IDFA has announced first details of its 2021 edition, delivering acclaimed filmmakers Hito Steyerl and Artavazd Pelechian to the Amsterdam public alongside programs celebrating their work. The festival will also pay homage to renowned Dutch filmmaker Johan van der Keuken, marking the 25th anniversary of his masterly Amsterdam Global Village.
Guest of Honour Hito Steyerl
Renowned filmmaker and writer Hito Steyerl will attend IDFA 2021 as the festival’s Guest of Honor. She will curate a Top 10 program of films that have influenced her and will give a Filmmaker Talk in Amsterdam’s Pathé Tuschinski cinema.
The prolific filmmaker and writer, whose work spans documentary film, video installation, performative lectures and academic essays, is known for her darkly ironic cultural critiques of contemporary reality, say festival organisers. Having exhibited at leading art institutions such as the Venice Biennale, documenta 12, ICA, and MoMA, the Berlin-based artist is best known for her pivotal video works How Not to Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File, In Free Fall, Liquidity Inc. and Factory of the Sun, among many others.
“Throughout her work, Steyerl’s politically engaged art practice critically explores the fantastical nature of our capitalist reality today. Through her singular works, Steyerl invites viewers to enter digitally mediated worlds that are entirely real—in the process reflecting on our own complex world and our position in it,” the festival underlines.
An innovator of the essay documentary, Steyerl returns to IDFA no less than 23 years after screening her incisive graduation film Die leere Mitte, which was then met with embarrassed silence. Details of Steyerl’s Top 10 program will be announced on September 21.
Artavazd Pelechian Retrospective and Lifetime Achievement Award
The 34th edition of the festival will also present a retrospective of the great Armenian filmmaker Artavazd Pelechian, honouring him with a rarely bestowed Lifetime Achievement Award.
“With a momentous body of work that cuts to the very heart of cinema, the films of Artavazd Pelechian are at once revelatory and revolutionary, lyrically weaving together sound, light, motion, and texture to create experiential masterpieces on celluloid,” IDFA writes. A prodigal figure in the heyday of Soviet filmmaking, Pelechian’s work first graced Western screens in the 1980s, garnering praise from luminaries such as Jean-Luc Godard and Patti Smith, yet his films remain rarely shown to this day.
The ten-film oeuvre stretches from the early 1960s through to today, “touching on the terrific beauty of our natural and constructed worlds through his characteristic distance montage editing technique.” Throughout Pelechian’s life work, which spanned films of various lengths, his art transcended boundaries of documentary and fiction to create a truly cinematic form akin to visual poetry or music. Now, after 27 years away from the public eye, the visionary returns with a prayer to nature in his new film La Nature, set to have its European premiere at IDFA with Pelechian in attendance.
25th anniversary of Amsterdam Global Village
In recognition of the late documentary icon Johan van der Keuken, IDFA will present a curated program inspired by Amsterdam Global Village, one of the most influential films of the Dutch documentary tradition.
“A quarter of a century after its release, Van der Keuken’s lyrical four-hour masterpiece remains more relevant than ever for filmmakers and film lovers alike, offering a poignant yet timeless lens to explore today’s urban landscape. Hailed for its empathetic, refreshing, and urgent approach in telling the personal stories of Amsterdammers of all cultural backgrounds, Amsterdam Global Village serves as the starting point for a curated Focus Program at IDFA 2021. “Festivalgoers can anticipate a cinematic exploration of the colonial past and its continued relevance; how our cities are shaped by that history; and a deep dive into a world built on many injustices and our challenges in facing it.”
IDFA will take place from November 17 to 28 2021 in Amsterdam.
