IDFA 2011 Overview, Part Two

Yesterday, the first part of my IDFA overview highlighted a number of films screening in the Amsterdam-based festival’s various competitions. In this second post, I look at the remainder of the regular programming and offer a few more of my must-sees. This still only barely scratches the surface of the event’s extensive line-up, not to mention other components like the Forum, DocLab, retrospective screenings, panels, and shorts.

Thrity-two films appear in the festival’s “Reflecting Images: Best of Fests,” a strand that spotlights docs that have already made an impact on the international fest circuit over the past year. There are far too many to mention all of them here, but a few notable ones I’ve already seen include: from Sundance, BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD and THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED; from SXSW, DRAGONSLAYER and KUMARÉ; from Tribeca, GIVE UP TOMORROW and SPLINTERS; and from Toronto, TAHRIR 2011 and GIRL MODEL. Other titles I’ve not yet seen but hope to in Amsterdam: James Bluemel’s 66 MONTHS, on the relationship between two self-destructive misfits; Josh Tickell’s THE BIG FIX, an exploration of the deadly consequences of society’s addiction to fossil fuels; Andrey Paounov’s THE BOY WHO WAS A KING, about Bulgaria’s exiled six-year-old tsar-turned-Prime Minister; Rashid Ghazi’s FORDSON (pictured), a high school football film set in a largely Arab-American community; and Tony Krawitz’s THE TALL MAN, about the mysterious death of an aboriginal man in Australia.

IDFA’s “Reflecting Images: Masters” section highlights new work by acknowledged veterans of the documentary world. Once again, the list is extensive, but among the heavyweights are Werner Herzog (CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS), Frederick Wiseman (CRAZY HORSE), Steve James (THE INTERRUPTERS), Barbara Kopple (GUN FIGHT), and Joe Berlinger/Bruce Sinofsky (PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY). Additional masters’ films that I haven’t seen already are: Fredrik Gertten’s BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!*, examining the lengths Dole went to to try to stop the filmmaker’s previous film, BANANAS!*; Pernille Rose Grønkjær (THE MONASTERY)’s LOVE ADDICT, a portrait of people in love with being in love; Victor Kossakovsky’s ¡VIVAN LAS ANTIPODAS!, a whimsical exploration of pairs of locations that are literally at opposite ends of the Earth; and Michael Glawogger’s WHORES’ GLORY (pictured), an observational doc on prostitution that I managed to miss at TIFF.

The final “Reflecting Images” strand is “Panorama,” loosely structured as docs on pressing and topical social issues. Among the films screening here I’ve already seen and recommend are BOY CHEERLEADERS, THE BULLY PROJECT, INTO ETERNITY, and KANO: AN AMERICAN AND HIS HAREM. Ones to watch on my list include: Simone Aleandri, Vanni Gandolfo, and Luca Onorati’s ANTONIO + SILVANA = 2, about a woman’s obsessive desire to reunite with her 77-year-old ex; Robin Newell’s DEAD MEN TALKING, looking at China’s death penalty through the lens of a TV reporter who interviews the condemned; Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL (pictured), an archival portrait of the fashion legend (which had a fantastic pitch at the Forum last year); Everardo González’s DROUGHT, a cinema verité impression of life on a Mexican desert ranch; Bram van Paesschen’s EMPIRE OF DUST, a tale of culture clash when a Chinese construction company rebuilds a major roadway in the Congo; Åsa Blanck and Klas Ehnemark’s THE GREAT LIBERTY, in which one of the directors attempts to piece together the facts behind his murdered father’s life; Laura Nix and Julia Meltzer’s THE LIGHT IN HER EYES, a portrait of a Syrian woman who tries to empower young women by teaching them the Koran; and Christian Sønderby Jespen’s THE WILL, about two troubled brothers who have perhaps counted too much on inheriting the family fortune.

Finally, experimental documentaries are the focus of IDFA’s “Paradocs” program, which includes Bill Morrison’s Tribeca title THE MINERS’ HYMNS. I’m intrigued by Jeanette Groenendaal’s REFORMATION (pictured), the director’s personal essay/therapy project about the pious village she moved to as a girl – a place that scapegoated her immediately as a heathen outsider.