Many visitors to the festival in Amsterdam (November 17-28) are there to look for films to buy for their national television channels. The buyers sit in their booths and choose among more than 500 films, as do festival representatives from all over the world. For the buyers the work is mostly of a pre-selection nature where the films are watched for maybe 10 minutes and then a decision is taken to ask for a dvd screener to take home for final decision, or to state ”not interested”.

The Docs for Sale, that also includes an online service during the whole year – good for those who do not travel to idfa – and for those of us who can not see the films when at idfa because of meetings and attendance of the Forum (see below) – has a hit list of the most watched films. Again a pleasure to see on the top 10 that Latvian ”Family Instinct” has been watched 59 times and that Serbian ”Cinema Komunisto” (PHOTO) and Danish ”Blood in the Mobile” have 57 screenings.

Number 1 – well tv buyers, like the rest of us, like food made with a high artistic quality and a film about ”El Bulli” is of course not to be missed. The film, watched 86 times, is directed by German director Gereon Wetzel and lasts 108 minutes, and this is the catalogue description:

The chefs at the world-renowned, Michelin-starred Spanish restaurant El Bulli have turned cooking into an art form. The doors are only open to the public for six months of the year; the rest of the time, a select team of experts is hard at work creating a new avant-garde 30-course menu. Looking on from the sidelines, we watch experiments with structure, sound, color and – finally – flavor. Cooking with liquid nitrogen, something the restaurant is particularly famous for, is but one of the many unconventional preparation methods used here. Owner Ferran Adrià is always on hand, tasting everything created in this flavor lab and coming across like a softened-down version of Gordon Ramsey. We discover that experimental dishes such as Parmesan Crystal and Vanishing Ravioli came about largely by chance. When one of the chefs fished out an ice cube from his Coke glass and dropped it in the gravy on his plate, he thought, why not make a dish from ice cubes? And why not mix oil with water, for a cocktail that leaves a deliciously soft coating on the lips? At El Bulli, it’s all about feeling something, experiencing something. In the words of top chef Adrià, “The more bewilderment, the better.”

www.idfa.nl

I post this article from the idfa site to higlight one of the most appreciated documentary projects that was pitched at the Forum 2010:

Twin sisters Ilse and Femke van Velzen, filmmakers and human rights activists, returned last week from the Congo, where they are shooting their latest film Justice for Sale, to pitch the international funding community for the €175,000 needed to guarantee its completion. Forum attendees heard their pitch yesterday. Nick Cunningham reports.

Justice for Sale follows two young Congolese human rights lawyers who battle against injustice in their homeland. The film is the Van Velzens’ third on the subject of the Congo, following Weapon of War (2009) (PHOTO) and Fighting the Silence (2007). “As young girls in primary school, we stood up for other children that were bullied,” explains Ilse. “Years later, when we started to make films about human rights, we realised that we can expose injustice [in

developing countries] to a worldwide audience and give oppressed people a voice.”

The film, she further explains, is not just about corruption, but also the total failure of Congo’s judicial system. Quite often, victims of crimes will never see the perpetrators in court, and every year thousands of innocent people are wrongly accused and imprisoned in inhuman conditions. “Corruption is found at every level, big or small,” she claims. “So corruption is seen and felt throughout the whole film.”

So far, the Van Velzens have secured a pre-sale to Dutch broadcaster IKON. Their aim over the next few days is to doorstep as many international commissioning editors as possible to build the widest distribution base for the film.

Ilse explains why the medium of documentary is effective as a campaigning tool for the causes she espouses. “For a Western audience, it creates awareness,” she stresses. “When people don’t know or are ignorant about a certain subject, they cannot act. When they know what human right abuses happen in the world – because they have seen a documentary that goes deeply into the subject – they at least have the option. That is important. Secondly, it’s very important that human rights films are also brought to the attention of policymakers, international governments and NGOs. It can work as a very powerful lobby tool.”

Justice for Sale was developed at leading documentary development programme Greenhouse, under the part-tutelage of Dutch documentary filmmaker John Appel (The Player, 2009). “It is very well researched and they have two very good characters: two lawyers, who are really engaging, so they have a very good starting point to make a strong film about the legal system within the Congo,” he explains.

“The main goal for Greenhouse is to make a subject into a film and to look for universal meaning and to add more and more layers. I think that Ilse and Femke, having made a few films already, are now more aware of what it means to have a more cinematographic approach to the subject, and we will help them with this.”

Nick Cunningham

The Forum for International Co-Financing of Documentaries holds its 18th session. There is a friendly atmosphere at the round table where tv commissioning editors sit to comment on the projects that are pitched. Maybe too friendly for a veteran participant as me, who knows that only a small percentage of the film projects that are met with a positive attitude actually get financing at the meetings that are held afterwards. This has always been like that, it takes time and all film projects are being pitched again and again. Before finally the money needed is in place. And it is not easier with the financial crisis world-wide.

You may like the pitching concept or not – it IS absurd to think that you can present your film project in 7-8 minutes – and the making of the trailers is an art in itself and in many cases it says nothing about how the film will be. BUT it still gives you a strong impression to see all these film professionals gathered at one place for ONE reason: to have good, creative documentaries made. The pitching of the about 40 film projects from all over the world is one thing, the more than 700 individual meetings pre-planned, meetings between makers and buyers another. What a logistical achievement. Respect!

… and at the festival – idfa staff proudly states – 17 films are shown that were previuosly pitched at the Forum.

Photo: “Armadillo”, pitched at the 2009 Forum.

www.idfa.nl

The Forum is half way through and my general impression is that 2010 selection has been good. There are many creative documentaries, and they are well received. It started strongly with Romanian Florin Iepan’s project ”Odessa” (PHOTO), his short catalogue annotation goes like this: ”The uncovering of the largest mass execution perpetrated by an ally of Nazi Germany launches in Romania the first public debate on its fascist past”,

followed by Sergey Miroshnichenko ”Born in the USSR: 28UP”, the Granada Television/Michael Apted concept called “SevenUP”, that the excellent Russian director adapted in 1990, filming the growing up of kids from the age of 7 till their adult age of 28. Also well received was the first international film project from the young colleague Daria Khlestkina, ”The 16th Republic”, which refers to a car factory in the middle of Moscow, where limousines are made, or were made. The director has followed what happens at the factory, where some cars were ordered and produced and then the orders were cancelled. Will the factory survive, great characters and lot of humour…

The Forum is of course giving the profile of a market as it is right now, and you notice of course that ”content is king”, as it has been phrased again and again at meetings like this. And all in all the content of the films proposed are from the world of today. War zones, poverty, violence, crime and about people. And you see how the big channels, alas, like arte and BBC are going cautiously in their selection. BBC Storyville editor Nick Fraser supported two tabloid sensational projects, one about the fall of a filthy rich family in the US, and a project about jewel criminals, who – of course, again a cliché – are from Serbia!

And arte… well, documentaries do not have a strong position in this channel any longer, no more observational documentaries at arte as an editor said to me. So documentaries for arte are normally channelled through the theme evenings. The key person for the editorial line of these evenings, Hans-Robert Eisenhauer, ZDF/arte, was warmly applauded at the end of the second day of pitching for his always supportive attitude to bringing good documentaries to the audience, a true believer of the need for quality in public broadcasting and a man who very often has criticized the way his own channel is going.

www.idfa.nl

Ally Derks, director of the idfa festival, held a strong speech at the opening of the festival Wednesday night. Here is the text of the strong cultural political appeal:

Dear friends, tonight we are launching the 23rd edition of IDFA with the world premiere of Leonard Retel Helmrich’s magnificent film, Stand van de Sterren (The Position Among the Stars). But before we enjoy it, I want to take a few minutes to reflect on the films in the festival – and the current climate under which they are being made. This year, we received over 3000 entries from 100 different countries. We have selected 300 films to stimulate your thought and pleasure. Many films in the program are working for a world where truth and fact can overcome official lies and corporate greed. Others take on climate change and help us to understand it. There are films that work for an equal world, without sexism or economic injustice. Others take up the sword of action against the enemies of cynicism and apathy.

Many films are personal, connecting us with a world full of different cultures. They bridge the gap of “The Other”. They offer us a different view of difference. There are creative films that transform the world with beauty, aesthetics and the hope found in art. They experiment with form. They consider documentary as a life form. They transform facts into the art of information. The art of storytelling.

In truth, documentary is an artform. But alarmingly, in many countries of the world, the arts and cultural industries are under grave threat. Documentary production and public service broadcasting are at risk. Compounded by economic recession, and a lack of

official vision, cultural funding everywhere faces severe budget cuts. Admittedly, in The Netherlands, we are a little luckier, but we are still not immune to economic tidal waves. With the diversity of all our different broadcasters, with their different points of view, our system is still one of the best in the world. But we will have to work together to keep it that way.

Elsewhere, cultural workers and organizations are not so lucky. For example in Paris, the Minister of Culture has ordered big cutbacks in culture; the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou will be forced to give up exhibitions. In Spain, the head of the national library has resigned. In England, the Conservative coalition shut down the extremely important UK Film Council. In Denmark, the pressures on the economy and fundamentalism have walked hand in hand with censorship. And in Germany, 12 billion euros will be cut from culture over the next four years.

Cost-chopping politicians see culture as a soft target. They think that artists are too poor and disorganized to fight back. Preaching to their core group of supporters, politicians attempt to drive a wedge between artists and the public. The results are catastrophic. The dismemberment of culture goes to the heart of a nation’s identity. It drains a nation’s soul. And it has a significant impact on unemployment.

The response has not been silent. In Britain, massive petition campaigns are being organized. In Canada, artists helped convince the public to change the course of an election. In Italy this summer, a million people were in the streets protesting Berlusconi’s cutbacks. Despite his total control of private media, resistance was very organized. The famous opera house in Milan went dark in solidarity. Last week, across Italy, there was a mobilization never seen before. More than 1000 cultural organizations participated. Famous institutions closed down for the day. They drew attention to the destructive effects that arbitrary budget manoeuvres are having on culture.

Now, in these tough times, I think that we can all agree on the need for some financial belt-tightening. In rational and proportional ways. But, in this country, the arts budget faces a 24% cut. Some of Holland’s most precious cultural, musical and performing arts institutions are being brutally devastated, demolished and dismantled. Orchestras will shut down. Public Television may lose one third of its assigned channels. And as a special Christmas ‘bonus’ to the people of Holland from our enlightened coalition, the tax on performances will go up from six to 19%.

Both big institutions and small companies are affected. Currently, the government budget for all arts and culture is about equal to the cost of constructing a few kilometers of a Dutch motorway. Or the cost of one new Joint Strike fighter for the Defense Department. But, our government says the arts and culture are “unfortunately” not a priority.

Those who would cut arts funding so dramatically, should be reminded that culture is the measure of a civil society. Without Art there is no nation. Art is not just opera, or ballet or high-minded experimental theatre. Art is not just an intellectual enterprise for the privileged few.

Audiences become better citizens by engaging with art and culture. We add our own ideas and emotions to an artist’s interpretation of the world. Art is the music of the street. It resides in the architecture that surrounded you as you walked to the theatre tonight. Art is in the popular imagination; in novels, fashion and design.

Art, too, can be found on television, or in the art of relationships; in the language, stories and culture of everyday life. It can be found in the documentary we will see tonight. Art is life. We are all born with a creative fire within us. Sometimes it is drummed out of us. Other times it is nurtured.

So what can we do about these cutbacks? Well, I am reminded that Italy shares some important affinities with Holland. So, as a gesture of this connection, and as a symbol of an international movement, I will put on this little yellow ribbon – which is used by the Italian awareness campaign around cuts to culture.

Now, I know there is a cause for every colour of ribbon, and a ribbon for every cause, but I think you’ll agree that saving cultural is worth it….

We, as Holland’s artistic and cultural communities will not be silent. We can take personal and collective action. As the great Dutch philosopher Spinoza once observed: “The more a government strives to curtail freedom of speech, the more obstinately it is resisted.”

On Saturday November 20th, there will be a nation-wide Screaming Out for Culture. In Amsterdam, there will be events on the Leidseplein at 4pm. On Monday, at the Heineken Music Hall, the nation’s artists will speak out. We invite you all to scream out as a diverse choir of diverse voices.

Perhaps the 3000 Dutch and International Guests gathering here at IDFA will also find ways to act in solidarity. I suggest that we here at IDFA also take up a yellow ribbon campaign as a simple, symbolic gesture. Later tonight at the reception, and throughout the week in the IDFA tent on Rembrandt Square and in our theatres, we will offer everyone the opportunity to express their creativity. We’ll supply the yellow ribbon, pins and scissors so you can design and write your own messages about our common concern for culture.

But it must be emphasized that still I feel that the best way to reclaim culture – and to protect it for the long-term – is to encourage education and sustained public pressure. In most countries, I am convinced that popular will side with artists and the creative industries.

Now, wouldn’t it be wonderful if the hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend IDFA – both on-line and on-site, would spread the yellow ribbon idea through the air? Like little yellow grains of pollen floating in the wind, germinating creativity everywhere. A ripple of actions radiating out from this big IDFA pond of documentary. By word of mouth and face to interface. It would be a shot – and a shout, heard ‘round the world.

As the Dutch public acts to preserve our culture, let us join them wherever we can. Let us remind everyone that the art of real life is reflected in the art of documentary. And so, in conclusion, I believe that IDFA 2010 offers us many visions which point to the idea of a better world. It is a world with hope and promise at its centre. A world where free expression is possible. Where there are no economic barriers to making movies. I hope you’ll find that the documentaries of IDFA 2010 may take you to a place where art and culture will finally, and properly – be valued. Thank you very much.