Nineteen exceptionally strong films have been selected for the IDFA Competition for Short Documentary, as a growing number of acclaimed directors turn to the documentary short as an art form in its own right. A mosaic of styles and themes defines this selection, exploring everything short documentary can be. Dive into the selection below.
Selected for the shorts competition
The traditional improvisational song of the Northern Algerian Berbers is called achewiq. It is a vehicle for women to express their feelings and deal with disaster—such as the recent forest fires, which were unprecedented in their intensity.
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A heartbreaking portrait of two 16-year-old Ukrainian refugees in Budapest. They help out at a school for refugee children and make protest art on the streets—triggering political discussions among the Hungarian passersby.
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A powerfully visual film, with stunning cinematography, about a worker at an old grain silo in Budapest. His work is like that of a scuba diver: each day he is lowered into the 25-meters-deep silos, where he performs a dazzling dance.
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A visit to Matonge, the African quarter in Brussels, evokes mixed feelings for filmmaker Neema Ngelime. She would like to be part of the community, but at the same time struggles with its stifling morality.
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The dirtiest jobs in the clean-up after the 9/11 attacks were given to undocumented immigrants, at the cost of their health. Creatively edited images and animations accompany their testimonials.
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An intimate account of a highly toxic relationship: during a lengthy visit from her boyfriend’s mother, the filmmaker documents the arguments between mother and son. An oppressive and candid study of the transmission of violence through generations.
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An experimental film connecting the port of Amsterdam with the territory of the Wayuu people in Colombia. The use of coal in Europe has a major impact on the indigenous people and on Mother Earth. The mine is a stinking, open wound.
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All looks calm in a beautiful Swiss mountain village, but sounds of rustling and crackling rise from deep underground. What are those men doing with their measuring instruments? A meditation in black-and-white about people, nature and religion.
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Eleven-year-old Yangchen’s father is Bhutan’s glacier specialist. He spends months on end away from home measuring the ice thickness, which is rapidly diminishing due to climate change. But local people fear that he will disturb the mythical snow lion.
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On a boarding school in a city in the far northeast of India, 14-year-old Gautam is helplessly confined to his dorm during the Covid-19 lockdown. Back home in the village, his mother worries. An atmospheric, poetic short film about inequality.
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What happens when you get young people in Brussels to play a verbal memory game based on a list of objects from a colonial expedition in the former Belgian Congo? As you might guess: surprise turns to anger, discussions and raised awareness.
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A simple, effective film about butchers working at an Argentine abattoir. They talk about their work and their personal lives, motivations and fears. The director also reveals something about himself.
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The film itself becomes a go-between in an attempt to unite a father and his daughter, who is ill. Abstract imagery and patient observations take the viewer on a journey into the pain of this relationship, to arrive at a heartwarming dénouement.
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If collective memory exists, this may be what it looks like. An intuitive collage of people, landscapes, performances and impressionistic scenes emanate directly from the African diaspora in Brazil. Poetic and experimental, between ritual and activism.
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A woman and a man reflect on an unspecified harrowing event that they both lived through. However, they have very different ways of dealing with their horrific memories.
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An intimate personal portrait of “Auntie Ria,” a feisty, independent woman who must face the reality that her dementia is gradually getting worse. Her niece Anneke tenderly captures the last seven years of her life.
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Martina is fascinated by death. In this poetic film she even stages her own dream funeral. This parting ritual helps director Beatrice Perego, a dear friend, to process her own major loss.
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An intimate portrait of Canadian textile artist Deborah Dumka, whose daughter, filmmaker Claire Sanford, captures Dumka’s skillful work and artistic process, occasionally posing painful questions about traumas borne in silence.
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Love and panic compete for precedence when Jakob holds his newborn in his arms. Hoping to gain insight into his feelings, the filmmaker visits his taciturn father in this moving, powerful and mutedly poetic self-examination.
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