No, the Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI) won’t be holding their usual soirée during IDFA at which it plies festival guests with wee drams of whisky. Covid restrictions have meant that SDI representatives, like other international industry delegates, can’t be in Amsterdam in person.
“It’s so loved by everybody, including ourselves,” SDI Founder and Director Noe Mendelle says of the traditional whisky evening, which will be much missed this year. “It’s always a good experience to try out new whiskies and share experiences with filmmakers from around the world. Not this year, I am afraid…”
Nonetheless, there will still be a strong Scottish presence at the festival. Ten filmmakers have virtual accreditations under the SDI banner.
The Institute produced Let My Body Speak, Syrian director Madonna Adib’s short film screening this week in IDFA’s Luminous section. Adib’s work revolves around “queerness, body and women.” In the film, she chronicles the repression and sexual control she faced during her own youth in Syria. Mendelle produced the doc which has been developed through workshops that SDI has been staging with the British Council.
The Scottish Documentary Institute runs the Edinburgh Pitch for a dozen international doc projects every summer. The SDI Director has therefore been looking this week at how IDFA’s online Forum worked.
“Last June, we had to do it [the Edinburgh pitch] online. It has been really interesting to observe how the online pitching forums have evolved,” Mendelle says. “We’ve got a feeling that come next June, when our Edinburgh Pitch will happen again, at best it will be hybrid. At worst, it will be back online. So it’s always good to see how other festivals and bigger markets are dealing with it and building their experience.”
Several successful projects in recent years have passed through the Edinburgh Pitch, which is becoming an increasingly prominent industry event. For example, Feras Fayyad’s Oscar nominated The Cave was in Edinburgh in 2018. Lars Edman and William Johansson Kalé’s new doc Arica, a world premiere in IDFA Frontlight, with sales handled by Lightdox, was also an Edinburgh pitch in 2017.
“There’s a lot of generosity both in terms of advice and finance,” Mendelle says of the goodwill toward the event.
Mendelle, an experienced documentary director and producer, has been attending IDFA ever since the festival started, 33 years ago. She has spent 16 years growing the SDI, which she formed in 2004. Last year, the Institute was given charitable status. This has enabled the organisation to raise funds more easily.
One important ongoing campaign is the 50:50 initiative. At present, only 16% of Scotland’s feature documentaries are directed by women. The aim is to even out gender numbers by 2025. SDI is also raising money to address this glaring lack of equality. “The fund raising at this stage is about helping, nurturing and supporting female filmmakers in Scotland,” Mendelle suggests.
The long-term goal is to set up a production fund for female filmmakers in Scotland. While female directors are currently directing short documentaries in significant numbers, such a fund should make it far easier for them to “take that leap” to feature filmmaking. SDI will also be “putting pressure” on funders and broadcasters so that they question their own commissioning processes.
In reaction to Covid-19, SDI has shifted most of its activities online. Along with the isolation and upheaval, there have been benefits. “With some of the savings that we were making in travelling, we actually created new ways of keeping our filmmakers connected.”
One successful initiative is the regular SDI online morning coffee which brings together Scottish documentary makers with special guests. “It meant we all connected at least once a week and kept planning and developing ideas,” Mendelle says. Doc industry heavyweights who “wouldn’t normally have time to travel, to come and give a masterclass” have given talks and masterclasses.
Participants have included IDFA’s creative director, Orwa Nyrabia, BAFTA-nominated producer, Elhum Shakerifar, and Toni Kamau (Softie, I am Samuel), the youngest female African documentary producer to be invited as a member of the Academy for Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
