Polish documentaries at the IDFA
One of the largest documentary film festivals – IDFA - starts in a month in the Netherlands. Among the qualified films there are several Polish ones.
22nd International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam will last from 19th to 29th November. It will be opened by Dariusz Jabłoński’s film “War Games” whose protagonist Colonel Ryszard Kukliński, from 1971 to 1981, transferred over 40 thousand pages of the most secret documents of the Warsaw Pact to the Western countries. Jabłoński’s documentary will compete for the main prize of the full-feature films contest. His earlier film, “Photographer”, received the 1998 Joris Ivens award in Amsterdam.
„Six Weeks” by Marcin Janos Krawczyk is included in the short documentary film contest. The films tells a story of an unwanted child in the first six weeks of its life. During this time, the biological mother should take the final decision of giving up her parental rights, which is the only way to make it possible for the child to become adopted. The show in Amsterdam will be the film’s world premiere. Krawczyk’s earlier film, “Rendez-Vous”, was shown on the most important film events, among others, in Berlin, Toronto, Washington, Kosovo, New York, Paris, Banja Luca, Zagreb, Karlove Vary and Munich.
„Where the Sun doesn’t rush” by Matej Bobrik will start in the Amsterdam students’ contest. This film, filled with black humour, is a portrait of a Slovak village – a dying-out world, where funerals are the main source of enlivening. It has already been successful at the festivals in Nyon, Peterborough and Minsk, and soon it will be shown to the viewers in Leipzig and Madrid.
Poland has a strong representation on the Docs for Sale fair, including “The Lucky Ones”, “Chemo”, “Unemployed”, “Andrzej Wajda: Let’s Shoot!”, “Six Weeks” and “Where the Sun doesn’t rush”. All films will be shown in Amsterdam as POLISH DOCS project. This is a common enterprise of Krakow Film Foundation and Polish Film Institute, whose main aim is to increase the number of Polish documentaries present at the most important film festivals abroad, and to promote this film genre among the international trade environment.
Docs for Sale documentary market is the most important event of this type on the world. Every year, over 250 TV channels’ representatives, distributing companies and festival selectors come to Amsterdam for the Festival. On 60 stands, they have an opportunity to watch all qualified films, which are, for over 10 years, available for the traders also on the Internet all year long.