It’s the biggest documentary film festival in the world - IDFA hits Amsterdam every year around this time and I love it. I usually spent the whole week high on celluloid-fuelled adrenalin, rushing from one cinema to the next to cram in as much as possible, then in the short blank spaces in between, jump on the bike, rush to the press centre to watch the dvd versions of the screenings I can’t attend. There may or may not be time to stuff a bit of junk food in my body, but if not, then no matter, the film stories are feeding me plenty.
Yesterday I think I got through about eight films in 12 hours and still haven’t touched the tip of the iceberg. There’s hundreds on offer, and I’m limited to a silly 24 hours a day. During IDFA week, I put aside everything except the bare essentials - feeding the kids, taking the occasional breath, you know, that kind of thing.
Higlights?
Let me see…I saw a terrific one by Jamie Durran on the Dancing Boys of Afghanistan, and one of my continuing favourite doco filmmakers, Kim Longinotto made a movie about Sampal Pal, the indominatable boss of rural India’s Pink Sari gang. There was a surprising piece from a newly graduated Dutch film student on why so many young people iin Holland are being driven to despair and madness because of the comfort and possibilities of their lives here. There was a ghastly self serving one from a couple of well meaning but stupid liberals trying floundering around Burma and meanwhile putting their fixers and drivers in the country in immediate danger of arrest. There was a quirky thing on the connections between international terrorism and falcons and…well I think my memory has blacked out on the rest.
Tomorrow I only have time for a short dose - becasause I have to run to get the kids from schooln in the afternoon, but I’m collecting dvd’s from directors to watch in my own time.
What do I love most about IDFA? It shows me such surprising glimpses of the distant corners of the world, revealing the magic, the tragedy, the beauty of this little ball we inhabit, rolling around the vastness of space, so insignificant yet so full of marvellous stories.
