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IDA Grantee Premieres at IDFA and DOC NYC

By IDA Editorial Staff

Canva Design, film audience

Congratulations to the IDA grantees premiering at IDFA and DOC NYC this month! Be sure to catch their screenings if you happen to be in attendance at these festivals. 

The 2024 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is a film festival event held from November 14, 2024, to November 24, 2024, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988. IDA's Director of Artist Programs and Editor of Documentary Magazine, Abby Sun, will be attending the event as well. DOC NYC, or the Documentary Organization of New York City, is a yearly documentary film festival in New York City that showcases new films, panels, and conversations. In 2014, DOC NYC became the largest documentary film festival in the United States.

 

IDA Grantee Premieres at IDFA (November 14 - 24, 2024)


Writing Hawa

World Premiere - 2023 Enterprise Documentary Fund  

Film still from 'Writing Hawa'

Afghan documentary maker Najiba Noori offers not only a loving and intimate portrait of her mother Hawa, but also shows in detail how the arduous improvement of the position of women is undone by geopolitical violence. The film follows the fortunes of Noori’s family, who belong to the Hazaras, an ethnic group that has suffered greatly from discrimination and persecution. 

Apocalypse in the Tropics 

Dutch Premiere - 2023 Enterprise Documentary Fund

Film still from 'Apocalypse in the Tropics'

Evangelical fundamentalism is rapidly on the rise in Brazil, with popular TV evangelists calling on their supporters to back ultraconservative presidential candidates whose campaign promises are focused on banning abortion rights and gender-neutral toilets.

Black Box Diaries 

Dutch Premiere - 2022 Enterprise Documentary Fund

Film still from 'Black Box Diaries'

From confessional-style iPhone and secret recordings mixed with verite shooting, a staggering account of Shiori's Ito's improbable fight as both victim and journalist against Japan's antiquated rape laws and institutions. Black Box Diaries is also showing at DOC NYC (not a premiere).

Sugarcane 

Dutch Premiere - 2022 Enterprise Documentary Fund

Film still from 'Sugarcane'

A gripping investigation of unmarked graves at an Indian residential school unearths secrets below and above ground, igniting a reckoning in the lives of survivors and their descendants, including the film’s co-director. Sugarcane is also showing at DOC NYC (not a premiere).

Union

Dutch Premiere - 2022 Enterprise Production Fund, 2020 Enterprise Development Fund

Film still from 'Union'

An intimate portrait of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), a group of current and former Amazon workers taking on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize. Union is also showing at DOC NYC (not a premiere).

 

IDA Grantee Premieres at DOC NYC (Nov 13 - Dec 1, 2024)

 

Black Snow 

North American Premiere - 2021 Enterprise Documentary Fund

Film still from 'Black Snow'

When the residents of a remote Siberian city discover an old Soviet mine has caught fire beneath their neighborhood, they turn to Natalia Zubkova, a local homemaker-turned-journalist, for help. But after her news videos go viral, she suddenly finds herself the target of a massive government disinformation campaign.

Homegrown

NYC Premiere -  2018 Enterprise Development Fund

Film still from 'Homegrown'

Three right-wing activists—a newly politicized father-to-be in New Jersey, an Air Force veteran organizing conservatives in New York City, and a charismatic activist from Texas—crisscross the country in the summer of 2020, campaigning for Donald Trump and building a movement they hope will outlast him. When they become convinced that the election is stolen, they take their fight to the streets. The result is a chilling portrait of a growing movement pushing American democracy to the brink.

My Sweet Land 

North American Premiere - 2020 Enterprise Development Fund

Film still from 'My Sweet Land'

My Sweet Land follows an eleven-year-old boy who was born as a result of a mass wedding in the internationally unrecognized region of Nagorno-Karabakh “Republic of Artsakh” as he journeys back from displacement, into his war torn home. Born in a militarized society, he has a responsibility to protect and prosper his homeland.

Standing Above the Clouds 

NYC Premiere - 2022 Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund

Film still from 'Standing Above the Clouds'

Three Native Hawaiian families dedicate their lives to defending their sacred mountain Mauna Kea from the building of the world’s largest telescope. Through the lens of mothers and daughters, Standing Above the Clouds explores sisterhood and the social and emotional labor of retaining ancient ceremonies in a rapidly modernizing world.

There Was, There Was Not 

NYC Premiere - 2022 Enterprise Documentary Fund

Film still from 'There Was, There Was Not'

The first line of every Armenian fairy tale, There Was, There Was Not tells the collective myth of a homeland nearly lost to war — and four women’s resistance to that loss.

 

Also showing at DOC NYC (non-premieres): Queendom - 2022 Enterprise Documentary Fund