IDFA Reveals First Titles for Short Documentary Section

IDFA, one of world’s leading documentary festivals, has announced the first titles for its short documentary section, and revealed the lineups for the Signed, Best of Fests and Paradocs sidebars.

The festival’s 38th edition runs from Nov. 13 to 23 in Amsterdam.

Several titles in the short documentary competition use archival footage to examine how personal memories reveal political histories. “Intersecting Memory” by Shayma’ Awawdeh presents a portrait of a youth spent under occupation in Palestine’s West Bank. In “As I Lay Dying,” Mohammadreza Farzad and Pegah Ahangarani revisit shaky footage of social protests in Tehran in 2009.

The selection welcomes several filmmakers back to IDFA with new work, including Lasse Linder with “Air Horse One,” following prized showjumping horse Legacy as she jets from one championship to the next, and Teboho Edkins with “An Open Field,” where he and his father visit Ethiopia to mourn his brother alongside a community still grieving the victims of a plane crash.

A deeply personal story is revealed in “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” by Ollie Launspach explores how the filmmaker’s transition affects his girlfriend, revealing complex questions and insecurities.

Signed
Signed showcases the latest work of “some of the most original filmmakers of our time,” and celebrates “those with a unique artistic signature.”

Several acclaimed names return to IDFA in this year’s selection. Following his IDFA Bertha Fund-supported debut “Kabul, City in the Wind,” Aboozar Amini’s “Kabul, Between Prayers” presents an intimate portrait of a Taliban soldier caught between ideology and an unpredictable reality. IDFA’s 2020 Guest of Honor Gianfranco Rosi returns with “Below the Clouds,” a mosaic documentary that explores the city of Naples and its volcanic depths.

The selection includes deeply personal filmmaking. In “With Hasan in Gaza,” Kamal Aljafari revisits footage of his 2001 road trip through Gaza—unknowingly capturing fleeting moments of everyday life, a reality now irreversibly altered because of the brutal conflict.

Touching on the critical importance of journalism and literature, award-winning Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’ “Cover-Up” offers a dark portrait of the U.S. through the lens of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.

Critically acclaimed Claire Simon turns to the classrooms in “Writing Life – Annie Ernaux Through the Eyes of High School Students,” a portrait that captures the living power of the Nobel Prize-winner and contemporary feminist icon Annie Ernaux.

Best of Fests
The Best of Fests section presents the year’s most eye-catching and celebrated films from various festivals.

Several films examine the meaning of belonging and home. In “Imago,” Déni Oumar Pitsaev follows the filmmaker’s journey of personal discovery after inheriting a piece of land in his estranged motherland of Georgia. By means of a poetic portrait of his mother, “The Attachment” by Mamadou Khouma Gueye documents the forced relocation of her residential community in Dakar.

Other films portray urgent stories of resistance and grassroots activism. Reporting from the front line of the refugee crisis, “The Travelers” by David Bingong documents young African migrants attempting to enter Europe on the heavily guarded border between Morocco and Spain. Brittany Shyne’s contemplative film “Seeds” captures the daily lives of Black farmers in the American South, as they struggle to preserve their way of life and ancestral land.

Paradocs
Paradocs showcases the year’s non-fiction film art, in which visual artists and filmmakers present their explorations into non-fiction filmmaking.

This year’s selection “embraces the speculative and the imaginative, blending history, memory, and fantasy.”

In his essay film “BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions,” Kahlil Joseph offers an Afro-futurist journey through Black history, identity, and potential. Maureen Fazendeiro’s “The Seasons” combines archaeological field notes, local legends, and dreamlike 16mm footage to paint a lyrical portrait of Portugal’s Alentejo region.

Isabel Pagliai blurs the line between fiction and documentary in “Fantasy,” introducing her protagonist through diary entries and inner worlds. In “Underground,” Kaori Oda leads us through the haunted caves of Okinawa, where images and words unearth a horrific past.

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary