IDFA 2023

Italian producer Edoardo Fracchia explains his collaboration with Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri on her dynamic debut feature doc Amor. “We had a deal: to find a compromise between her experimental, short-orientated mode of filmmaking and my experience on working on more popular, mainstream features. [The idea was] to create an intelligible project, which could attract financing but still be ambitious.”

During the Iran-Iraq war, Iranian movies were melted down and the silver removed to help the war effort. This is one of the historical details included in Ehsan Khoshbakht’s feature documentary Celluloid Underground, on which UK sales agent Impronta Films is launching sales at IDFA. The London-based Iranian filmmaker explains more to Business Doc Europe.

Ingrid Kamerling’s new documentary discusses one of the most emotive and divisive topics of our times, that of the guidance and medical treatment offered to kids suffering from gender dysphoria. “We hope that it helps the debate in Holland and in other countries so that people can get more informed, so they can see how complex [this issue is and how careful we must be,” says the Dutch director.

At IDFA 2023, Business Doc Europe talked to Luke Moody, Head of the BFI Doc Society Fund. “If you’re always sitting in a white tower, distant from the community you’re supposed to be serving, then you will never understand your connection with them and they won’t understand their opportunity to be in dialogue with you,” he explained of his approach to task of supporting UK docmakers.

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.

Jagoda and Zuzia, two smart, articulate and very funny young Polish teenagers talk about life as they see it in Aga Borzym’s charming doc selected for IDFA Youth Competition. “Generally, Polish documentaries like to show really tough topics,” says the director, “It’s not so [usual] to have a documentary where the protagonists are kids.”

It’s like The Apprentice, but on steroids. But unlike that Trumpian gift to television, the candidates in Piet Baumgartner’s The Driven Ones are seriously smart (potential) entrepreneurs. In the film we meet five students on the world-renowned Masters program at the Swiss University of St. Gallen. But student life accounts for a mere quarter of the film. Because Baumgartner then follows his subjects into the wider world to see how they put theory into practice. The director gets down to business with BDE.

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.

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.

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.