IDFA bertha celebrating 20 years of powerful stories & fund extraordinary filmmakers Main Partner: Activity Report Activity2017 Report 2016 1 2 Amal, Mohamed Siam, Egypt/Lebanon/Germany/France/Norway/Denmark/Qatar, 2017 The IDFA Bertha Fund is designed to stimulate and empower the creative TABLE OF documentary sector in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East and parts CONTENTS of Eastern Europe by supporting innovative documentary projects by 5 Highlights 2017 talented filmmakers from these regions. 7 How we work 11 Funding documentary projects 11 IBF Selection 2017 MAIN PARTNER OF 11 Funding process THE IDFA BERTHA FUND 12 Focal points of the selection 13 Films realized in 2017 17 Talent development 17 IDFAcademy Summer School 18 IDFAcademy at IDFA 2017 18 Tailor-made consultancies 21 Festival circulation & distribution 21 IBF Harvest at IDFA 2017 25 Docs for Sale 2017 Bertha Foundation supports activists, storytellers and 25 Festival circulation of IBF docs lawyers that are working to bring about social and 27 IBF network economic justice, and human rights for all. Envisioning a 27 Meeting at IDFA society in which activists build collective power, stories 27 IBF at IDFA Forum come from many different voices, and law is used as a 28 International collaborations tool for justice. 28 Consultancy worldwide By investing in the IDFA Bertha Fund the Foundation supports the global creative documentary field and films that make a difference. Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Director Appendix of Social Impact Media at Bertha, “We are proud to 31 I IBF Countries support the IDFA Bertha Fund, where we are consistently 32 II Selection criteria inspired by the depth and breadth of the projects 33 III Organization 2017 being supported. The Fund plays an important role in 34 IV Selected projects 2017 strengthening the documentary field globally and we are 36 V IBF Harvest 2017 honored to be part of it.” 38 VI IBF Summer School projects 2008-2017 40 VII Docs for Sale viewing figures 40 VIII Festival circulation of IBF docs 41 IX Screenings in the Benelux 41 X Consultants at festivals in 2017 42 XI Statement of income and expenditure 3 Director Mohamed Siam (r) thanks his crew after the screening of Amal as opening film of IDFA 2017. Director Anjali Nayar (m) talks about her film Silas in a Doc Talk as part of the Oxfam Novib selection moderated by Chris Kijne (l), presenter of VPRO’s Bureau Buitenland. 4 IDFA BERTHA FUND 2017 HIGHLIGHTS The year 2017 marked the twentieth anniversary of the IDFA Bertha Fund. Twenty years of supporting remarkable filmmakers who have brought us cinematic highlights as well as audacious and urgent stories that enrich the international documentary landscape. Also celebrated was the fifth year of our collaboration with the Bertha Foundation, which has made it possible for the fund to strengthen its activities and to continue supporting creative and courageous filmmakers who make a difference. This annual report gives an outline of the Fund’s activities in theme programs and the Best of Fest section. Several films started 2017 and the impact its support has had on filmmakers and a successful festival run at festivals like the Berlinale, the Toronto organizations in this period. Also included are a number of inter- Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival. views with filmmakers, giving insight into their vision on making Four films realised with support through the IDFA Bertha documentaries, their work and development and filmmaking in Fund Europe scheme were selected for the festival, of which their countries. three competed in one of IDFA’s competitions: Talal Derki’s Of Fathers and Sons in the Feature-Length Competition; Rahu Rai, Project selection and training an Unframed Portrait in the Mid-Length Competition; and The Through the Classic funding scheme, a total of 19 documentary Next Guardian in the First Appearance Competition. Aside from projects were selected from 16 different countries, including these, Demons in Paradise, screened in the Best of Fests section Bhutan, Kenya, Algeria and Myanmar. The selection includes after a successful premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. In its projects by filmmakers who are still searching for their own selection process, the Fund is always looking for new talents. visual language as well as those who already know exactly how This was reflected in the 2017 harvest at IDFA, which included they want to tell their story. What they have in common is that eight films by first-time filmmakers. they all tell their often urgent stories of everyday life from their personal point of view. Notably, more than half of the projects Worldwide attention selected in 2017 have a female director. As mentioned before, several supported films had successful IDFA Bertha Fund Europe entered its third year, with a new se- premieres at renowned international film festivals. The most lection of six projects receiving co-production support and one prominent among these was the Syrian/Danish production project receiving distribution support. With the IBF Europe pro- Last Men in Aleppo by Feras Fayyad, which premiered at the gram, the Fund aims to bring support of films in the IBF regions Sundance Film Festival and won the main documentary award to the next level, by supporting the production and distribution there. It was the start of an impressive series of screenings of international co-productions between European producers which culminated in the film’s nomination for the Academy and their colleagues from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle Award for Best Documentary in 2018. East and Eastern Europe. During 2017, a total of 47 IBF-supported documentaries success- A crucial part of the Fund’s support is the tailor-made guidance fully travelled the festival circuit, winning 133 awards and 620 offered to filmmakers and the opportunities to meet other film- screenings, almost a quarter of which were held in the films’ makers and filmprofessionals. The Fund facilitated the partici- countries or regions of origin. The films reached a broad audi- pation of seven filmmaking teams in the IDFAcademy Summer ence, with 40% of them being sold for TV screenings and a third School; the creators of seven selected projects were invited to getting a theatrical release. IDFA and the IDFAcademy program in 2017; and four IBF-support- ed projects were selected for IDFA Forum, with the Fund facilitat- Partners ing both the teams’ participation and pitch training sessions. 2017 also marked the fifth anniversary of the Fund’s collabora- tion with the Bertha Foundation. This partnership has allowed Harvest the Fund to be a dependable partner for filmmakers. With the The Fund’s twentieth birthday was celebrated in style, as IDFA support of the Creative Europe Media Programme it has been 2017 opened with Amal by Mohamed Siam, the second film by possible to implement the IDFA Bertha Fund Europe program. this filmmaker that was supported by the Fund. The film was also For the coming year the fund will continue to provide financial selected for IDFA’s Feature-Length Competition. In total IDFA 2017 support, mentoring, and access to a network of documentary selected 14 new documentaries that were supported by the fund, professionals for filmmakers as well as explore new grounds an exciting harvest of films that were spread throughout the com- and financiers to create new opportunities to create beautiful, petition programs but also had a remarkable presence in various remarkable and necessary documentaries. 5 SOE MOE AUNG After getting script development support from IBF in March 2017, filmmaker Soe Moe Aung from Myanmar participated in the 2017 IDFAcademy training program for international film talents with his project It Wasn’t an Accident. “I have to tell this story, however difficult it is” “My father is 74 years old. In the past he was the difference between city and countryside, In addition to these emotional obstacles, Aung a general and moved in the highest echelons for example. And how Myanmar is now being also had to negotiate considerable practical of the military regime in Myanmar. Then he changed by democratization.” difficulties. Myanmar has no film culture to decided to join the democratic students’ move- Just as importantly, Aung also learned about speak of – its first film academy only opened in ment. That’s why he is now in parliament. himself. “I noticed that my father and I are 2011. “I am one of the first generation of inde- He is a well-known figure in our country, but much more different than I thought. We quar- pendent filmmakers in my country”, Aung says. I don’t really know him. I only know the war reled a lot along the way, even when the cam- He got much of his training outside of Myan- stories he always told us.” era was running. At times, I simply couldn’t mar. He refers to his year at the film academy One of these stories gave Soe Moe Aung the grasp what he was telling me. For example, in India: “A turning point in my life: then I idea for It Wasn’t an Accident. As a young lieu- about villages he burned down – a story he knew that I wanted to make films”. He learned tenant, Aung’s father was caught in an ambush. told without the slightest hint of remorse.” to pitch his ideas at a workshop in Indonesia, Shots were fired and a young woman was killed. Aung’s choice of topic for his first fea- Docs by the Sea. And participation in the He took care of her baby, taking the child to a ture-length documentary did not go down IDFAcademy in 2017 is helping him progress hospital. Fifty years later, the former soldier and well with his family.