Notes from Amsterdam: A Wrap Up of IDFA

More than a dozen ITVS docs screened at last week’s IDFA festival in Amsterdam. Senior Series producer of Independent Lens Lois Vossen participated in the special FORUM event and offered BTB this wrap up report.

Filmmaker Deepa Dhanraj's Invoking Justice was among the ITVS docs to premiere at IDFA

The 19^th FORUM took place in Amsterdam on November 21-23 as part of 25^th annual International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

The current economic crisis unfolding around us as the EU debt crisis mounts, public financing under pressure, and a dangerous decrease in airtime allocated to social issue documentaries provided an urgency to this year’s FORUM. The IDFA’s FORUM is the longest-standing gathering that brings together documentary filmmakers, TV stations, funds, distributors, and other financiers to support high-level documentary projects and help partner joint ventures.
› Continue reading

Tags: film forum, IDFA, ITVS, lois vossen

Over a Dozen ITVS Films at IDFA

IDFA is one of the world’s leading documentary film festivals, held annually in Amsterdam in November, since 1988.  This year, BTB is proud to report that over a dozen ITVS films will be showcased at IDFA. Congratulations to all the filmmakers! See a complete list of the films — and watch the trailers — after the jump.

Bitter Seeds
By Micha X. Peled

Family Portrait in Black and White
By: Julia Ivanova, Boris Ivanov (Reflecting Images – Best of the Fest)
› Continue reading

Tags: Amsterdam, Awards, documentary, IDFA, ITVS

Doc Notes from Amsterdam

Last month, ITVS Vice President of Programming Claire Aguilar attended the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Claire offered a roundup of this year’s festival to BTB, which included a big win for Lucy Walker’s Waste Land (airing this season on Independent Lens), which picked up the Public Broadcaster IDFA Audience Award.

IDFA – International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam – is, by all accounts, the world’s largest and most influential documentary film festival.

› Continue reading

Tags: Amsterdam, Awards, film festival, IDFA, ITVS, waste land

Several ITVS Films to Screen at IDFA

The following ITVS films have been accepted to IDFA (International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam).

Check out the films below and join us in congratulating all the filmmakers!

The Team
By Patrick Reed

A look at a dramatic TV soap opera series, created after Kenya’s violent 2007 presidential election, that Kenyans hope will help bridge deep ethnic divisions.

This Is My Picture When I Was Dead
By Mahmoud Al Massad

An imaginative look at what happens after four-year-old Bashir comes back to life after the assassination of him and his father, a top PLO lieutenant.
› Continue reading

Tags: Amsterdam, documentary, film festival, IDFA, ITVS

Filmmakers Celebrate at ITVS Reception at IDFA

Claire Aguilar, vice president of programming, welcomes all the filmmakers and attendees at the “Guests Meets Guests Reception” held at Escape Club deLux in Amsterdam.

Last week, Claire Aguilar, ITVS vice president of programming and Voleine Amilcar, publicity manager, attended the International Documentary Festival (IDFA) in Amsterdam.

To celebrate all participating filmmakers and to highlight the ITVS International Call (deadline: Feb. 5), ITVS hosted a “Guests Meet Guests Reception,” which was attended by 300 filmmakers and documentary film professionals. Throughout the week Claire Aguilar participated in and attended the FORUM, which has become the first market for the international co-financing of documentaries in the world. Two ITVS-funded projects were pitched at the FORUM––THE IMMIGRATION PROJECT, directed by Marco Williams, and GIVE UP TOMORROW, directed by Marty Syjuco and Michael Collins.

Five ITVS-supported films were official selections: BANANAS! from Swedish director Fredrik Gertten (co-production with WG Films, ITVS International, SVT, ARTE/ZDF and VPRO); COWBOYS IN INDIA from English director Simon Chambers (a co-production with Channel 4); LAST TRAIN HOME, a Chinese/Canadian production directed by Lixin Fan (co-production of EyeSteel Films in association with ITVS International, Sundance Documentary Fund, TV5, Super Channel and Channel 4); THE LAST TIGHTROPE DANCER IN ARMENIA from Armenian directors Arman Yeritsyan and Inna Sahakyan (co-production with ITVS International, Bars Media, NHK, SVT, TVP, Estonian Television and YLE) and lastly, the Oscar-shortlisted doc THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA from American director/producers Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith (co-production with ITVS and ARTE/ZDF).

Congratulations to all the filmmakers! Continue reading to see exclusive photos from the ITVS reception.

› Continue reading

Tags: Amsterdam, Awards, film festival, IDFA

ITVS Filmmakers Awarded Top Honors at IDFA

Last week, five ITVS documentaries screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)––the largest showcase of documentary film in the world. Taking home top honors were the ITVS films LAST TRAIN HOME, by Lixin Fan and Mila Aung-Thwin, which won best feature length documentary, and THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA, by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, which received the special jury award. Read what filmmaker Lixin Fan thought about this year’s competition and what it was like to make the film. Set against the backdrop of the world’s largest annual human migration, LAST TRAIN HOME follows the Zhang family who travel home on Chinese New Year to reunite with their teenage daughter.

Lixin Fan, filmmaker of LAST TRAIN HOME

The Zhang family from the film LAST TRAIN HOME, which won the Joris Ivens Award, given to the best feature length documentary at IDFA.

It was truly unforgettable. Receiving the Joris Ivens Award, given to the best feature length documentary, at the magnificent Tuschinski Theater in Amsterdam is a dream for any documentary filmmaker!

This year, the competing films were all superb. It was definitely exciting to see all these wonderfully crafted films being presented by filmmakers from different cultures and countries. Every film is a hearty endeavor to seek truth in life.

Though only one film gets lucky to win each year, all of the films and filmmakers should be celebrated. LAST TRAIN HOME became the lucky one last Friday, but it could have never happened without the help of many friends––ITVS being a very prominent one.

Three years in the making, the film showed a neglected aspect of the lives of millions of migrant workers. My intention and hope is that the audience will become more aware of worker’s contributions and the sacrifices concealed by the cheap price tags of the items we often buy. When we over consume, our conscience is at risk of being consumed, too.

This film was certainly not easy to complete. We’ve been through so many ordeals. EyeSteelFilm in Montreal and YuanFang Media in China were committed to the film despite the technical and logistical challenges. The crew had to film amid a crowd of thousands at the railway station for days and were often caught between moral ethical decisions—either to help or keep shooting. Along the road, ITVS has been so supportive on all levels.

Everyone’s support is greatly appreciated and revealed in the final film on the big screen.

- Lixin Fan, filmmaker of LAST TRAIN HOME

Tags: Amsterdam, Awards, film festival, IDFA

Five ITVS Documentaries to Screen at IDFA

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) will take place later this week (November 19-29). Five ITVS documentaries will be screening as official selections at this prestigious festival––the largest showcase of documentary film in the world.

Many ITVS films have screened to audience and critical acclaim at IDFA, including last year’s features MILKING THE RHINO, directed by David Simpson, and SEA POINT DAYS, directed by Francois Verster. Both films competed in the Joris Ivens (feature) competition.

In addition to the five films screening at the festival, ITVS will host a “Guests Meet Guests Reception” to celebrate all participating filmmakers and highlight the ITVS International Call and the approaching 2010 deadline. The event will be held on Monday, November 23 from 6:00- 7:00 PM at the central festival venue Escape DeLux on Rembrandt Square. The event is open to all credentialed festival attendees and filmmakers.

The following productions will be featured at IDFA:

› Continue reading

Tags: Amsterdam, film festival, IDFA