IDFA celebrates Peter Greenaway and Wang Bing
- The 36th edition of the Dutch documentary gathering will pay tribute to the two great helmers, explore invisible connections between directors and herald the return of IDFA DocLab
The 36th edition of IDFA – International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam will unspool from 8-19 November, and will boast a plentiful selection of films from East and South-East Asia. The guest of honour will be Chinese documentarian and artist Wang Bing, while the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Peter Greenaway, will be celebrated with a retrospective. Two carefully curated in-depth programmes, Fabrications and 16 Worlds on 16, have also been announced, in addition to Corresponding Cinemas, a series of screenings and conversations on the invisible connections between filmmakers. The return of IDFA DocLab has also been made public.
An uncompromising voice in contemporary Chinese cinema, Wang Bing will expand the themes from his own filmography with the Top 10 Programme, in which he invites us on a contemplative journey through modern-day Chinese cinema, with ten titles starting from the year 1999. IDFA offers a Wang Bing retrospective of six movies ranging from 2002 to today, including his masterpiece Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, a title that heralded a new era for Chinese documentary film, and his latest films presented at Cannes this year, Youth (Spring) [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Man in Black [+see also:
film review
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film profile].
To celebrate the acclaimed British director and artist, IDFA has announced a selection of five films by Peter Greenaway, including The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) and Rembrandt's J'Accuse...! [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2008). At a unique event, Greenaway will usher the IDFA audience into his creative process, with a surprise screening and a wide-ranging conversation with IDFA artistic director Orwa Nyrabia.
The Fabrications focus presents ten films that test the boundaries of the promise of truth in the documentary format, exploring the unique relationship of trust between the documentary and the audience. It includes the doc by the late Safi Faye on the village where she was born, Letter from My Village, and the kaleidoscopic portrait of the city of Tehran by Massoud Bakhshi, Tehran Has No More Pomegranates!. The other titles will be announced in October.
Meanwhile, 16 Worlds on 16 analyses the way in which the format of celluloid has influenced the history of documentary film, taking a look back at the 100 years that have elapsed since the introduction of 16 mm film by Kodak. The less costly and lighter alternative to the 35 mm movie camera allowed experimentation and independent filmmaking to grow and flourish, making it even more accessible to the least-represented communities, such as in the case of Cuba’s Sara Gómez with On the Other Island. The selection of 16 titles also includes cinéma vérité classics, such as Daguerréotypes by Agnès Varda, and examples of the metaphorical criticism of the authorities in order to circumvent censorship, such as First Case, Second Case by Abbas Kiarostami.
Corresponding Cinemas is a series of films and conversations on the invisible links between directors, which will examine the ways in which the work of each filmmaker has inspired the work of others, offering a look at the never-ending chain of creative connections in cinema. Using Native American director Sky Hopinka as the starting point, the programme will explore the connections between Basma al-Sharif, Jumana Manna, Ibrahim Shaddad and Abderrahmane Sissako through nine titles.
Lastly, this year marks the return of IDFA DocLab, now having reached its 17th edition, with a slew of interactive and immersive documentary works, plus digital art installations. The topic for this year and the complete list of selected projects will be announced in October.
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