IDFA 2023

The Ukrainian/German filmmaker team were making a feature documentary about the former US military base at Schweinfurt in mid-Germany when it was re-purposed in Spring 2022 to house displaced mothers and children who had fled the war in Ukraine. In their poignantly titled short doc, in equal part playful and melancholic, we see the world through the eyes of the children now living on the compound. The filmmakers talk to BDE.

IDFA paid tribute this week to NFTS doc luminary Dick Fontaine, who died unexpectedly last month, with a screening of his 1982 film I Heard It Through The Grapevine, which features author James Baldwin. “It was the most sudden news because we wanted to celebrate Dick Fontaine. We planned to invite him and have him with us - but then he passed away,” IDFA director Orwa Nyrabia tells Business Doc Europe. “It [the screening] became much more like a posthumous tribute, a way of raising our hat to him.”

Dutch director Festus Toll discusses his provocative short film which tells the story of Ne Kuko, a 19th Century chieftain in Boma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who was duped into passing his land over to an unscrupulous Belgian colonialist. The film also appeals for the return of stolen objects, some of enormous spiritual value, from the museums of Europe.

US director Matthew Heineman (Cartel Land, The First Wave) was in Amsterdam during IDFA this weekend. He gave a Q&A following a Soho House screening of his new feature doc American Symphony (available globally on Netflix on 29 November) that follows the Grammy and Oscar winning musical maestro Jon Batiste as he composes a major new work. Heineman also spoke to Business Doc Europe about the film.

At IDFA, BDE caught up with Ted Hope, one of the towering figures of US indie film over the last 30 years and producer of Invisible Nation, directed by his partner Vanessa Hope and about Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen. He discussed the new film as well as his career to date, including his time as head of production at Amazon Original Movies. “If I had to say what did I do really well in my time at Amazon, I’d say it was to fight for time for the filmmakers. Every time we did that, it made the movie better.”

In an open letter co-signed by 46 Ukrainian film professionals, Docudays UA expressed its “disappointment and serious concern about the presence of films made in Russia and by Russian authors in the [IDFA] programmes” in 2023. The letter further cited the names of Ukrainian film professionals who have died in 2022–2023 as a direct result of the Russian war in Ukraine.

Rise and Shine World Sales has announced the acquisition of the IDFA International Competition doc Selling A Colonial War by Korean-Dutch director In-Soo Radstake. The film world premieres November 11 at the Royal Theatre Carré. The film “exposes the Dutch government's narrative during the Indonesian War of Independence,” the filmmakers note.

Beautifully composed and superbly edited, the film portrays one of the last crop farmers in The Netherlands, plying his trade in the shadow of giant multinationals. The effect of the documentary is profound. You want to share this rare gem of a man, his philosophy and life, with as many people as possible, but at the same time keep himto yourself, cherish him and guard him.

Four Polish docs-in-progress, all made by female directors, were presented November 13 to the great and the good of the international documentary sector. Two are by debutants (Julia Kuzka and Natalia Pietsch) while two are by established filmmakers (Agnieszka Zwiefka and Malgorzata Szumowska). KFF Sales & Promotion is also selling Girl’s Stories by Aga Borzym, which premiered at IDFA Youth Competition.

Louisiana Mees-Fongang’s feature doc debut concerns 15 unaccompanied minors living in a community centre who arrived in Belgium as refugees. “Part of their reality is complex and hard. They had tough moments. But, at the same time, they’re young, active and full of energy and potential. This is also something I really found important to show,” the director tells Business Doc Europe.