This year, IDFA will acknowledge the diverse and prolific output of home-grown talent with the inaugural Dioraphte IDFA Award for Dutch Documentary. The prize, valued at €5,000, will be awarded to one of the five Dutch films screening in official selection or one of the twelve films selected in the Premiers of the Lowlands selection. The jury will comprise Sean Farnel from the Canadian Hot Docs fest, the Netherlands Film Museum’s Sandra den Hamer and Leena Pasanen, YLE commissioning editor, Finland.
“Dutch documentary makers are really lucky to have one of the most important documentary events on their doorstep,” comments Holland Film’s Claudia Landsberger. “It gives them the best possible exposure for their films. I am very happy the festival decided to change the Premiers of the Lowlands programme into a true competition, incorporating the other Dutch films in selection. This will attract more international attention to these films, because professionals prefer to see a selection of the best docs within a competitive programme.”
Premieres programmer Jannie Langbroek commented yesterday on the quality of Dutch docs on display in 2009, noting a shift towards more domestic subject matter. “I think there are some great Dutch documentaries this year, and that’s really not something I can say every year,” she stressed. “Our filmmakers normally deal with subjects from abroad, but this year we have one film in feature-length competition that really does deal with a Dutch subject, John Appel’s
The Player. He is telling the story of a man – his father – who was a gambler, sometimes gambling everything; if necessary his own life. He talks about his childhood and what life was like for a family whose father gambled as if it was an illness.”
Langbroek also singles out for special mention Kees Brouwer’s
Ton Sijbrands, Checkers Player, Despite All Consequences, a portrait of the Dutch chequers world champion, and Hans Pool’s
Views on Vermeer, which competes in IDFA’s mid-length competition. “It is very nice to programme documentaries about Dutch subjects as there are lots of things happening in Holland,” Langbroek opined. “To some extent, it’s easier to make a film about an exotic international subject as nobody knows anything about it. If it’s an unknown subject, you can tell the audience whatever you like. But of course if the subject is Dutch, everybody is already an expert, so it is more difficult to present a unique viewpoint. I’m sure in France they are much better at making documentaries about French subjects. Maybe in the Netherlands we haven’t so far considered ourselves important enough.”
“This is a good year for Dutch documentaries,” points out Netherlands Film Fund doc chief Niek Koppen. “
Farewell [Ditteke Mensink] is very original, a special film, the type of which I have never seen before. And John Appel has made a very personal documentary, which is a departure for him. We have the Greenpeace film as well [
The Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Island, Suzanne Raes] which is the story of the first environmental activists. Many people will be interested in this film and it will have a wide cinematic release in Holland. Wherever possible the Fund will dictate that a feature documentary must have a theatrical release.”
Nick Cunningham