As ever, IDFA’s Industry programme constitutes an almost impossibly broad range of masterclasses, talks and networking opportunities, consultancies and delegation presentations. Not to mention Forum, of course, the mother of doc pitch events with sixty projects in 2022; and Docs For Sale, the first major international market dedicated to doc, which this year boasts over 400 titles.
In essence, it’s hard to imagine what shape the modern doc industry would have taken had IDFA personnel not helped structure its growth and development over the past decades (stretching back to the late 1980s) with the implementation of the Forum and Docs for Sale initiatives, not to mention the sterling work carried by the IDFA Bertha Fund. Does Industry Head Van Nieuwenhuijzen agree?
“Interesting, but a difficult question because you can never foresee what would have happened… The only thing I can say is that [back in the 1980s] we felt the time was right to start such initiatives,” she responds. Those initiatives were from the ground up, and helped both build a professional infrastructure and create an industry climate in which creative, cinematic docs could thrive. Van Nieuwenhuijzen and her colleagues could see that the business of docmaking had to be tackled at source. “We had to [develop] them. We needed to train people, we needed to make sure that these films were distributed, that the filmmakers [could] find finance for these films,” she underlines.
And in so doing, IDFA galvanised other well-established doc events into doing the same, such as DOK Leipzig and Visions du Réel. “By creating this new event in November people saw that they needed to get together not only once a year, but multiple times a year. And that is indeed, I think, what helped the documentary industry to move forward. I can’t say, if we hadn’t started the festival, nothing would happened…but of course I’m very proud of being part of that and also seeing the rippling effect of what we [began].”
Van Nieuwenhuijzen explains her current Industry raison d’etre. “It’s about diversity, inclusion and making sure that people find the way to connect to their audiences and articulate their very personal artistic voices,” she says. “We really don’t want a festival where it’s ‘more of the same.’ It’s really [about] bringing forward this whole industry, and very much about the artistic form of documentary, because a healthy artistic climate means that you constantly need to adapt and change and give room to these filmmakers to do new things, to explore.”
So can strong adherence to aesthetic sensibilities dovetail easily with ‘impact’ when it comes to the process of doc making?
“I think so, yes,” Van Nieuwenhuijzen responds. “I think if a film is well made, and has artistry, that means that a filmmaker also finds a way to connect to an audience. And the moment a filmmaker is able to connect to an audience, it means that there is impact.”
“Impact isn’t always a call for action. It can also be a different way of reflecting on the world we live in…Impact for me means that something is happening within an audience. Impact is about awareness, but it’s also about a feeling. It’s about an emotion and it’s about the moment you’re moved or touched by a film. [Documentary] can create impact in different ways.”
A very specific impact on doc professionals attending IDFA in 2022 is the change of the main industry location, which sees Docs for Sale and Forum housed under the same roof at the Felix Meritis building on Keizersgracht 324. “Yeah, we are really quite excited,” says the Industry boss. “Many of these people who attend both markets want to interact with each other. Because the previous venues were [distant] it was more difficult to connect and to interact. I hope – I trust – that people will now find a synergy in being together at one venue.”
What’s more, the new festival ITA Festival Centre (Leidseplein 26) is very convenient for some of the core industry cinemas such as De Balie and the DeLaMar Theater. “It [ITA] is perfect for all these talks and discussions and consultancies, and we really hope it will play out as a good industry hub.”
Van Nieuwenhuijzen explains to Business Doc Europe what the ideal IDFA Industry experience comprises, whether for the first time attendee or the experienced professional. “I think they should just sit in on a [Forum] session with four or five pitches to experience, and to see the wealth of what documentary can offer with filmmakers coming from different social and cultural backgrounds, telling all kind of different stories and using different means,” she says.
“What we really try to do within the Forum program is to bring across the richness of the genre . And I would say there is something for everyone…there are films which are very artistic, but there’s also films which might be more suitable for television stations as well. And I know for a fact that many of the industry representatives have responded very positively to the projects [this year.”
She also flags up a smorgasbord of Industry Talks https://www.idfa.nl/en/selection/125790/industry-talks and Industry Sessions designed to bring delegates up to speed on current developments in the industry as well as covering larger trends and urgent discussions, and hosted by or featuring experts in the doc field.
Meanwhile, the Filmmaker Talks programme comprises a series of hour-long conversations with renowned documentary directors, covering their body of work, creative methods, and views on documentary filmmaking, illustrated with excerpts from their own films. Guests include Laura Poitras, Emma Davie, Nistha Jain, Petra and Peter Lataster and director, artist, and multidisciplinary performer Kidlat Tahimik.
