IDFA 2011


Never before have I spent an entire day staring lifelessly at a screen without feeling completely and utterly brain dead by the end.  However, after leaving a marathon viewing of documentaries at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), I felt like a Mighty Explorer of the Universe, having traveled to far off countries and delved deeply into the collective psyche of mankind - all while seated comfortably in a loge at the beautiful Pathé Tuschinski movie theater .This cinematic adventure, starting at 10.30 in the morning and lasting until 01.30 the following morning, was happily endured, with only a few minor instances of childlike fidgeting and restlessness.  

The first three documentaries of the day also ended up being my favorites – hopefully due to their inherent merit as opposed to their being scheduled first!  There were definitely some overlapping themes in the films – most notably the corrupting force of power. But while the young and beautiful Macha, main character of Putin’sKiss, seemed at least to be struggling with her morality as a member of the Russian nationalist group Nashi, the leading lady of Sarah Palin: You betcha only reconfirmed her image as a blackberry-wielding psychopath. Both of them seemed like angels however, in comparison to the former Liberian warlord who, in The Redemption of General Butt Naked, attempts to make amends with his past by becoming a priest and confessing responsibility for the death of “not less than 20,000 people” during the Liberian civil war in the nineties. Although his remorse was unexpectedly convincing, I was still relieved the general didn’t pop out from behind the curtain for a casual Q&A session.

The fourth documentary of the day, from now on to be referred to as that -which-must-not-be-named, was an excellent change of pace, in the sense that there was plenty of time for napping. Unfortunately for the director, who was seated in the audience, many others rather visibly shared this opinion by abruptly leaving the theater. The fact that I did stay seated until the bitter end is the reason I am not naming the title now – to not undo my good deed by publicly trashing it. My friend, who had in fact wanted to leave, concluded that on the scale of  leaving during a live theater performance and sending back food in a restaurant, this was somewhere in between. To make matters worse though, it was the world premiere, and absolutely nobody remained seated for the Q&A with the director.  Ouch.

After a short pause dedicated to caloric refueling, we continued to our last two movies of the day. About Canto was a sweet Dutch film, in which a multiple piano composition by Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt was shown to have a profound impact on a variety of people – ranging from causing somebody to end their marriage to signifying a moment in time when the future was still wide open. In sharp contrast stood the final film, The Ambassador, a satire on African diplomacy and blood diamonds, largely shot with hidden cameras. That film provoked so much outrage on my part, that I honestly don’t know where to start.  First of all, upon entering the room we were handed a press release from one of the main antagonists of the film, pleading to have the film removed from the IDFA. It quickly became understandable why. Although his actions may have technically been in the legal realm, they clearly shouldn’t have been from a moral point of view, and I wondered what will happen to his trade in diplomatic passports, if anything.

Impressive as these films were, none of them landed the top prizes at the IDFA (or any prizes for that matter, as far as I am aware).  It is my hope that many of the films I enjoyed, as well as those prizewinners I apparently missed (whoosh, right over my head), will soon become available on the newly developed idfa.tv., for viewing at one’s convenience by digital streaming! Will that be as cool and badass (ahem) as watching them in an all day marathon? Probably not… 




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