Jørgen Leth and Danish Documentaries to IDFA

IDFA's 30th edition will be celebrated with a string of special events in addition to a comprehensive film programme of 312 titles plus talks, industry meetings and exhibitions running throughout the festival from 15 to 26 November.

Danish films and filmmakers will be taking part in various competitions as well as the special programmes highlighting the jubilee. See the complete list of Danish participation below.

"Life is a Beach" is one of two films by Jens Pedersen selected for IDFA's Kids & Docs competition.

Films in competition

Three Danish directors are represented in IDFA's competitive programme.

Simon Lereng Wilmont's "The Distant Barking of Dogs" is selected for the First Appearance competition. The film follows 9-year-old Oleg, whose life has been turned upside down by the war in East Ukraine. Wilmont last directed two films about children in elite sports, "Chikara – The Sumo Wrestler's Son" (2013) and "The Fencing Champion" (2014), both shown at IDFA.

Jens Pedersen's five-part documentary series "Kids on the Silk Road" about young lives along the ancient Silk Road in Central and Southeast Asia will be represented in the Kids & Docs competition by two of the films in the series, "Life is a Beach" and "Music in My Blood." The director travelled to IDFA in 2013 with his praised short film series about children in Afghanistan, "Faith Hope Afghanistan."

Trine Laier's "Cosmic Top Secret" will be joining the competition for digital storytelling. The adventure game invites the audience to help a character named T to unravel the truth about the protagonist's parents and their work with Danish intelligence during the Cold War. The game, based on the director's own story, has already won awards in Berlin and Los Angeles.

Mikala Krogh's "A Year of Hope" is world-premiering in IDFA's Masters programme.

Films in non-competitive series

Six Danish films will be taking part in the non-competitive Masters, Best of Fests and Panorama series. Several of the directors will be well-known to IDFA audiences.

Phie Ambo's "... When You Look Away" is selected for Masters showing reputable documentarians' latest works. The film, exploring consciousness based on quantum physics, is the last film in the director's trilogy about the relationship between science and human existence.

Mikala Krogh's "A Year of Hope," also part of Masters, follows a group of boys from Manila's slums and their journey towards a better future. The film will be celebrating its world premiere at IDFA.

Camilla Magid's "Land of the Free" is selected for Best of Fests, a series of festival highlights from the past year. The film about taking your life in your own hands in a tough neighbourhood in Los Angeles won the award as best Nordic doc at CPH:DOX and screened at the festivals in Karlovy Vary and Telluride.

Nicole N. Horanyi's "The Stranger" will be in the Panorama lineup, showing films that are thought-provoking in style and topic. The documentary tells the story of Amanda and her crush on the charming Casper, who turns out to be a fraud. Also selected for Panorama is Kasper Astrup Schröder's "Big Time" about renowned architect Bjarke Ingels and Nitesh Anjaan's "Dreaming Murakami" about the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami.

"Dreaming Murakami" is supported by the Copenhagen Film Workshop, while all other films have received funding from the Danish Film Institute.

Filmmakers in special series

IDFA's 30th birthday coincides with a farewell to the festival's founder and director Ally Derks. Both milestone events will be honoured through The Visual Voice series, where Danish documentarian Jørgen Leth and a total of 18 leading directors, all of whom have had a strong connection to the festival over the years, introduce significant films and share their visions for the future of documentary filmmaking.

The series will be showing, among others, Anders Østergaard's 2008 IDFA winner "Burma VJ – Reporting from a Closed Country" and Joshua Oppenheimer's groundbreaking first film from Indonesia, "The Act of Killing."

Lars Skree is invited to share his experiences in the Camera in Focus programme, where both new and experienced cinematographers talk about their work. Skree has shot such radical films as Janus Metz's "Armadillo" and Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Look of Silence" and "The Act of Killing".

IDFA 15-26 November 2017

Danish films at IDFA 2017

FIRST APPEARANCE COMPETITION

The Distant Barking of Dogs / Simon Lereng Wilmont
Producer: Monica Hellström for Final Cut for Real

Danish producer Sigrid Jonsson Dyekjær is member of the First Appearance Competition jury

COMPETITION FOR KIDS & DOCS

Music in My Blood + Life is a Beach / Jens Pedersen
Producer: Maria Stevnbak Westergren for Pedersen & Co.

DOCLAB COMPETITION FOR DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Cosmic Top Secret / Trine Laier
Producer: Lise Saxtrup for Klassefilm

MASTERS

... When You Look Away / Phie Ambo
Producer: Malene Flindt Pedersen for Viola-Lucia Film

A Year of Hope / Mikala Krogh
Producer: Sigrid Dyekjær for Danish Documentary Production

BEST OF FESTS

Land of the Free / Camilla Magid
Producer: Heidi Elise Christensen, Signe Byrge Sørensen for Final Cut for Real

PANORAMA

The Stranger / Nicole N. Horanyi
Producer: Helle Faber for Made in Copenhagen

Big Time / Kaspar Astrup Schröder
Producer: Sara Stockmann for Sontag Picture

Dreaming Murakami / Nitesh Anjaan
Producer: Pernille Tornøe Frederiksen for Final Cut for Real

THE VISUAL VOICE

Burma VJ – Reporting from a Closed Country / Anders Østergaard
Producer: Lise Lense-Møller for Magic Hour Films

The Act of Killing / Joshua Oppenheimer
Producer: Signe Byrge Sørensen for Final Cut for Real

Films with Danish participation

Golden Dawn Girls / Håvard Bustnes (Norway, Denmark, Finland)
Danish producer: Jesper Jack for House of Real
Competition for Feature-Length Documentary

Amal / Mohamed Siam (Egypt, Lebanon, Germany, Denmark)
Danish producer: Patricia Drati for Good Company Pictures
Competition for Feature-Length Documentary

Tongue Cutters / Solveig Melkeraaen (Norway, Denmark)
Danish producer: Malene Flindt Pedersen for Hansen & Pedersen Film og Fjernsyn
Competition for Kids & Docs

Kumbh / Umesh Kulkarni (India, Denmark)
Produced by Danish-Palestinian Mahdi Fleifel
Competition for Short Documentary

Aleppo's Fall / Nizam Najjar (Norge, Danmark, France)
Danish producer: Henrik Underbjerg for Straydog Production
Panorama

A World Not Ours / Mahdi Fleifel (UK, Lebanon, Denmark)
Produced by Danish-Palestinian Mahdi Fleifel
Shifting Perspectives: The Arab World

Olegs krig - en barndom i krigens skygge

Simon Lereng Wilmont, 2017

10-årige Oleg bor i det østlige Ukraine – en krigszone der ofte genlyder af antiluftskyts og missilbombardementer. Til tider er disse lyde langt væk, men andre gange frygtindgydende tæt på. Mens mange har forladt det farlige område, er Oleg blevet tilbage sammen med sin bedstemor, som har taget sig af ham, siden hans mor døde.

Børnene på silkevejen 5:5 - Beach Boys

Jens Pedersen, 2017

Javed (11 år) og hans bedste ven Shahidul (15 år) drømmer om en fremtid som surferstjerner. Når de ikke arbejder på stranden for at tjene penge til deres familier, bruger de al deres tid ude i bølgerne og i Sifats surfklub. Javed droppede ud af skolen i 2.

Børnene på Silkevejen 4:5 - Musik i blodet

Jens Pedersen, 2017

Ravi (13) er den yngste søn i en familie af musikanter, som lever af at spille deres traditionelle musik til velbeslåede inderes bryllupper. Det har familien gjort i længere tid, end nogen efterhånden kan huske. ”Vores musik er gudernes stemme”, indskærper Ravis far sin søn.

Yderst hemmeligt

Trine Laier, 2018

"Yderst hemmeligt" er et selvbiografisk, animeret dokumentarspil om T, der vil finde ud af, hvad hendes far arbejdede med for Efterretningstjenesten under Den Kolde Krig. Historien fortælles crossmedialt via mobiltelefon og computer, og har kommunikation (og mangel på samme) mellem far og datter som omdrejningspunkt. Spilletid: 7 timer +

...Når du kigger væk

Phie Ambo, 2017

I tæt samarbejde med forskere ved Niels Bohr Instituttet undersøger filmen emnet bevidsthed med udgangspunkt i kvantefysikken. Filmens optageform giver publikum mulighed for at følge en proces, hvis resultat ikke er givet på forhånd. Filmen stiller en række grundlæggende videnskabelige spørgsmål som: Hvad hvis grundlæggende årsagssammenhænge i verden ikke fungerer som vi tror? Skal vi forstå forholdet mellem vores bevidsthed og den fysiske verden på en helt ny måde? Hvad sker der i naturvidenskabens grænseland – der hvor de vedtagne sandheder og de vilde teorier støder sammen? Vil en ny måde at forstå vores menneskelige bevidsthed, komme fra en helt uventet kant? ".

Gadens børn - et år med håb

Mikala Krogh, 2017

Filmen er en coming-of-age historie om en gruppe gadedrenge fra Manila i Filippinerne, der får muligheden at ændre deres liv for altid. De bliver tilbudt et års ophold på et center på en ø, afsides Manila, der i sammenligning med det barske gadeliv er det rene paradis. Flere af drengene er blandt andet blevet misbrugt seksuelt, er afhængige af stoffer, har været udsat for vold i familien og overværet drab.

Big Time

Kaspar Astrup Schröder, 2017

Dokumentarfilmen er optaget over seks år og giver et unikt indblik i det kreative sind hos en af verdens mest succesrige og innovative arkitekter – Bjarke Ingels. Samtidig ser filmen nærmere på de udfordringer, som hans arbejde og liv rummer, og tegner et personligt og intimt portræt af mennesket Ingels. En moderne mand, der har travlt med at forme verden, alt imens han kæmper med at skabe mening i sit eget liv.

En fremmed flytter ind

Nicole N. Horanyi, 2017

Amanda bor alene med sin datter i Hvidovre, men en dag støder hun på Casper på Facebook. Tre måneder senere siger hun ja til en date, og her bliver Amanda smaskforelsket i den sjove og omsorgsfulde Casper, som også selv har en datter. Casper afslører, at han er arving til en af Danmarks rigeste familier, men også at det er en arv, han helst er foruden.

Fanget i de fries land

Camilla Magid, 2017

Brian er lige blevet løsladt efter at have tilbragt hele sit voksne liv i fængsel. Nu er han tilbage i South Central, en rå og fattig bydel i Los Angeles, hvor han skal indhente den tabte tid i et forandret samfund. I en alder af 42 år skal han lære at navigere på internettet, få sig et job og finde en kæreste.

Burma VJ - reporter i et lukket land

Anders Østergaard, 2008

Bevæbnet med små kameraer og trods risiko for tortur og fængsling, sørger selvbestaltede burmesiske videojournalister for at forsyne omverdenen med nyheder fra deres lukkede land. Deres optagelser smugles ud af Burma og transmitteres tilbage ind i landet via satellit. Den 27-årige Joshua bliver taktisk leder af en gruppe borger-journalister, da buddhistiske munke i september 2007 går i front af et stort oprør.

The Act of Killing

Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012

I 1965 væltede militæret den indonesiske regering, og over en million mennesker - kommunister, etniske kinesere og intellektuelle - blev udryddet. I filmen, der foregår i byen Medan på øen Sumatra, udfordrer filmskaberne dødspatruljeledere til at dramatisere deres rolle i folkemordet. Resultatet er en surrealistisk filmisk rejse ind i massemordernes forestillinger og fantasier om dem selv og deres ofre.