By Leo Barraclough

According To The variety Leading documentary festival IDFA has added more than 100 films to the program of its 37th edition, which runs from Nov. 14 to 24 in Amsterdam, as it unveiled the first titles for the Signed, Best of Fests and Paradocs selections, as well as the Short Documentary and the Youth Documentary sections.

The Signed section includes Radu Jude’s found-footage documentary “Eight Postcards from Utopia,” showing the commercials from Romania’s transition to a capitalist democracy, and impressionist desktop film “Sleep #2,” capturing live stream recordings of Andy Warhol’s grave. Mati Diop’s “Dahomey” examines questions of repatriation of African artefacts from Europe.

Several renowned directors push the boundaries of music film in this year’s program. Andrei Ujică revisits 1965 in “TWST – Things We Said Today,” offering a poetic look at the Beatles as they captivate New York while the Watts riots erupt in Los Angeles. Kevin Macdonald’s “One to One: John & Yoko” collages early ‘70s footage, exploring John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s idealistic vision of a better world.

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

The pressing urgency of conflict is ever-present in the selection. “No Other Land,” directed by Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Balal, Rachel Szor and Basel Adra, documents Israeli attacks on Palestinian villages in the West Bank. The film received IDFA Bertha Fund support in 2022. In “Sudan, Remember Us,” Hind Meddeb captures young activists in their struggle for a liveable and democratic Sudan.

Other films depict heartfelt stories of resistance. After experiencing sexual assault, journalist Shiori Ito’s “Black Box Diaries” documents her search for justice in the face of a Japanese culture of silence. Following the discovery of unmarked graves near an indigenous reserve, Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie’s “Sugarcane” reveals a long history of abuse and neglect of indigenous children in Canadian state-led boarding schools.

Paradocs showcases the year’s experimental documentary art. Several established names in the visual arts present their explorations into filmmaking. John Smith reflects on his life and career by means of his nondescript name in “Being John Smith.” In “Misty Man,” Ansuya Blom alternates powerful scenes of a young man behind barbed wire with 8mm footage from the family archive and footage shot more recently in Suriname. Oleh Sentsov’s “Real” is a visceral and harrowing first-person depiction of the trenches in Ukraine.

The IDFA Competition for Short Documentary showcases a mosaic of styles and themes, exploring everything a short documentary film can be. The selection presents films that use the form in imaginative and ambitious ways, by filmmakers at all stages of their careers.

Several films seek for echoes of the past in our current times, including “The Iron” by Vitaly Mansky, who returns to IDFA with a portrait of Europe in war time. In the melancholic “The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing,” Theo Panagopoulos revisits archival footage of Palestine’s floral splendor from the 1930s, showing the complex relationship between the land and its inhabitants.

Other highlights include personal stories on grief, such as the mixed media exploration into losing someone close to you, “Tough Love” by Pat Heywood, and stop-motion animation “Mama Micra” by Rebecca Blöcher that examines how far people are willing to go to quench their thirst for personal freedom.

Curated by Niki Padidar, the Youth Competition showcases a selection of films that challenge the understanding of youth documentary. The titles are presented for two age groups: 9- to 12-year-olds, and 13-year-olds all the way to adulthood.

Avoiding one-dimensional stereotypes, Tabarak Allah Abbas replaces people with cyborgs in her animation that tells the story of how her parents overcame fleeing Iraq, packaged as a superhero adventure in “My Homeland.” In a break from traditional narrative arch, Camille Vigny’s “Crushed” parallels the story of a young girl’s love story turned violent with footage of car race crashes.

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary
Archipelago of Earthen Bones – To Bunya, dir. Malena Szlam (Canada/Australia/Chile), 20’ – European Premiere
Bloodline, dir. Wojciech Węglarz (Poland), 12’ – World Premiere
Cohabitants, dir. Viesturs Kairišs (Estonia), 20’ – International Premiere
Echoes Within, dir. Pranami Koch (India), 26’– World Premiere
Entretierra, dir. Emanuel Licha (Canada), 22’ – World Premiere
The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing, dir. Theo Panagopoulos (United Kingdom), 17’ –
International Premiere
How to Suture the Soil?, dir. Wil Paucar Calle (Ecuador), 17’ – World Premiere
The Iron, dir. Vitaly Mansky (Latvia), 40’ – World Premiere
Lanawaru, dir. Angello Faccini (Colombia/United States/Mexico), 16’ – World Premiere
Mama Micra, dir. Rebecca Blöcher (Germany), 24’ – World Premiere
Noise: Unwanted Sound, dir. Hyejin Jung (Netherlands/South Korea), 20’ – World Premiere
The Other Side of the Mountain, dir. Shirley Yumeng He (United States/China), 20’ – World
Premiere
Paci, dir. Juliette Roudet (France), 33’ – International Premiere
Tokkotai Paquetá, dir. Cao Guimarães (Brazil), 28’ – World Premiere
Tough Love, dir. Pat Heywood (United States), 16’ – World Premiere
Unwritten Letter, dir. Silvana Alarcón Sánchez (Peru), 5’ – World Premiere

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary Films in the 9-12 category:
A Place to Call Home, dir. Parisa Aminolahi (Netherlands), 10’ – World Premiere
The Flower by the Road, dir. Giorgi Parkosadze (Georgia/Hungary/Portugal/Belgium), 15’ –
World Premiere
The Invisibles, dir. Martijn Blekendaal (Netherlands/Belgium), 75’ – World Premiere
What’s the Film About, dir. Poorva Dinesh (India), 16’ – Dutch Premiere
With Grace, dir. Julia Dahr, Dina Mwende (Norway/Kenya), 29’ – World PremiereFilms in the 13+ category:
Crushed, dir. Camille Vigny (Belgium), 13’ – Dutch Premiere
Hey Dad, dir. WeiFan Wang (Taiwan), 6’ – Dutch Premiere
My Homeland, dir. Tabarak Allah Abbas (Switzerland), 13’ – Dutch Premiere
Simply Divine, dir. Mélody Boulissière (France), 15’ – Dutch Premiere
Somewhere to Be, dir. Sara Fattahighahnaviyeh (Netherlands), 8’ – World Premiere