IDFA 24

Martijn Blekendaal, whose The Man Who Looked Beyond the Horizon won the IDFA Special Jury Award for Children's Documentary in 2018, discusses the (super)heroic qualities required to remain invisible. “I grew up in a white environment where I always really stood out. I wanted to be invisible. Later, I realized that this desire is a ‘luxury problem’ compared to children who are forced to be invisible because they’re in hiding, being abused, or smuggled across borders,” he says.

What’s in a name? A lot, if you’re called John Smith, and you’ve developed, over the past 70-plus years, a psychological complex about bearing Britain’s most common name. In the very amusing Being John Smith, a recent winner at DOK Leipzig, the viewer is invited inside the mind of the eponymous director to understand what it is like to live with that curse. “Being called John Smith still undermines my sense of individuality and self-worth on an almost daily basis,” the director laments to BDE.

The fascinating subject of well-educated Kenyans making money writing essays for Western undergraduates and doctoral students is investigated with a distinctly personal touch by sociologist Patricia Kingori, the youngest female black professor in the 925-year history of the University of Oxford. With so many opportunities for ‘contract cheating,’ what is the true value of education, she asks.

In her latest American-themed doc, Auberi Edler ventures to Elizabethtown in Pennsylvania, a community that reveals in microcosm the huge divisions between liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, that exist across the US. “I wanted to understand what was happening at ground level, if I can use that expression; to be within a community, and I felt that the best way to understand what was causing the fracture was to follow an election, in my case the school board election.”

Afghan women are suffering terribly under the rule of the Taliban. But, as is clear in Zainab Entezar’s exhilarating documentary, a small group is fighting back - despite harsh repercussions. The film, shot by some of these brave women, takes you right into the heart of resistance. One can only hope this remarkable, heartfelt cry for freedom will get the attention it deserves.

“The subject of propaganda was one of the most interesting things for me. I wanted to go deeper into that…” Dutch director Luuk Bouwman underlines of his new film, selected for IDFA International Competition. The Propagandist profiles Dutch filmmaker Jan Teunissen (1898-1975) who, during the Nazi era, was called the “czar” of the Dutch film industry, and who boasted of personal friendships with the likes of Goebbels.

Anaïs Clanet of French sales company Reservoir Docs fills in BDE on her IDFA 2024 slate. While many films on her slate are selling well, other rapturously received films are proving a lot harder to shift. “It’s an extremely difficult period because public television does not buy a lot,” says Clanet. “I am being nice and kind saying that, because they pretty much buy nothing.”

At IDFA 2024, we caught up with Renko Douze, producer of Tom Fassaert’s Forum project Between Brothers. The pic follows two elderly brothers - one a psychologist, the other a lifelong psychiatric patient - who set out to unravel the mystery of their father’s disappearance. Their son and nephew is filmmaker Fassaert, who joins them on a tragicomic road trip, untangling the roots of their inseparable bond. “Fassaert’s films are renowned for their emotional depth and intimacy,” Douze tells BDE.

Simone van den Broek, documentary consultant at the Netherlands Film Fund, is in typically upbeat mood on the eve of this year’s IDFA that sees two Dutch features in International Competition. “From our perspective as a fund and, in general, as supporters of the Dutch documentary industry, I think this is a very interesting year with great Dutch films,” she enthuses.

The 2024 IDFA Forum Awards were announced November 20 with Ibrahim Omar’s project Dry Sky winning the IDFA Forum Award for Best Pitch. Lana Y. Daher’s Do You Love Me picked up the Forum Award for Best Rough Cut, while the DocLab Forum Award went to Amorphous by May Abdalla. The new Producers Connection Award was won by Yara Costa for Looking for the Mermaid. Each award includes a cash prize of €1,500.