Things We Said Today by Andrei Ujica
IDFA Head of Industry Adriek van Nieuwenhuyzen talks to Business Doc Europe about a Forum 2020 that not only catapults new projects towards funding and realisation, but also enables existing doc projects to engage in the type of necessary interaction they have been denied by the pandemic.
IDFA Forum has compiled a highly diverse programme in 2020 that includes 63 projects, 20 of which are new premiere pitches. DocLab Forum accounts for 15 projects, while a further three new projects are in the ‘Children’s Pitch’ category.
What’s more, fifteen projects continue their journey from other co-production events (4 of which are DocLab projects). “We feel that it is has been so hard this year for filmmakers and producers to keep a project going,” says IDFA Head of Industry Adriek van Nieuwenhuyzen. “Usually there is a pitch then follow-ups and co-production agreements at later physical markets, but as that is not happening this year we decided to have an extra slate of films for one-on-one meetings only. These are very strong, mature and rich projects, and there was a lot of strong competition for selection in this pool.”
Projects includes Draw for Change! (Clin d’Oeil Films, Belgium), the multi-director series about, and with, female cartoonists who use their drawings to empower women and strive for gender equality, and Queen of Chess, Gabor Harmi’s study of female grandmaster Judit Polgar (Hungary).
Van Nieuwenhuyzen refers to core slate of 20 new projects as “remarkable” and points to its diversity, both in geographical and subject terms. “We have strong films from Latin America, also a great film from Romania (Things We Said Today by Andrei Ujica – think New York, think 1965, think The Beatles) and of course Scandinavia is always very strong,” she says. To these can be added Afghanistan and, for the first time at Forum, Kenya (Testament, by Meena Nanji, Zippy Kimundu).
The Forum chief reserves special mention (something which she finds it uncomfortable to do, as each project is selected on merit) for three Latin American titles. “Germano Black Society by Everlan Moraes from Brazil and Alis (Nicolas van Hemelryck, Clare Weiskopf) are very important films taking a very brave approach to very important topics, reflecting on matters of great importance in the world, but also particularly in their society at moment.”
She also enthuses about Brazilian/Dutch Maria Ramos’s Justice Under Suspicion, a Brazil/France/Netherlands production, whose logline reads how
“Brazil is flirting with fascism. Three journalists from the newspaper El País investigate this dangerous evolution and the decisive role the judiciary plays in this process.”
The IDFA 2020 official selection includes 11 films previously pitched at Forum and include Renzo Martens’ Feature-length Competition hopeful White Cube as well as Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda in Masters.
“We also had Songs of Repression (Best of Fests) at Forum. It was made by a very established production team (Final Cut for Real, Denmark), but the filmmakers are not so familiar to the international circuit. We got that film last year as a rough cut and it was already amazing back then.” Given the particularly high standard of rough cut submissions in 2020, ten films are selected, which marks a significant increase on past years.
Van Nieuwenhuyzen notes how her team’s famed matchmaking powers will be in great demand in 2020. “This year matchmaking is crucial because nothing will be happening in the corridors, nothing spontaneous will happen, you will not bump into a filmmaker with a great story and start a conversation – and then after a year you co-produce,” she observes with regret.
Nor is coronavirus much in evidence as a subject at Forum 2020 (just the Norwegian kids’ doc Stay Home). “We didn’t get many COVID stories, but that has to do of course with the kind of documentaries that we tend to programme both at the festival and Forum,” says Van Nieuwenhuyzen. “In August people had to submit their projects, and these projects are in development for a while or even in (pre)production by then. The kind of creative docs we are looking for differ from the typical reportage. They reflect on reality, they go beyond the news. We are looking for films where the filmmaker has a sense of distance, and not to be to stuck within the heart of the events.”
Van Nieuwenhuyzen signs off by paying tribute to the doc industry and the sense of camaraderie that has prevailed over the past nine or so months. “We have spoken a lot to other international markets and festivals to share experiences, such as Leipzig, Nordisk Panorama, Sheffield and the Baltic Sea Forum,” she points out. “Yes, festivals and markets are in a way competitive, but it is a whole pool where everybody has shared best practices, tips and tricks for our events. It was one of the good things about lockdown.”
