Idfa, Ally Derks and Leo Messi
Idfa started yesterday, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the 27th edition, amazing it is in itself, and ” what differentiates IDFA from other European doc festivals is its appeal to public audiences and professionals alike”, a quote from realscreen (link below), very right so, there is definitely an audience for documentaries in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, and idfa has had a key role in building it to what it is today.
Realscreen has an interview with Ally Derks (photo), who founded the festival and is its charismatic leader, recommends some films and admits wonderfully that even if she comes from the country of football, from where Johan Cruyff comes, the man who stood behind a new way of playing football and implemented his philosophy at FB Barcelona, that she did not know Messi!
She talks about Álex de la Iglesia’s documentary about the best football player in the world: …“I liked the film but I had no idea who [Messi] was. He’s like God,” she says – explaining that all screenings of Messi sold out an hour after its selection to IDFA was announced on local television…”
Ally Derks is of course asked whether she senses any competition from other documentary film festivals like DOKLeipzig and cph:dox, her answer is ““The fact is that our festival is so big that there is, for us, not really a competition,” she explains. “We compete more with Berlin and Sundance, which are also fiction festivals. And the good thing is that Sheffield and Toronto [International Film Festival] and Hot Docs are later in the year.”
As for the film about Messi, it is a film that appeals enormously to this blogger – it is about Messi and the director has invited all the ex-players, the colleagues of Messi, Argentinian coaches and relatives and friends to talk about him in a restaurant! With many clips from Messi’s matches, goals and goals, AND mise-en-scenes from his childhood with mum and dad. Yes, in restaurants we enjoy good food and talk football!
