 FR 10 12:30 Pathé City 2 SU 12 12:30 Tuschinski 4 MO 13 13:45 Munt 11 FR 17 19:00 Tuschinski 1

Pictures of Ghosts

Best of Fests

Ramona

上访 Liang Zhao China, France, 2009, 124′

P&I + Talk

Signed

Retratos fantasmas Kleber Mendonça Filho Brazil, 2023, 93′

Cinema and Recife are inextricably intertwined for director Kleber Mendonça Filho.

This love letter to both takes the form of a playful essay film about his parental home, long-gone movie palaces, and the relation between cinema and religion.

FR 10 13:45 Tuschinski 4 SA 11 16:00 Munt 10 TH 16 19:30 Ketelhuis: Zaal 2 SU 19 10:15 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

Envision Competition

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

Top 10

Petition

A Picture to Remember WP

Pull My Daisy

Queendom

SU 12 21:00 Munt 10 TU 14 10:30 Eye: Cinema 1

An autobiographical essay in which the filmmaker uses her own home videos to investigate how she must have experienced sexual abuse by a family member as a child, and what impact this has had on her life as an adult.

Paragate WP

A meditative, at times hypnotic film by and about the Kaiowa Indigenous Nation in Brazil, who have been struggling for the land of their ancestors for more than 30 years. A unique inside view of their history and the importance of traditional territory.

Peter Greenaway Atelier

TH 9 18:00 Kriterion 1 Shorts SA 11 11:00 De Balie: Grote Zaal Shorts MO 13 15:00 Tuschinski 2 Shorts FR 17 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts

Sur l’Adamant Nicolas Philibert France, Japan, 2023, 105′

Ava Yvy Pyte ygua Guahu’i Guyra Collective Brazil, 2023, 40′

Frontlight

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

FR 10 20:45 Tuschinski 2 SA 11 17:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal TH 16 14:00 Podium Mozaïek SA 18 12:45 Munt 11

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

People from the Heart of the Earth WP

SA 11 18:00 Tuschinski 6 SU 12 09:30 Munt 10 WE 15 11:00 Tuschinski 4 SA 18 13:00 Munt 13

Our Land, Our Freedom WP

SA 18 15:30 Munt 13

Quirino, 76, has lived his whole life in a village in Cape Verde that was deserted 40 years ago. In majestic shots of this spectacular rocky coast, he reflects on his own life and on life in general.

On the Adamant

Signed

Our Body

Postcards from the Verge IP Pocztówki znad granicy Natalia Koniarz Poland, Bolivia, 2023, 40′

A young Polish couple embark on a dangerous bike ride across the Andes.

Amid the breathtaking, endlessly deserted landscape, tensions between them grow.

Yet on this journey they also discover who they really are.

FR 10 18:30 Munt 10 SA 11 16:00 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal WE 15 21:00 Cinema De Vlugt FR 17 16:15 Munt 13

Red Flag IP

Bandera roja Mónica Taboada-Tapia Colombia, 2023, 20′

The pleasant beach in downtown Cartagena, Colombia is closing: due to rising sea levels the coastline needs better protection. Against the idyllic backdrop of sun and sea, regular visitors discuss their hopes and fears for the future.

FR 10 18:30 Munt 10 SA 11 16:00 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal WE 15 21:00 Cinema De Vlugt FR 17 16:15 Munt 13 Best of Fests

Red Herring

Kit Vincent United Kingdom, 2023, 94′ Kit Vincent has a terminal brain tumor, which he finds hard to talk to his parents about. Could it help to make a film? A rich, sensitive exploration of life, death and family ties, maintaining a sense of humor despite the tragedy.

FR 10 11:45 Munt 11 MO 13 21:15 Munt 9 WE 15 12:00 Munt 11 FR 17 17:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 Best of Fests

Rejeito

Pedro de Filippis Brazil, United States, 2023, 75′ A Brazilian mining company stores waste behind huge, poorly constructed dams.

Despite deadly disasters, the company is expanding with government support and international funding. Residents and activists are fiercely fighting their unequal battle.

SA 11 20:00 Munt 9 SU 12 17:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 MO 13 10:00 Tuschinski 1 TU 14 15:30 Munt 10 SA 18 22:00 Eye: Cinema 1

Q&A hosted by Room for Discussion

Retrospective: Peter Greenaway

Rembrandt’s J’Accuse Peter Greenaway Netherlands, 2008, 86′

An intelligent, theatrical argument in which the director highlights hidden details in “The Night Watch” to arrive at the conclusion that Rembrandt, in his most famous work, hints at a murder conspiracy.

FR 10 12:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema TH 16 14:45 Munt 10

67

Signed

Occupied City

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania

Frontlight, IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

IDFA Shorts 2

Jonas Mekas United States, 1972, 82′

An experimental and personal account of filmmaker Jonas Mekas’s visit to his native village in Lithuania, twenty years after he had last visited the country. Snapshots from his everyday life constitute this moving diary of a voracious filmmaker.

SA 11 14:00 Eye: Cinema 2 FR 17 12:30 Eye: Cinema 2

These young Dutch filmmakers present their unique perspectives on the intergenerational endeavour to (re)claim spaces, histories, and legacies. This compilation program includes Nusa Ina, Hotel Mokum, and The Story of Ne Kuko.

SU 12 20:30 Eye: Cinema 1 MO 13 18:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 WE 15 20:30 Tuschinski 2 + Talk hosted by

OneWorld TH 16 14:30 Kriterion 1 FR 17 20:00 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal

IDFA Meets

Signed

Richland

Luminous, Paradocs, Frontlight

Irene Lusztig United States, 2023, 93′

IDFA Shorts 3

Richland residents made a crucial contribution to the production of the atomic bomb during World War II. Current residents deal with this emotionally charged past in a range of different ways, reflecting the deep divides in US society.

SA 11 10:00 Munt 11 MO 13 14:45 Tuschinski 5 TU 14 17:00 De Balie: Grote Zaal FR 17 20:00 DLM: Wim Sonneveld Zaal IDFA Junior

Rocknrollers

Rocknrollertjes Daan Bol Netherlands, 2016, 25′ It looks like Sia’s depression will have major consequences for the success of Morganas Illusion, the band he plays in with his friends Vince and Bas. A moving coming-of-age story about depression and the beneficial, healing effects of music and friendship.

SU 19 10:30 Eye: Cinema 1 IDFA Junior (in Dutch) Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

Salesman

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Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin United States, 1969, 90′ A lively portrait of four door-to-door Bible salesmen, and of 1960s America—of a sense of self esteem blending Christianity and consumerism, interwoven with a sales pitch that’s steadily losing its appeal.

WE 15 11:30 Eye: Cinema 2 SA 18 16:45 Eye: Cinema 2 Paradocs

Samsara

Lois Patiño Spain, 2023, 114′ Every morning, a young man reads from the Tibetan Book of the Dead to an older woman, in this unique film about life, death and rebirth. A film set in Laos, Tanzania, and in the viewer’s mind—and soul.

TH 9 15:15 Munt 10 SA 11 21:45 Tuschinski 2 TH 16 20:30 Munt 10 SA 18 12:30 Munt 9

The playful films in this compilation offer a poetic celebration of life, love and longing for freedom. The program includes Longing for Light, Loving In Between, and The Archive: Queer Nigerians.

SA 11 20:15 Tuschinski 4 SU 12 15:00 Munt 10 FR 17 18:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SU 19 16:15 Kriterion 1 IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

IDFA Shorts 4

Through the creative use of archival material, these delicate films tap into memories of abuse, retrace personal trauma, and explore collective hope. This compilation program includes Between Delicate and Violent, Newsreel 242 – Sunny Railways, and Our Special Little Secret.

TH 9 18:00 Kriterion 1 SA 11 11:00 De Balie: Grote Zaal MO 13 15:00 Tuschinski 2 FR 17 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Paradocs, IDFA Competition for Short Documentary, Signed, Frontlight

IDFA Shorts 5

International Competition

In-Soo Radstake Netherlands, 2023, 133′

A revealing investigation of the cover-up of the Netherlands’ war fought from 1945 to 1949 against the newly declared Republic of Indonesia. Even today, the historical political message still shields the Netherlands from the shadows of its colonial past.

P&I IDFA Hit

+ Talk hosted by De Groene Amsterdammer

FR 17 21:00 Podium Mozaiek SU 19 12:30 Munt 11

Best of Fests, Luminous, IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

IDFA Shorts 1

Four engaging films about the search for human connection and the power of listening. This compilation program includes Echo, Four Holes, Dentures, and Blow!

SA 11 21:00 Tuschinski 5 SU 12 12:00 Munt 10 WE 15 19:15 Munt 12 FR 17 10:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

De stem van vingers Thomas Bellinck Belgium, Germany, Finland, 2023, 95′ Why is one person allowed to travel freely and the other not? In a multimedia performance, a Belgian artist and an Afghan journalist based in Finland consider the fingerprint as an instrument of control and a symbol of inequality.

FR 10 20:30 Frascati 1 SA 11 20:30 Frascati 1

IDFA on Stage IDFA on Stage

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Moja siostra Mariusz Rusiński Poland, 2023, 30′

The young filmmaker Mariusz Rusiński films his desperate parents and his 17-yearold drug-addicted sister Zuzia. How did it come to this? And what is his role in the messed-up family dynamic?

MO 13 21:00 Kriterion 1 TU 14 12:15 Munt 13 TH 16 13:00 Tuschinski 3 FR 17 21:30 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

Three striking experimental films about neocolonialism and capitalist exploitation.

This compilation program includes Terra Mater, 14 Paintings, and A Movement Against the Transparency of the Stars of the Seas.

SU 12 18:15 Tuschinski 2 MO 13 11:00 Tuschinski 6 SA 18 16:15 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SU 19 13:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1

Youth 13+

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

The Sketch

L’esquisse Tomas Cali France, 2023, 9′ Tomas Cali moves to Paris, where he feels alone and misunderstood. In his drawing class he meets Linda Demorrir, a nude model, also from another country and, like him, transgender. As he draws her, he also sketches his new reality.

FR 10 17:45 Tuschinski 6 Youth 13+ SA 11 10:15 Munt 10 Youth 13+ FR 17 15:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Youth 13+

Envision Competition

Youth 13+

Best of Fests

A powerful video essay on the systematic mass rape in and around Foča during the Bosnian war, combining harrowing testimonies from victims and a forensic visual investigation of the crime scenes.

P&I + Talk

Since 2015, Eye has awarded the Eye Art & Film Prize to an artist working at the intersection of art and film. During this screening, you will see a film by this year’s winner.

An intimate and poetic portrait of women who literally and figuratively bare all in a traditional Estonian sauna, where listening to traumatic stories from one another’s lives has a powerful healing effect.

FR 10 10:00 Tuschinski 1 SA 11 21:30 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 TU 14 21:00 Tuschinski 1 WE 15 15:00 Eye: Cinema 1 SA 18 13:00 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal

IDFA on Stage

Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher United States, 2023, 70′

An evening of deliciously spooky tales.

Rather than focusing on horror, the filmmakers, musicians and storytellers in this cinematic performance share their unconventional ghost stories exploring the unfathomable, sometimes uncanny power of love.

TU 14 20:30 Frascati 1 WE 15 20:30 Frascati 1

IDFA on Stage IDFA on Stage

Stamped from the Beginning EP

Frontlight

Roger Ross Williams United States, 2023, 91′

If we are going to seriously confront still-rampant racism, we need to know its history. A dynamic, illustrated examination of intractable myths, oppression and white power.

+ Talk

IDFA Special

El Realismo Socialista Raúl Ruiz, Valeria Sarmiento Chile, 2023, 78′ Raúl Ruiz was unable to complete the editing of his 1973 hybrid docufiction film. Now, at last, it has been restored and reconstructed. The well-educated and the working class supporters of the left clash in his satire of a turbulent political climate.

TU 14 15:00 Tuschinski 2 TH 16 12:15 Tuschinski 4 Frontlight

Nahid Persson Sweden, 2023, 100′

The Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam exposes his country’s corruption and hypocrisy.

Living in France, he is forced to lead the life of a spy, as this tense and tragic documentary shows.

Šutnja razuma Kumjana Novakova North Macedonia , BosniaHerzegovina, 2023, 63′

FR 10 14:15 Pathé City 2 FR 10 18:00 Munt 13 SA 11 13:45 Tuschinski 4 TU 14 11:45 Munt 12 FR 17 20:45 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 SU 19 16:45 Tuschinski 2

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Son of the Mullah IP

Silence of Reason IP

Special Screening: Eye Art & Film Prize winner

Spectral Transmissions: Love Bends Time WP

13+

Socialist Realism

IDFA Shorts 7

FR 10 20:45 Eye: Cinema 2 SA 11 10:00 Tuschinski 1 TU 14 17:30 Munt 11 WE 15 14:15 De Balie: Grote Zaal FR 17 17:30 Eye: Cinema 2

SA 18 17:30 Rialto VU: Zaal 4

Savvusanna sõsarad Anna Hints Estonia, France, Iceland, 2023, 89′

These deeply personal films offer existential and poetic reflections on the precarity of domestic life and societal change. This compilation program includes, At That Very Moment, My Father, and Losing Ground.

Over a one year period, we join the 84-year-old father of filmmaker Margreth Olin on walks in his “back garden,” the spectacular Norwegian valley Oldedalen.

Surrounded by glaciers, green mountainsides, waterfalls and drones, he tells stories of his family.

WE 15 14:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

FR 10 21:00 Kriterion 1 SA 11 12:30 Tuschinski 5 MO 13 18:00 De Balie: Filmzaal SU 19 16:00 Cinema De Vlugt

IDFA Shorts 6

Fedrelandet Margreth Olin Norway, 2023, 91′

FR 10 17:45 Tuschinski 6 Youth 13+ SA 11 10:15 Munt 10 Youth 13+ FR 17 15:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Youth

SA 18 17:30 Rialto VU: Zaal 4

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary, Best of Fests

Signed

Songs of Earth

Sister of Mine EP

Through the use of pop-culture references, these bold essay films explore serious topics in fun and playful ways. This compilation program includes The Film You Are About to See, Dreams About Putin, I Would Like to Rage, and Makeover Movie.

Best of Fests, IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

Selling a Colonial War WP

FR 10 20:00 Tuschinski 3 SA 11 20:30 Carré SU 12 14:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 TH 16 14:45 Eye: Cinema 1

SA 18 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

IDFA on Stage

Simple as ABC #7: The Voice of Fingers

TU 14 13:15 Pathé City 3 P&I TU 14 20:45 Munt 11 WE 15 21:00 Tuschinski 6 FR 17 21:15 DLM: Mary Dresselhuys Zaal SA 18 13:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal

TU 14 17:30 Tuschinski 1 WE 15 22:00 Munt 12 TH 16 21:00 Bijlmerbios FR 17 15:30 Tuschinski 6 SU 19 14:15 Podium Mozaïek

Step by Step

+ Talk

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

Khutwa khutwa Ossama Mohammed Syria, 1978, 25′ Childhood innocence gives way to repression in this confronting short film. In hindsight, this experimental documentary from 1978 on hardening attitudes within Syrian society seems disturbingly prescient.

SU 12 16:15 Kriterion 1 TH 16 21:00 Munt 9 Corresponding Cinemas

The Story of Milk and Honey

Basma al-Sharif Lebanon, 2011, 10′

A failed attempt to write a love story leads to a meandering journey through families without faces, love songs and people on Beirut’s seaside promenade. How do we attribute meaning to facts, history, and images?

SA 11 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SA 18 18:15 Tuschinski 5

Festus Toll Netherlands, 2023, 25′

Around 1878, a nkisi was stolen from Congolese chief Ne Kuko. Not only was the theft of this object with spiritual powers a great loss for Ne Kuko, it also disrupted the local community.

SU 12 20:30 Eye: Cinema 1 MO 13 18:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 WE 15 20:30 Tuschinski 2

Shorts Shorts + Talk hosted by OneWorld

TH 16 14:30 Kriterion 1 FR 17 20:00 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal

Focus: Fabrications

Tehran Has No More Pomegranates!

Tehran anar nadarad Massoud Bakhshi Iran, 2006, 68′

Massoud Bakhshi’s intelligently edited, hilarious, hurtling musical compilation of archive footage and newly-shot images offers a critical and unadorned portrait of Iranian capital Tehran.

FR 10 14:00 Eye: Cinema 1 SU 19 16:30 Eye: Cinema 2

IDFA Meets

SA 18 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts

Sultana’s Dream

Best of Fests

El sueño de la sultana Isabel Herguera Spain, Germany, India, 2023, 87′ A magical realist animation in pen and watercolor about an Indian feminist book that’s more than a hundred years old. For Inés, from Spain, the book is a starting point for a fictional exploration of the importance of dreamers and dreams.

SU 12 17:30 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 TU 14 21:15 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal WE 15 11:30 Munt 10 SA 18 21:45 Kriterion 1

SU 12 18:15 Tuschinski 2 Shorts MO 13 11:00 Tuschinski 6 Shorts SA 18 16:15 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema Shorts SU 19 13:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 Shorts

Termodielétrico Ana Costa Ribeiro Brazil, 2023, 72′

A view of the adventurous life of a Brazilian physicist, the grandfather of filmmaker Ana Costa Ribeiro. She mixes archive material with current landscapes to create a poetic essay on science and relationships, challenging you to think beyond the literal.

TH 16 21:30 Kriterion 1 FR 17 14:30 Eye: Cinema 1 SA 18 21:30 Munt 11 SU 19 13:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SU 19 16:00 Munt 11 Envision Competition

Tales of Oblivion WP Contos do esquecimento Dulce Fernandes Portugal, 2023, 63′

Excavations in Lagos, Portugal, reveal human skeletons that were dumped in a 15th-century landfill site. Who were these people, and why didn’t they get a proper burial? A powerful, minimalist investigation tracking the Portuguese slave trade.

FR 10 21:15 Tuschinski 6 SA 11 14:15 Pathé City 3 SA 11 19:00 Kriterion 1 MO 13 15:15 Eye: Cinema 2 FR 17 14:00 Podium Mozaïek SU 19 10:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal

P&I + Talk

Signed

Mohsen Makhmalbaf Iran, United Kingdom, 2023, 50′

TH 9 18:00 Tuschinski 5 FR 10 16:45 Tuschinski 5 SA 11 13:15 Munt 10 SU 12 11:45 Pathé City 3 TH 16 20:45 Munt 12 SU 19 11:00 Tuschinski 5

They and Them WP

P&I

Frontlight

Genderpoli Ingrid Kamerling Netherlands, 2023, 78′

FR 10 12:00 Tuschinski 2 SU 12 18:45 Tuschinski 6 MO 13 12:30 Eye: Cinema 2 TU 14 14:45 De Balie: Grote Zaal SA 18 21:45 Munt 9 Signed

JR France, 2023, 93′

At the maximum security Tehachapi prison in California, 40 inmates create a photo collage in the yard with the French street artist JR (Faces Places). It gives a face and a voice to these men, who have often been locked up since their teens.

The gender clinic in the Dutch city of Zaandam benefits from staff members who are also transgender themselves. The work is hard, money is a problem, but above all there is the desire to equip young people for the complex process ahead of them.

TH 9 18:00 Tuschinski 1 FR 10 11:30 Pathé City 3 P&I FR 10 21:15 Tuschinski 1 NPO 2Doc Primeur SA 11 17:45 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 TU 14 21:15 Kriterion 1 VPRO Extra TH 16 15:45 Tuschinski 3

They Shot the Piano Player Disparon al pianista Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal Spain, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Peru, 2023, 104′ How could Brazilian jazz pianist Tenório Jr. mysteriously disappear in Buenos Aires in 1976? In colorful animation, the story unfolds of how a musical revolution was crushed by military force.

TH 9 11:45 Munt 9 SU 12 11:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 MO 13 20:15 Tuschinski 6 TU 14 14:00 Munt 12 WE 15 18:00 Podium Mozaïek

This Blessed Plot

这个女人 Alan Zhang China, 2022, 90′

The boundary between fact and fiction is hazy in this portrait of a young Chinese woman, which is also an examination of the constraining roles in which women so often lose their identity.

TH 9 12:30 Munt 10 SA 11 16:00 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 FR 17 21:30 Tuschinski 6 SU 19 11:00 Tuschinski 3

Three Promises

Signed

In a curious mix of documentary and fiction, Chinese filmmaker Lori visits the historic village of Thaxted in Essex, England. Little by little, she finds herself in the midst of a plot among the villagers, at times farcical, at others dramatic.

During the Second Intifada, the director’s mother made home videos of her Palestinian family. With these images, he tells the story of a mother and her camera, of a boy and his childhood, and of the history of the Palestinian people.

TH 9 16:00 Tuschinski 6 SA 11 13:15 Munt 13 MO 13 20:45 Munt 10 TU 14 21:30 Eye: Cinema 2 WE 15 18:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks 铁西区 Wang Bing China, 2002, 556′

In long shots and piercing images, this meditative masterpiece shows the decline of the Tie Xi district, China’s biggest and oldest industrial area, and the consequences for the workers who remain.

SU 12 10:00 Munt 9 TH 16 11:15 Tuschinski 5 Retrospective: Wang Bing

’Til Madness Do Us Part

疯爱 Wang Bing Hong Kong, France, Japan, 2013, 228′ What is life like when your world is no bigger than the neglected ward of a mental institution in China? Amidst despair and indefinite waiting, the search for human contact goes on.

Best of Fests

Marley McDonald, Brian Becker United States, 2023, 80′

Are all the computer systems going to crash at the start of the year 2000?

This flashback to the millennium bug, composed entirely of archive material from the USA, shows Y2K fears getting out of control as the turn of the millennium approaches.

FR 10 21:30 Munt 11 SA 11 13:45 Munt 1 TH 16 10:00 Munt 13 SA 18 14:30 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 IDFA Special

Tomorrow’s Classics

A program made up of three of tomorrow’s classics. A unique compilation featuring contemporary, cinematographic masterpieces by directors from across the globe.

SA 18 10:00 Eye: Cinema 1

好死不如赖活着 Weijun Chen China, 2003, 90′

A harrowing portrait of a Chinese farmer’s family that tries to live with HIV—a result of the trade in blood in the 1990s. While his wife suffers from AIDS and two of his children are seropositive, Shengyi Ma desperately tries to make ends meet.

Best of Fests

Yousef Srouji Palestine, Lebanon, United States, 2023, 61′

Time Bomb Y2K

Top 10

To Live Is Better Than to Die

MO 13 10:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal FR 17 16:45 Tuschinski 3

FR 10 19:30 Tuschinski 5 TH 16 20:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

Marc Isaacs United Kingdom, 2023, 75′

SA 11 13:30 Rialto VU: Zaal 4 SU 12 18:30 Munt 13 WE 15 20:00 Tuschinski 4 TH 16 15:30 Munt 13 FR 17 19:15 Tuschinski 3

Best of Fests

This Woman

Retrospective: Wang Bing

Signed

A bittersweet dialogue between neighboring nations Afghanistan and Iran, complemented by scenes from Iranian films by members of the Makhmalbaf family, who have often worked in Afghanistan. A film that addresses a divided yet shared history.

TH 9 13:45 Munt 12 MO 13 11:15 Munt 11 TH 16 20:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 SA 18 14:45 Tuschinski 2

A mesmerizing work of Afrofuturist activist performance art. Earth Spirit calls the world to account from the top of a stinking rubbish tip because the African continent is suffering from exploitation by the global North.

Envision Competition

Attend an extra screening of a film that was a resounding success during the festival.

Tehachapi

Tuning Room

Kantarama Gahigiri Rwanda, Switzerland, 2023, 10′

Thermodielectric IP

Surprise Screenings

Talking with Rivers

Best of Fests

Terra Mater

Best of Fests

Transition

Jordan Bryon, Monica Villamizar United States, Colombia, 2023, 88′

After the Taliban takeover, Australian journalist Jordan Bryon is determined to stay in Afghanistan, which is not easy as a trans man. A candid and often surprising report about journalistic and personal choices.

SA 11 21:30 Kriterion 1 SU 12 11:00 Munt 12 TU 14 12:15 Munt 10 WE 15 20:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal FR 17 14:30 Tuschinski 4

+ Talk

Best of Fests

The Trial

El juicio Ulises De la Orden Argentina, Norway, France, Italy, 2023, 177′ A record of the unique trial of the Argentine military junta in 1985, edited from hundreds of hours of television footage.

The viewer is present in the courtroom as witnesses paint a horrifying picture of perverse state terror.

TH 9 14:30 Munt 13 TU 14 20:00 Munt 9 WE 15 11:30 Tuschinski 5 FR 17 11:45 Tuschinski 2

The Tuba Thieves

Best of Fests

Alison O’Daniel United States, 2023, 91′

The story of a theft of musical instruments is the starting point for an associative tour of a city filled with sound. Through inventive audio editing, Alison O’Daniel presents a world that connects deaf and hearing people.

FR 10 15:30 Munt 10 SA 11 14:00 De Balie: Grote Zaal + Talk hosted

by SWDA with audio description

SU 12 10:15 Munt 1 TH 16 18:30 Tuschinski 6 SA 18 20:15 Tuschinski 6

IDFA on Stage, IDFA DocLab Spotlight, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Tuning Room WP Michael Bucuzzo Netherlands, 2023, 50′

Are our lives so completely defined by film and television that media define our reality, making humanity in fact superfluous? This is the question Michael Bucuzzo poses in his performative lecture encompassing three experimental films.

SU 12 20:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal SA 18 20:30 Eye: Cinema 2

IDFA on Stage IDFA on Stage

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IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

The Story of Ne Kuko WP

Focus: 16 Worlds on 16

Twenty Years Later

Cabra marcado para morrer: Vinte anos depois Eduardo Coutinho Brazil, 1984, 118′

My ne zgasnemo Alisa Kovalenko Ukraine, France, Poland, 2023, 100′

In 1964, Eduardo Coutinho started work on a film about a peasant leader who was murdered by the landowners he was protesting against. Production was halted.

Twenty years later, the director returns to Brazil with the original footage.

MO 13 12:00 Tuschinski 4 SU 19 12:45 Munt 10

Under the Moonlight

Luminous

Tonny Trimarsanto Indonesia, 2023, 86′

At an Islamic school in Yogyakarta, all the adult students are transgender. Here, they can live the way they choose to—it’s a stark contrast with the hostile world outside.

Despite the threats, they cheerfully go on with their work.

TU 14 11:45 Pathé City 2 TU 14 20:45 Tuschinksi 2 WE 15 21:15 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal FR 17 18:15 Kriterion 1 SU 19 15:15 Munt 13

Best of Fests

We Will Not Fade Away

P&I

With the frontline just around the corner, five teenagers in the Donbas region of Ukraine dream of life after the war. Plans for an expedition to the Himalayas bring new opportunities, and relief from dull summer days and boredom in the countryside.

TH 9 21:15 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal SA 11 10:00 Eye: Cinema 1 MO 13 11:00 Munt 12 WE 15 15:00 Tuschinski 6 FR 17 21:15 Munt 10 Top 10

Wheat Harvest 麦收 Tong Xu China, 2008, 98′

Wheat Harvest depicts a complex picture of Hongmiao, a sex worker in Beijing.

During the wheat harvest, she visits her village home and aids her family. The mundaneness and rawness of her life are inseparable.

SU 12 10:00 Tuschinski 6 SA 18 09:45 Munt 9

IDFA Special

Vriendenvoorstelling

As thanks to its Friends, IDFA presents a special Friends’ screening of Glass, My Unfulfilled Life in Tuschinski 1. Friends get a free ticket for this screening. Not a Friend yet? Sign up at idfa.nl/friend.

SU 19 16:00 Tuschinksi 1 Best of Fests

waking up in silence

When the Bough Breaks

Ukrainian children fleeing the war are confronted by their past as they explore their new environment in Germany: a former Wehrmacht military barracks. The camera patiently explores the terrain.

TH 9 16:00 Tuschinski 6 SA 11 13:15 Munt 13 MO 13 20:45 Munt 10 TU 14 21:30 Eye: Cinema 2 WE 15 18:30 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal Envision Competition

The Wasp and the Orchid WP

An observant portrait of a Chinese migrant family living on the margins of society and struggling to build a chance for a better future out of an existence without prospects.

Even if it’s just for one of them.

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Where Am I From?

Ana min wein?

Nouf Aljowaysir United States, Saudi Arabia, 2022, 12′ An incisive video essay in which the filmmaker, who emigrated to the US when she was 13, converses with AI about where she comes from. The answer is unclear. The technology also suffers from shortcomings and prejudices.

SA 11 19:00 Munt 13 Youth 13+ SU 12 12:45 De Balie: Grote Zaal Youth 13+ TH 16 21:15 Tuschinski 3 Youth 13+ SA 18 11:00 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal Youth 13+

La guêpe et l’orchidée Saber Zammouri Tunisia, France, 2023, 66′

In The Wasp and the Orchid, filmmaker Saber Zammouris looks at TV’s influence in rural Tunisia and tells the story of those who left their villages for France. Are they searching for the images they once saw, and do they find what they are looking for?

TH 9 21:00 Tuschinski 5 FR 10 11:15 Munt 9 TU 14 10:00 Pathé City 2 TH 16 17:30 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 FR 17 19:00 Cinema De Vlugt SU 19 10:15 Munt 10

P&I

Paradocs

We Don’t Talk Like We Used To

Joshua Gen Solondz United States, Hong Kong, Japan, 2023, 36′

In a film that is part travelogue, part psychological self-examination and part cinematic noise rock show, Joshua Gen Solondz reflects on topics such as aging, rootlessness, lust, love and art. The result is as idiosyncratic as it is overwhelming.

MO 13 21:30 Eye: Cinema 2 Paradocs Shorts TU 14 13:00 Eye: Cinema 2 Paradocs Shorts FR 17 15:45 Tuschinski 2 Paradocs Shorts SA 18 19:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

IDFA Meets

SA 18 21:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

IDFA Meets

Where God Is Not

Best of Fests

Là où Dieu n’est pas Mehran Tamadon France, 2023, 112′

Peter Mettler Switzerland, Canada, 2023, 166′ Confronted by the death of his parents and the COVID pandemic, Peter Mettler investigates the meaning of life. Through conversations with friends and meditative shots he returns to nature, where everything simply flows.

SA 11 19:15 Munt 10 SU 12 13:45 Tuschinski 5 TH 16 13:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 2 SA 18 14:00 Tuschinski 5

Who Tells the Story? IP

FR 10 14:00 Munt 13 SA 11 13:45 Munt 9 SU 12 21:30 Tuschinski 4 TH 16 14:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal SA 18 21:30 Tuschinski 3 Luminous

Signed

Joan Churchill, Alan Barker United States, 2023, 24′

Three leading activist artists exchange their views on fact and fiction. Filmmakers Haskell Wexler (Medium Cool) and Hubert Sauper (Darwin’s Nightmare), and world renowned photojournalist Susan Meiselas ask: What is truth? Who is telling the story?

SA 11 16:45 Munt 1 MO 13 11:30 Tuschinski 5 TH 16 14:00 Tuschinski 1 SA 18 11:00 Tuschinski 6 International Competition

The World Is Family EP

An intensely personal film by Indian master documentarian Anand Patwardhan. The story of his parents told through old home movies expands to encompass India’s struggle for independence and the rise of Hindu nationalism.

FR 10 11:45 Pathé City 4 SA 11 18:15 Munt 11 SU 12 13:00 Eye: Cinema 2 MO 13 15:00 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1 TU 14 10:30 Tuschinski 1 SU 19 10:00 Tuschinski 6

SA 11 19:00 Munt 13 SU 12 12:45 De Balie: Grote Zaal TH 16 21:15 Tuschinski 3 SA 18 11:00 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal

Retrospective: Wang Bing

Youth (Spring)

青春 Wang Bing France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, 2023, 212′ In this monumental documentary, Wang Bing observes the daily lives of young Chinese textile workers, who celebrate their youth and try to build a future between rattling sewing machines and messy dormitories.

TH 9 19:30 Tuschinski 2 SU 12 14:00 Munt 12 FR 17 10:30 Ketelhuis: Zaal 1

Youth 13+: Love, Your Neighbour & Another Body WP

In Love, Your Neighbour Jethro engages his neighbors through their intercoms in discussions on racial profiling and security.

And in Another Body, engineering student Taylor investigates online misogyny after discovering pornographic deepfakes of herself.

SA 11 17:00 Tuschinski 4 SU 12 12:30 Munt 13 TH 16 18:30 Cinema De Vlugt SU 19 12:45 Munt 13

Intersecting camera footage with animation, puppetry and kabary—the Malagasy oratorical art—this filmfollows Ly and his fellow villagers, and records their struggle to secure their land against the state and multinationals.

A selection of four films – Sister of Mine, Headprickles, The Sketch, and Nyanga – that offers a thought-provoking portrayal of the teenage experience, addressing topics from drug addiction to unexpected challenges, appealing to teens and adults alike.

FR 10 20:30 Munt 13 SU 12 13:00 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal WE 15 12:00 Tuschinski 3 TH 16 20:30 Eye: Cinema 2 SA 18 11:00 Tuschinski 3

FR SA FR SA

10 17:45 Tuschinski 6 11 10:15 Munt 10 17 15:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema 18 17:30 Rialto VU: Zaal 4

Youth 9-12: Extraordinary Life WP

In Girl Away from Home,a 13-year-old gymnastics champion has to flee Ukraine with her grandmother. While Nelson the Piglet confronts prejudices in his neighbourhood, and Eternal Father delves into the complexities of death with a frozen future to follow.

MO 13 14:30 Munt 12 TU 14 15:45 Tuschinski 4 FR 17 17:30 Tuschinski 4 SA 18 10:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

Youth 9-12: Figure & JessZilla WP

Figure is a two-minute exploration of a mannequin’s quest for identity. JessZilla presents an ambitious girl realising her dream through boxing and wanting to provide for her family – but who has to learn about life’s limits the hard way.

TU 14 17:30 Tuschinski 5 TH 16 11:45 Munt 10 SA 18 10:00 Rialto De Pijp: Bovenzaal SU 19 10:15 Munt 13

P&I + Talk

Youth 13+: Unfiltered Reality EP

P&I

In Where Am I From? Nouf explores origins with AI, revealing limitations in human perception and machine learning. In Boyz, a group of friends face the end of student life, openly discussing insecurities and the wish for a meaningful “first time”.

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Sitabaomba Nantenaina Lova France, Madagascar, Germany, Burkina Faso, 2023, 103′

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Youth 13+: Where Am I From? & Boyz IP

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

In a Parisian warehouse, three former political prisoners recreate the Iranian cells where they were interrogated and tortured.

This prompts the reliving of powerful experiences, intense emotions and critical questions addressed to the filmmaker.

Where Zebus Speak French IP

Signed

Vasudhaiva kutumbakam Anand Patwardhan India, 2023, 96′

危巢 Dan Ji China, 2011, 144′

TU 14 21:00 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema SU 19 09:45 IDFA Vondelpark: Cinema

Mila Zhluktenko, Daniel Asadi Faezi Germany, Ukraine, 2023, 18′

70

Top 10

While the Green Grass Grows

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary

Youth 9-12: Girls’ Stories & And a Happy New Year WP In And a Happy New Year we experience Dutch New Year’s festivities from a dog’s perspective, and in Girls’ Stories two friends, Jagoda and Zuzia, navigate puberty: a witty take on school rules, love, and girlhood.

MO 13 18:00 Tuschinski 5 TU 14 11:15 Munt 9 SA 18 14:00 Meervaart Blauwe Zaal SU 19 10:30 Tuschinski 4 Retrospective: Peter Greenaway

A Zed & Two Noughts

Peter Greenaway United Kingdom, Netherlands, 1985, 115′ Rich in symbolism, this ironic and bizarre drama follows Siamese twin brothers grieving the deaths of their wives in a car accident. Seeking to explain this apparently random event, they conduct a study of the decay of black-and-white zoo animals.

SU 12 16:30 Eye: Cinema 2 SA 18 13:45 Eye: Cinema 2 Luminous

The Zola Experience IP L’expérience Zola Gianluca Matarrese France, Italy, 2023, 105′

As Gervaise in Zola’s L’Assommoir, actress Anne deals with themes that touch her own life, such as love, divorce and feminism, crossing back and forth over the fragile dividing line between theater and reality.

SU 12 18:00 Munt 10 MO 13 21:00 De Balie: Filmzaal MO 13 21:15 Tuschinski 3 TH 16 15:30 Tuschinski 6 SA 18 15:45 Munt 9

P&I

IDFA ON STAGE & VLAAMS CULTUURHUIS DE BRAKKE GROND PRESENT:

THOMAS BELLINCK & SAID REZA ADIB Journalist Said Reza Adib and theater maker Thomas Bellinck wrote a highly personal text about how the ridges and grooves that criss-cross the skin of our fingertips determine whether boundaries open or remain closed for us.

VR 10 & ZA 11 NOV

www.brakkegrond.nl

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Location: Frascati Theater

Imagine Experience Share Europe

NEW MEDIA & PERFORMANCES Beyond the film program, IDFA explores the boundaries of the documentary art form with a selection of interactive and immersive projects and performances. Find an alphabetical overview below of all the installations, VR projects, and live events presented as part of IDFA DocLab, IDFA on Stage, and other special presentations from the program.

DocLab: Phenomenal Friction, IDFA on Stage, IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction

(this conversation is) Off the Record WP Nirit Peled Netherlands, 2023, 50′

In these interactive lectures, Nirit Peled simulates the inner workings of crime prevention algorithms, and their effect on people’s lives. Imagination and thorough research yield a question: Is it possible to capture an individual in data?

Regular ticketsale FR 10 19:00, SU 12 21:00 Brakke Grond IDFA on Stage

DocLab: Phenomenal Friction, IDFA DocLab Spotlight

Ahorse!

Wendy Gutman Netherlands, 2018, 20′

72

This richly cinematic fulldome piece presents an alternative history of human imagination, focused on our depiction of the horse from the beginning of time to a virtual future.

Presentation in DocLab Live: Microbes, Machines, and Ahorse!

TU 14 20:30 ARTIS-Planetarium IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling , DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Anouschka WP

Tamara Shogaolu Netherlands, United States, Switzerland, 2023, 30′

In this animated mixed reality game, your smartphone transports you to Bijlmermeer, the most diverse district in the Netherlands. Here you help Anouschka, a Black teenager, to uncover her family history.

On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling , DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Borderline Visible IP

À la limite du Visible Ant Hampton Turkey, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, 2023, 78′

Led by an audio track and tracing your own finger along the pages of a book of photos and text fragments, you set off on a journey from Lausanne to Izmir with two artist friends. Gradually the trip turns into a moving and troubled psychogeography.

On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond IDFA on Stage, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction, IDFA DocLab Spotlight

Borderline Visible (collective experience) IP

Ant Hampton Switzerland, Turkey, Greece, Belgium, 2023, 77′ A truly miraculous feat of non-linear storytelling, this is your chance to experience Borderline Visible collectively in an intimate theater setting, fueled with music by Oren Ambarchi and Perila.

Regular ticketsale SU 12, MO 13, WE 15 12:00 Brakke Grond IDFA on Stage

IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Buried in the Rock IP

Shehani Fernando United Kingdom, 2023, 12′

Descend into a cave with speleologists Pam and Tim Fogg. As the darkness surrounds you like a velvet blanket, they talk about unusual rocks, the dangers of their profession and the thrill of total seclusion.

Part of DocLab: VR Gallery FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Arti et Amicitae SU 19 11:30-18:00 Arti et Amicitae

IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Close IP

Hana Umeda Poland, 2023, 18′

Juitamai dance expresses the unheard stories of Japanese women without words.

It is both liberating and regulated, an accusation and at the same time a game of seduction. This VR experience pushes these contradictions to the extreme—and beyond.

DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

DocLab Exhibition: Phenomenal Friction WP

Play, discover and experience a selection of groundbreaking interactive and multi-sensory XR documentaries in the Phenomenal Friction exhibition. Register online for a free ticket.

FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond.

SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond.

DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

DocLab Live: Koyaanisqatsi Special

Special screening of Koyaanisqatsi, introduced by Godfrey Reggio and AI artist John Fitzgerald. Preceded by Charlie Shackleton’s ingenious 3D experiment Lateral, opening up hidden dimensions within classic cinema. Preceded by the world premiere of Charlie Shackleton’s ingenious 3D experiment.

WE 15 21:00 Eye: Cinema 1 DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Part of DocLab: VR Gallery FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Arti et Amicitae SU 19 11:30-18:00 Arti et Amicitae

DocLab Live: Microbes, Machines, and Ahorse!

On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond

An evening of live music and immersive art in ARTIS-Planetarium. From the smallest of creatures to artificial intelligence observing us from space, to the posthumous fulldome premiere of Wendela Scheltema’s VR film Ahorse!.

IDFA DocLab Spotlight, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Cyberfeminism Index Installation WP Mindy Seu United States, 2023, 5′

Feminists have been giving shape to cyberspace since the early days of the internet. In this indispensable index enriched with augmented reality, you can browse through their expressions of online tech activism and new media art.

On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Dance Permit (Denied) WP

Permiso para bailar (denegado) Claudix Vanesix Peru, 2023, 10′

Certain traditional dances in Peru are performed only by men. In this 360 VR performance, female-born, non-binary trans person Claudix Vanesix connects this dance with their birthplace, religion and a critique of the patriarchy.

Part of DocLab: VR Gallery FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Arti et Amicitae SU 19 11:30-18:00 Arti et Amicitae Presentation in DocLab Live: The Art of Resistance MO 13 20:30 Brakke Grond Rode Zaal IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling , DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Despelote IP Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena Ecuador, United States, 2024, 25′

An interactive, atmospheric and playful football game about city dwellers in Ecuador. Through the carefree eyes of eightyear-old Julián, everything—life at home, at school and on the city squares—revolves around the love of football.

On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond

TU 14 20:30 ARTIS-Planetarium

DocLab: Phenomenal Friction, IDFA DocLab Spotlight

Emperor

Empereur Marion Burger, Ilan Cohen France, Germany, 2023, 40′ Monochrome animations inspired by pencil drawings put you inside the brain of a person with aphasia. In this interactive VR, you experience the role of a father who has lost his speech, and the story of his daughter who is trying to communicate with him.

Part of DocLab: VR Gallery FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Arti et Amicitae SU 19 11:30-18:00 Arti et Amicitae On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond Presentation in DocLab Live: Sensory Friction SA 11 20:30 Brakke Grond Rode Zaal IDFA DocLab Spotlight, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Floating with Spirits

Juanita Onzaga Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Mexico, 2023, 30′

In this cinematic virtual reality experience set in Mexico, two young Mazatecs tell stories passed down by their grandmother, who was a shaman. Their imaginations bring to life their ancestral world, where natural spirits share their knowledge.

Part of DocLab: VR Gallery FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Arti et Amicitae SU 19 11:30-18:00 Arti et Amicitae

DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

DocLab Live: Sensory Friction

An immersive evening of artists exposing and stretching the boundaries of our individual senses and perceptions. From elusive neural mysteries to a disorienting dance wearing night-vision goggles, to hearing artificial voices in our heads.

SA 11 20:30 de Brakke Grond: Rode Zaal DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

DocLab Live: The Art of Resistance WP

Without resistance, there can be no movement. And without friction, no brilliance.

Live showcase of artists embracing the power of friction in art, technology and disruptive human interactions.

MO 13 20:30 de Brakke Grond: Rode Zaal DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

DocLab: VR Gallery WP

Discover a selection of the best new virtual reality films and experiences from the DocLab: Phenomenal Friction program. Your ticket gives you 50 minutes to experience various VR projects of your choice.

FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Arti et Amicitae SU 19 11:30-18:00 Arti et Amicitae

IDFA DocLab Spotlight, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Fresh Memories: The Look

Ondrej Moravec, Volodymyr Kolbasa Ukraine, Czech Republic, 2023, 10′

Inspired by Marina Abramović’s performance “The Artist Is Present,” this VR experience places you face-to-face with residents of the devastated Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, as they stare at you in silence, amid the ruins of their homes or workplaces.

Part of DocLab: VR Gallery FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Arti et Amicitae SU 19 11:30-18:00 Arti et Amicitae IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Going Back Home: Mother VR WP

Volver a casa: madre VR Catalina Alarcón Chile, 2023, 20′

Chilean women in prison have limited contact with their family and children. This VR experience shows how a handful of women behind bars get a brief opportunity to stand beside their children in virtual reality.

Part of DocLab: VR Gallery FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Arti et Amicitae SU 19 11:30-18:00 Arti et Amicitae On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond Presentation in DocLab Live: The Art of Resistance MO 13 20:30 Brakke Grond Rode Zaal

IDFA on Stage

Natalie’s Trifecta WP Natalie Paneng South Africa, 2023, 30′

Frank Scheffer Netherlands, 2023, 100′

A lyrical fusion of excerpts from Frank Scheffer’s upcoming documentary on Syrian clarinettist/composer Kinan Azmeh and live performances by Azmeh and mezzosoprano Dima Orsho, reshaping the narrative of contemporary Syria.

SA 11 20:30 ITA: Rabozaal

IDFA on Stage NTR Avond van de Wolf

Knit’s Island

Best of Fests

Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L’helgoualc’h France, 2023, 95′

In an entirely virtual, post-apocalyptic game world, the filmmakers talk to the people behind the digital avatars. From death squad member to church leader to solitary wanderer.

FR 10 17:15 Tuschinski 4 + Talk SU 12 21:15 Tuschinski 6 WE 15 13:30 Tuschinski 2 SA 18 10:00 Eye: Cinema 1 Tomorrow’s Classics IDFA Special, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction, IDFA DocLab Spotlight

Koyaanisqatsi Godfrey Reggio

Part of DocLab: VR Gallery FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Arti et Amicitae SU 19 11:30-18:00 Arti et Amicitae IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling , DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Offset: Boiler Room WP Sam Lavigne, Tega Brain United States, 2023, 8′

Offset: Boiler Room, a call-center-like installation developed by artists Tega Brain and Sam Lavigne, offers a critical look at existing carbon compensation schemes and engages participants in direct action.

On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond Presentation in DocLab Live: The Art of Resistance MO 13 20:30 Brakke Grond Rode Zaal

One Two IP

United States, 1982, 86′ This classic, groundbreaking visual essay about people, nature and technology is awe-inspiring and hypnotic in both image and sound. Nature is vast. Humans build, drive, travel, work, swarm and struggle until they can go no further.

Presentation in DocLab Live: Koyaanisqatsi Special WO 15 21:00 Eye: Cinema 1 Regular screening SU 19 11:00 Eye: Cinema 2

Ben Mullinkosson, Bobby Moser, Gennady Baranov China, United States, Russia, 2023, 120′

An Amsterdam dance event brings to life the underground techno scene of Chengdu, China, as seen in The Last Year of Darkness. Featuring DJs and a drag performer from Chengdu, alongside the film’s editor creating a live version of the film to the beats.

IDFA on Stage

DocLab: Phenomenal Friction, IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling

Lateral WP Charlie Shackleton United Kingdom, 2023, 11′

Non-fiction filmmaker Charlie Shackleton experiments with a way of creating visual depth in tracking shots without using 3D film techniques. In this VR lecture he reveals this unsuspected and exciting new layer in the medium of film.

Part of DocLab: VR Gallery FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Arti et Amicitae SU 19 11:30-18:00 Arti et Amicitae On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond Presentation in DocLab Live: Koyaanisqatsi Special WE 15 21:00 Eye IDFA on Stage

The Lingering Now, Our Odyssey II O agora que demora Christiane Jatahy Brazil, 2019, 120′

Brazilian writer, theater-maker and filmmaker Christiane Jatahy takes Homer’s famous epic The Odyssey as the starting point for this performance, in search of our own Odyssey. Are we in the theatre, a cinema or a concert?

IDFA on Stage IDFA on Stage

Shadowtime

Sister Sylvester, Deniz Tortum Netherlands, United States, Turkey, 2023, 18′

A VR journey takes you from the first virtual object to the latest AI creations, posing the question: Is VR an escape from real-world problems like the climate crisis, or can it teach us to live simultaneously in two apparently incompatible shadowtimes?

Special VR Installation, regular ticket sales FR 10 to SA 18 10:30-19:30 Eye SU 19 10:30-18:00 Eye IDFA on Stage

Simple as ABC #7: The Voice of Fingers

De stem van vingers Thomas Bellinck Belgium, Germany, Finland, 2023, 95′ Why is one person allowed to travel freely and the other not? In a multimedia performance, a Belgian artist and an Afghan journalist based in Finland consider the fingerprint as an instrument of control and a symbol of inequality.

FR 10 20:30 Frascati 1 SA 11 20:30 Frascati 1

IDFA on Stage IDFA on Stage

IDFA on Stage

Spectral Transmissions: Love Bends Time WP

IDFA on Stage, IDFA DocLab Spotlight, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Tuning Room WP Michael Bucuzzo Netherlands, 2023, 50′

Are our lives so completely defined by film and television that media define our reality, making humanity in fact superfluous? This is the question Michael Bucuzzo poses in his performative lecture encompassing three experimental films.

SU 12 20:30 De Balie: Grote Zaal IDFA on Stage SA 18 20:30 Eye: Cinema 2 IDFA on Stage IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Turbulence: Jamais Vu WP Ben Joseph Andrews, Emma Roberts Australia, 2023, 10′

In this mixed reality work, you experience with a VR headset what it is like when reality suddenly seems new and different.

How does this feeling of disorientation and alienation affect your image of your environment, of the material world, of yourself?

On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond Presentation in DocLab Live: Sensory Friction SA 11 20:30 Brakke Grond Rode Zaal IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

The Vivid Unknown WP

Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher United States, 2023, 70′

John Fitzgerald United States, 2023, 20′

Audience participants in this immersive dance performance are plunged into the life cycle of humans as social animals. Take part in a primeval ritual involving nothing more than music, rhythmic breathing and a little smoke.

An evening of deliciously spooky tales.

Rather than focusing on horror, the filmmakers, musicians and storytellers in this cinematic performance share their unconventional ghost stories exploring the unfathomable, sometimes uncanny power of love.

What happens when you feed an AI system the groundbreaking 1982 documentary Koyaanisqatsi? This interactive installation, shaped by the past and the actions of visitors, is a reflection on the consequences of AI in the near future.

IDFA on Stage

IDFA on Stage

IDFA DocLab Spotlight, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Christian Bakalov Bulgaria, 2023, 50′

Regular ticketsale SA 11 to MO 13 Arti et Amicitae

The Last Year of Darkness – Live Edit Party WP

TU 14 20:00 ITA: Rabozaal WE 15 20:00 ITA: Rabozaal

In this VR experience, South African multi-disciplinary artist Natalie Paneng invites you into the three worlds that make up her artistic practice: a virtual gallery, her studio and the playful dream world that fuels her work.

IDFA on Stage, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction, IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction

Life Out of Balance

SA 11 22:00-05:00 kanaal40

IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Presentation in DocLab Live: Sensory Friction SA 11 20:30 Brakke Grond Rode Zaal DocLab: Phenomenal Friction, IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling

PHANTOM IP Aluta Null South Africa, 2021, interactive

Black humor may be the best weapon against the slippery emotions you experience if you’re struggling with mental health problems or addiction. This interactive experience tries to provide insight into these complex issues using AR. On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Redemption WP

Redenção Mariana Luiza Brazil, France, 2023, 20′ In this immersive installation, creator Mariana Luiza critiques Brazil’s racial whitening ideology throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, offering a poetic, counter-colonial reading of the painting Ham’s Redemption.

On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond Presentation in DocLab Live: The Art of Resistance MO 13 20:30 Brakke Grond Rode Zaal IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling , DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

The School, a World WP Szkoła, świat Iga Łapińska Poland, 2023, 45′

This interactive web documentary transports you to Chlebiotki, a village in Poland.

You see how much has changed, and why the school is empty. Eight residents talk about their lives, their dreams. Look around and let them win your heart.

On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond

IDFA on Stage IDFA on Stage

On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond

IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling , DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Presentation in DocLab Live: Microbes, Machines, and Ahorse!

TU 14 20:30 ARTIS-Planetarium

TU 14 20:30 Frascati 1 WE 15 20:30 Frascati 1

Squeeker: The Mouse Coach IP

Jiabao Li United States, 2023, interactive

Run with Squeeker—a running program, app, and interactive installation. Running with your mouse coach earns you scroll distance on social media and treats for your coach. Match your mouse coach’s daily half-marathon, one paw at a time!

On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Texada WP

Josephine Anderson, Claire Sanford Canada, 2023, 17′ “How big is time?” In and around the quarries on the Canadian island of Texada, this virtual reality documentary juxtaposes two dimensions of time: the human and the geological.

Part of DocLab: VR Gallery FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Arti et Amicitae SU 19 11:30-18:00 Arti et Amicitae IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Traversing the Mist WP Tung-Yen CHOU Taiwan, 2023, 30′

Step into the body of a young Taiwanese man and wander the red-lit corridors of a surreal gay sauna populated by naked men with identical faces. An erotic labyrinth in spacious animated VR. Regular ticket sale FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 in Arti et Amicitae SU 19 11:30-18:00 in Arti et Amicitae Presentation in DocLab Live: The Art of Resistance MO 13 20:30 Brakke Grond Rode Zaal

Presentation in DocLab Live: Koyaanisqatsi Special WE 15 21:00 Eye IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling , DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Voice in My Head WP

Kyle McDonald, Lauren McCarthy United States, 2023, 60′

An interactive installation in which ChatGPT becomes a voice in your head to influence your social reality. The chatbot listens in on your conversations and responds. And if you’re at a loss, it offers plenty of knowledge for you to draw on.

Regular ticket sale FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond Presentation in DocLab Live: Sensory Friction SA 11 20:30 Brakke Grond Rode Zaal IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction, DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

William Quail’s Pyramid WP Piotr Winiewicz, Constant Dullaart Netherlands, Denmark, 2023, 35′

A soundtrack, suggestive visuals, a conversation and a lot of inconsistency—this installation evokes a type of technological aphasia, stimulating our brain to ascribe emotional value to an AI speaking in tongues.

Regular ticket sale FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling , DocLab: Phenomenal Friction

Yugo: the non-game IP

Petrit Hoxha Kosovo, Germany, 2022, 20′

Making social contact is an important motive for many gamers. In this “non-game,” you experience the same connections without having to actually play. Calmly drive through a twilit landscape while voice-chatting with fellow players logged in elsewhere.

On show in DocLab Exhibition FR 10 to SA 18 11:30-20:30 Brakke Grond SU 19 11:30-18:00 Brakke Grond

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Intensely Soulful: Docu-Concert WP

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EDITORIAL COLOPHON Roxy Merrell (Industry Editor), Isabel Arrate Fernandez (Deputy Director, Executive Director IDFA Bertha Fund), Orwa Nyrabia (Artistic Director), Adriek van Nieuwenhuijzen (Head of Industry), Laura Das (Communication Project Manager), Martine van Duijn (Head of Marketing, Communication and Press), Wood Lin, Melissa Thackway, Niki Padidar, Simon(e) van Saarloos, Joost Broeren, Keisha Knight, Wouter Jansen, Petra Czisch-Lataster, Peter Lataster (Writers), Theo Imhoff, Emiel Efdée (Designers), Ellen Bannink (Development Coordinator), Martijn van Dijk (Head of Development), Lies Bruines (Industry Guest Services Manager), Laurien van Houten (Industry Manager), Antigoni Papantoni, Ayumi Filippone (Industry Producers), Sasja Koetsier (Filmdescription Coördinator), Mark Baker (Copy Editor), Joost Daamen (Head of Program), Laura van Halsema (Senior Programmer), Eveline Kaethoven (Program Coördinator), Sarah Dawson (Programmer), Ron Ma (Program Producer), Nina van Doren (New Media Research & Communication), Yvonne Djissi (DocLab Festival Producer), Caspar Sonnen (Head of New Media), Sevara Pan (Web Editor).

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THIS PUBLICATION WAS MADE WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY: