IDFA Forum includes new projects from Shamir, Ostergaard

IDFA’s international co-finance market the IDFA Forum will host 58 projects Nov 19-21.

The selections include new works from Renzo Martens (Episode 3-Enjoy Poverty), Seung-Jun Yi (Planet of Snail), Johan Grimonprez (Double Take), Anders Ostergaard [pictured] (Burma VJ), and Yoav Shamir (Checkpoint).

Directors and producers will present documentary projects to commissioning editors and other international financiers.

A new initiative this year is work in progress screenings to show rough edits. Two of those are previously supported by the IDFA Fund: Powerless by by Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar, and The Dream of Shahrazad by François Verster.

The IDFA Forum has financial support from the MEDIA Programme and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

The 58 projects in the 2012 IDFA Forum are (descriptions provided by the festival):

1989
1989 offers new insight into the high-risk political game that lead to the fall of the Wall by visiting the secret rooms where battles are fought and history made.

24 Hour Jerusalem Online
Exploring the multiscreen creative potential (computer, tablet, phone) of the TV documentary 24 hours Jerusalem through nonlinear contents and interactive tools for communication amongst viewers or…

A Gentrification Program
The film documents Renzo Martens’ efforts to launch a process in Congo, whereby the production of art will lead to gentrification. Plantationworkers-turned-artists will be guided producing…

Back to the Square
When 27 year old Nada was at the Tahrir square she discovered that freedom was possible. Now she is trying to transfer the experiences into real life.

Beauty and Ruin
In the centre of a dying city, surrounded by jaw-dropping poverty, sits the Detroit Institute of Art, struggling to survive and prove that art matters.

Beyond the Bolex
1920’s Geneva, prolific inventor Jacques Bolsey put motion-picture cameras into amateur filmmakers hands with the Bolex camera. Decades later, the life of the mysterious Renaissance man is…

Bikes vs Cars - War Time
The Bicycle, an amazing tool to change the world. Activists and cities all over the world are moving towards a new system. But will the economic powers allow it?

Borsalino City
The story of the most popular hat in the world; from the factory where it was conceived in a small Italian town, to the glamorous world of Hollywood.

Brakeless
Through a fatal train crash and its aftermath, Brakeless considers fundamental aspects of Japanese society - punctuality and punishment.

Commodity Traders
A groundbreaking documentary investigating those behind the high stakes global commodity markets: commodity traders, from the Chicago Board of Trade to Brazilian sugarcane fields, Geneva’s…

Cooper’s Challenge
Serbia and Kosovo’s border dispute is Europe’s last territorial conflict and must be solved. It’s chief negotiator Robert Cooper’s challenge and the stakes are high.

Crossing the Bering Strait
An unlikely American duo join forces with Russian and Korean visionaries in their quest to link the United States and Russia via the Bering Strait.

Da Tong
A Chinese mayor’s mission to save his city uncovers the secrets workings of China’s Communist Party.

Embracing the Dead
Forensic expert Joergen finds himself in a moral dilemma when he is to examine a group of “living” Iraqi civilians who might have been subjected to torture.

E-TEAM
Dramatic and crucial, the E-TEAM follows the intense and courageous work of three intrepid human rights workers on the frontlines of identifying international human rights abuses worldwide.

Exercise of Life
The life and work of the greatest Master of Marionettes - told by his own creations.

FEMMEfille
In a world where success is the measure of all talent, how far would you go to pursue your life’s dream and why?

Game Plan
Game Plan is a film about the fast growing digital game business. Filmmakers decide to establish a game company of their own and develop a game in hope of success.

In the Wake of Stalin
Stalin still overshadows Russia. Between manipulation of collective memory by the power and search for truth conducted by NGO Memorial, this investigation enlightens on the battle for memory and…

J Street
J Street takes viewers to the front lines of the US debate on Middle East policy as we track a young, progressive lobby group as they take on the establishment.

Journey Story
Timnit, 20, escaped Eritrea in 2011 and disappeared on her way to Israel. We follow the search for her and reveal the secret torture camps ran by Bedouins in Sinai.

Kismet
Turkish soap operas have conquered the hearts of millions across the world. With unprecedented access to the industry’s most glamorous talent, Kismet unravels the secrets of this phenomenal…

Leaping Over the Dragon’s Gate
Through two artists and their parallel destinies inside China’s turbulent contemporary art scene, Leaping Over the Dragon’s Gate explores the formative questions of modern Chinese identity.

Like Wind, Yeji and I
A story about a mother trying to communicate in a language beyond language with her daughter who’s totally deafblind, unable to speak either, trapped in a world of total darkness.

Messiah
The Messiah is the remarkable story of how one man, known simply as “The Rebbe”, became in his lifetime and now after his death, the most iconic Jewish figure since Moses.

Michael H. Profession: Director
Michael Haneke, theorist of the image, reveals like no other the dregs of our society, with their existential fears, emotional outbursts and meltdowns - A portrait.

Mr Cool in the Cold War
Mr Cool in the Cold War - Jazz legend Dave Brubeck tells how America used music to fight Communism

My Friend, the Terrorist
My Friend The Terrorist is about a legendary Chechen commander, a national hero known as one of the most dangerous terrorists by rest of the world. Where is the truth?

Once I Dreamt of Life
“When one talks about suicide, one talks about life, not death.”

Powerless
In Kanpur, India, where people risk their lives to steal electricity in the face of 15-hour power-cuts that have crippled their livelihoods, the lines are drawn for a battle over electricity.

Prior to Farewell
Life lessons on sex, marriage and women’s empowerment & psychological thriller in homophobic Uganda. Religious leaders attend to sexual health workshop and main characters face challenges like never…

Prosecutor - A Modern Day Witch Hunt
A documentary based on a brutal and unresolved small-town family murder. Nordic murder mystery turns into a modern witch hunt.

Regarding Susan Sontag
Regarding Susan Sontag follows the writer through a life of conflict and public controversy. It explores Sontag’s sexuality and relationships in the context of her work and iconic status.

Robert Frank: You Got Eyes
Robert Frank revolutionized photography and independent film. He documented the Stones, the Beats and the Americans. This is the bumpy ride, revealed with unblinking honesty by the reclusive artist…

Samedi
A father and son story from rainforest to skyscrapers.

Silenced
An ex-CIA officer fights espionage charges for exposing a secret torture program, as four high-profile whistleblowers reveal the devastating personal costs of speaking out in post-9/11 America.

Slow Motion Revolution
In the midst of the Syrian revolution-turned-civil-war, radio presenter Oby goes from peaceful rebel to resistance fighter, aware that the end result could condemn her back to a silenced life.

Street Girls
Street Girls follows 3 prostitutes in Nigeria taken to the first “women’s rehabilitation centre,” where they must complete a 3-month course or face jail.

Strong Island
Haunted by the murder of her brother Strong Island is the director’s meditation on guilt, the impact of grief over time and the illusive meaning of “justice.”

The Bolivian Case
Three teenage Norwegian girls are arrested in Bolivia with 22kg of cocaine in their luggage, triggering a media storm that will shape the rest of their lives.

The Devil’s Lair
Thousands of un-rehabilitated prisoners get released every month, many becoming the bone and marrow of the drug trade of Cape Town, the main source of income for gangs and the root from where most…

The Dream of Shahrazad
The Dream of Sharazad is a feature-length documentary film that explores recent political events in Egypt, Turkey and Lebanon through the lens of the famous story collection The 1001 (or “Arabian”)…

The Eurocalypse - Why Are We Poor Now?
Eurocalypse will find, identify and describe both the causes and the culprits of the European economic crisis, in a gripping, wide-ranging investigate thriller of a film

The Hunted
Amanda Nyholm Jacobsen is found guilty of a $22 million fraud and forgery. Everybody condemns her but filmmaker Rebecka Rasmusson is fascinated. Who is Amanda and what made her cross the line?

The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka
A chilling account of the bloody end of the Sri Lankan civil war, the war crimes committed and the death of up to 40,000 people.

The Love Hotel
Unique access reveals the secret love lives and extraordinary desires of clients as well as the struggles of the loyal staff at The Angel Fantasy Love Hotel in Osaka, Japan.

The New Black
The New Black is a documentary that uncovers the complicated and often combative histories of the African-American and LGBT civil-rights movements.

The Philip K Dick Experience
The Philip K. Dick Experience is a transmedia project around the life and work of the american writer, built in two main component : a documentary film and an online game.

The Pleasures of the Scents
A cuisine based on aroma launches a playful rollercoaster ride into the mysteries that link food and sex to the even more mysterious science of smell.

The Road to Fame
Students at China’s top drama academy struggle with the complexities of modern China to stage the American musical Fame.

The Shadow World
Feature documentary that explores the international arms industry: a business where both profits and losses are counted in human lives.

The Taste of Africa
“Nestlé: The Taste of Africa” is an investigation into the world’s largest food-processing group’s hold over Africa and consists of a 52’ film and a web-documentary.

The Trial
The Trial is a film about the trial of neo-Nazi serial killings against Roma in Hungary, where pogroms and attacks occur every day against Roma.

The Visual Crash
Previously unseen visual documentation of the deadly raid on the 2010 Gaza Flotilla will uncover the dramatic gap between the chaotic real-time event and the virtual media event.

The Whiteness Project
The Whiteness Project is a cross-platform investigation into how white Americans experience their ethnicity. It will live primarily on the internet, but will also have film and installation…

Untitled Lucy Walker Snowboarding Documentary
The dramatic story of one unforgettable character, Kevin Pearce. One eye-popping sport, snowboarding. And one explosive issue, Traumatic Brain Injury. Directed by two-time Academy Award nominee Lucy…

Unwanted
Unwanted explores the secret genocide of girls, the lives of the women expected to produce boys and the social impact of a world without women.

War of Lies
Who really is the man behind „Curveball” and what decisive role did he play for the War in Iraq?

White Elephants
The story of public sector workers in a Railway station, Post Office and only fire station in Kinshasa offers a poetic, compassionate insight in a country in transition, in lives lived beyond…

Zero Waste
The war on garbage and the Mafia as conducted by a Utopian “madman”, the new mayor of Naples.