A 5-day training initiative designed to strengthen the children’s doc sector kicked off November 17 at IDFA, with a cohort of 15 filmmakers from across Germany, Flanders, Poland, and the Netherlands.
The filmmakers, selected for their ‘demonstrable passion for making and promoting docs for children,’ will attend a series of screenings, workshops and personal tutoring at the Goethe Institute Amsterdam. The programme package also gives attendees free entry to selected IDFA youth screenings, as well as access to industry events.
Participants will work closely with mentors Niki Padidar and Martijn Blekendaal, alongside guest experts Katharina Bergfeld and Luc-Caroline Ziemann, and gain access to the Current Future program, showcasing films that expand the field of youth documentary. Furthermore, guest experts Katharina Bergfeld (Producer, Ma.ja.de) and Luc-Caroline Ziemann (Author, Scriptwriter, Consultant, Media Educator and Curator) will be on hand throughout.
The D4K-Alliance is organised by DOXS RUHR (Germany) and the Forum für Kultur und Bildung Leipzig (Germany), and works in cooperation with IDFA. Its stated aim to ‘foster international co-productions, encourage mutual exchange within the industry, and strengthen the children’s documentary genre as a whole.’
On November 20, the program also includes a Meeting & Exchange Session for professionals (14:00–17:00 at The Goethe Institute).
The inaugural cohort of 15 filmmakers attending this week are:
- Agnieszka Kudelska (Producer, Director). Graduate in screenwriting at WFDiF in Warsaw and Studio Prob at the Wajda School. For over a decade she has been producing and directing Polish language versions of films and TV series.
- Tanja Bächlein and Arne Bunk are filmmakers/artists based in Hamburg. Both studied at the University of Fine Arts. Their collaboration began with the short essay film Your Places. Sketches of German Colonial Architecture in Namibia (15 min, Germany 2014). In 2018, they founded the non-profit association bild+begegnung, where children and youth explore their surroundings using film, photography, and sound.
- Bettina Timm (Director, Producer) studied documentary filmmaking at HFF in Munich and founded the companyPelle Film during her studies. In 2008, she received the Lola for Cosmic Station as Best German Short Film. She is a member of the German Film Academy.
- Eva Gemmer (Filmmaker, Author) Since 2019, she has been studying documentary film and television journalism at the HFF Munich. Her films have been screened at numerous festivals and have received several awards. So far, her work has focused mainly on topics of coming of age, sexuality and sex education. She is currently developing her graduation film and also works as a film educator and presenter.
- Filip Jacobson (Artist, Filmmaker, DOP) studied in Poland at the University of Lodz and the Gdynia Film School, followed by postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, spent a semester at the EICTV in Cuba and participated in several renowned film workshops such as EsoDoc, GoShort Talent Campus, Polska Doc, and Berlinale Talent Campus. For his short film Patrioctic Lesson, he received the Golden Dove at DOK Leipzig in 2016.
- Geertje Hadderingh (Director)
graduated from the Utrecht School of the Arts in 2023. Her graduation film Voor Jullie was screened at festivals including Go Short and the Netherlands Film Festival. Her work focuses on socially urgent themes, with a strong interest in stories about human connection. At the heart of her filmmaking lies a commitment to sincerity. - Jules Mathôt (Director, Producer) graduated from KASK School of Arts Gent with Night by Night(2021), which premiered at the 48th edition of Film Fest Gent. In 2024, Jules finished In the Palm of My Hand, a co-creative experiment that brings together footage made by 41 participants in collaboration with Cinemaximiliaan, a Brussels-based organisation that supports newcomers.
- Magdalena Wichrowska (Director) is an assistant professor at the Department of Audiovisual Studies (Bydgoszcz, Poland), scriptwriter, author of bookTruth as a Problem of Poetics in Polish Documentary Film after 1989. She was a finalist and winner of screenwriting contests – Script Fiesta, Script Wars and Gdańsk Script. She is currently developing her debut documentary Goodbye Dolls.
- Nina de Vriendt (Director, Researcher) In 2019, she directed her first youth documentary, Bro-time (Levy Productions)—a personal story about her single father and her 10-year-old half-brother Niek. In 2020, she released her second youth documentary, Semi Divorced (Cerutti Film/EO), which premiered at the Cinekid Festival in Amsterdam. Nina is currently developing a 3-part youth documentary series in collaboration with filmmaker Yaël van der Schelde, production company Mooie Nel, and broadcaster VPRO. In the series teens reflect on a crime they have committed.
- Nina Payrhuber (Producer) is a young and ambitious producer who has been part of Associate Directors of since 2022. With a background as historian, she has diverse production and research experience. As young producer she was selected to participate in IDFAcademy 2022 and INTRO:DOX 2024 (CPH:DOX). Since 2022, she has also been working as an impact producer for both internal and external impact campaigns, affiliated with the Flemish initiative Filmpact.
- Noa Meli (Student, Director) studied environmental sciences at ETH Zurich. Their bachelor’s thesis was a short film on an environmental conflict in Canada, The Island Business (2017). After traveling and working two years for NGOs in Switzerland and in Ecuador, they started a directing degree at Film University Babelsberg. They are focusing on personal documentaries and shifts in perspectives, finishing their graduation film in December 2025.
- Pola Rader (Director) studied Film Studies at the FU Berlin and earned an MFA in Documentary Film under Professor Pepe Danquart at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg. Founder of the production company NAVERNA she creates experimental films for children and adults, exploring innovative visual approaches. Her short films have received international recognition through awards and festival screenings.
- Sandra Trostel (Director) is an independent filmmaker, digital storyteller and researcher based in Hamburg (DE). Her works have been presented at international festivals, in cinemas, on television and in exhibitions and have been awarded various prizes. She is also involved in theater projects and performances, leads workshops, gives lectures on her work and teaches at various colleges and universities.
- Sarah Van Dale (Director, Editor, Writer) graduated as a master in audiovisual arts from the KASK in Ghent in 2003. Her short filmLove Machine played at several festivals including Clermont-Ferrand. She set up her own small creative production company called Sarazon Creative. With this, she and her husband Jeremiah Persyn continue to work on various creative projects. In 2022, she made the short filmExtraordinary with which she received the prize of the international jury for best documentary at the Jef festival in Antwerp.
- Selle Inti Sellink (Director, Sound Designer) is a Dutch-Peruvian sound designer and emerging film director. Founder of ‘still sound design’ he has created sound for award-winning films while developing his own voice as director. His current project, Tussen twee werelden (Between Two Worlds), is a poetic youth documentary following three young newcomers at an international transition class in Zaanstad.
Applicants for future D4K-Alliance Youth Doc Training programs can make contact with the following personel:
- Germany Anne Rethfeldt, DAE: Gudrun Sommer, DOXS RUHR
- Flanders / The Netherlands Meike Statema, IDFA: Signe Zeilich-Jensen
- Poland Karolina Śmigiel, The Wajda Film Center/LET’S DOC; Viola Gabrielli, Young Horizons
