Day 7--Deliberation Day We wrapped up our screenings and, following a final fantastic lunch and two more screenings, we sat down for two hours of bare-knuckled deliberations. Actually, the process was quite civil, with two films rising to the top of the Wolf pack, and one clear winner emerging among the Cubs. With more discussion, driven by our predominant criteria--does this film push the form forward?--and our subsidiary criteria--what is the best synthesis of subject, story, POV, form, style and relevance/timeliness?--as well as our independent visceral passions about our favorites, we came
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2008 IDA Career Achievement Award
Israeli director Ari Folman can't remember the time he spent as a 20-year-old IDF soldier during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. When a fellow veteran recounts his own haunting by a recurring nightmare from the war, a single vision appears from the mires of Folman's mind: He and two other recruits rise naked from a black sea like some modern myth, clutching machine guns, their somnambulant lurch toward Beirut's Corniche illuminated by flares in the night sky. Are these the Israeli flares that lit the slaughter of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra-Shatila refugee camps? Folman knows he
Over the next week, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is nominated for IDA Documentary Awards in the Feature Documentaries and Short Documentaries categories. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films-the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far. So, to continue this series of conversations, here is Kief Davidson, director/producer of Kassim The Dream, which is nominated for Best Feature Documentary. Synopsis: This is the story of world champion boxer Kassim "The Dream"
Over the next week, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is nominated for IDA Documentary Awards in the Feature Documentaries and Short Documentaries categories. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films-the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far. So, to continue this series of conversations, here is Tom Dziedzic, director/producer of Redemption Stone: The Life and Times of Tom Lewis, which is nominated for Best Short Documentary. Synopsis: Redemption Stone introduces
IDA and Good present a screening of IDA/Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Filmmaker Award winning film.
Q&A with the filmmakers who captured the events of an annual woman's prison beauty pageant.
Day 4--Still Lost in Amsterdam Following a seven-film jury session, we repaired to the Escape club, the hub of social activities at IDFA, including the Guests Meet Guests happy hours, the TalkShow and the Dance Club. While I haven't been able to partake in any extra-Jury screening, panel or The Forum, the Escape lends a high school reunion feel; I ran into journalist/educator/2006 IDA Preservation and Scholarship honoree Pat Aufderheide, filmmaker/educator/2008 IDA Preservation and Scholarship honoree Marina Goldovskaya, filmmaker Peter Wintonick and journalist Marc Glassman, and met a host of
International Documentary FilmFestival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the sine qua non of documentary festivals, having debuted in 1988, when few documentary-specific showcases existed. Twenty years later, IDFA reigns supreme, having arguably inspired a plethora of fests such as Hot Docs, Full Frame, SilverDocs, Cine du Reel, Sheffield Doc/Fest, True/False, et al. Although Documentary magazine has regularly published dispatches from IDFA, I have never attended, due to the overlap with Thanksgiving and the proximity to the IDA Awards. But I was honored to be invited to serve on the jury for two