1001days-CHLOE-WHITE

Source: IDFA

‘1001 Days’

International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has selected 35 feature films across its Luminous and Frontlight sections, including new films from Albania, South Africa and Panama.

The Luminous section includes non-fiction titles with a range of styles and formalistic approaches, and consists of 23 films, 22 of which are world or international premieres and 20 of which are features.

Titles include Zikethiwe Ngcobo and Chloe White’s South Africa-UK co-production 1001 Days, about the young mothers struggling to raise their children amid unemployment, poverty, disease and domestic violence in Johannesburg. The film, with Zulu and English-language dialogue, is produced by Rose Palmer for Whalebone Films.

The Frontlight strand looks to examine the truth and artistically explore urgent issues of our time; and includes 18 films, 16 of which are world or international premieres and 15 of which are features.

Titles include US title Stamped From The Beginning by Life, Animated director Roger Ross Williams, which explores the history and stark reality of racism in US society; and Nahid Persson’s Son of the Mullah, in which activist and journalist Roholla Zam works to expose the corruption and hypocrisy of the Iranian regime.

The festival has set ‘Phenomenal Friction’ as the theme for its public DocLab immersive exhibition programme, showcasing more than 30 interactive works that examine the resistance that propels creativity forwards.

IDFA on Stage, the festival’s programme of live cinema events, includes nine projects across film, new media and performing arts; while the IDFA queer programme curated by Simone van Saarloos will take place over six days at the new IDFA Vondelpark Pavilion, under the banner Contagious & Queer.

The festival has selected 10 titles for Paradocs, its experimental art showcase, including Dearest Fiona, in which visual artist Fiona Tan combines her father’s letters from the 1980s with scenes from the present.

The festival’s final competition titles will be announced on Wednesday, October 18 at a press conference. IDFA 2023 runs from November 8-19.

Luminous 

*denotes world premeire 

1001 Days
Dir. Zikethiwe Ngcobo, Chloe White

… Ned, Tassot, Yossot …
Dir. Brigitte Weich

Amor
Dir. Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri

A Band Of Dreamers And A Judge*
Dir. Hesam Eslami 

Atirkül in the Land of Real Men
Dir.Janyl Jusupjan

Another Day*
Dir. Eneos Carka

Burning Out*
Dir. Saskia Gubbels

Ch’ul be, Sacred Path
Dir. Humberto Gomez Perez 

Embodied Chorus*
Dirs. Mohamad Moe Sabbah, Danielle Davie

Echo Of You*
Dir. Zara Zerny 

Glass, My Unfulfilled Life 
Dir. Rogier Kappers

Helke Sander: Cleaning House
Dir. Claudia Richarz 

How Do You Spell Home?*
Dir. Louisiana Mees-Fongang 

Mother Suriname - Mama Sranan*
Dir. Tessa Leuwsha 

Ozogoche*
Dir. Joe Houlberg Silva 

The Driven Ones
Dir. Piet Baumgartner 

The New Man
Dir. Carlos Yuri Ceuninck 

The Zola Experience 
Dir. Gianluca Matarrese

Under The Moonlight*
Dir. Tonny Trimarsanto 

Where Zebus Speak French
Dir. Nantenaina Lova 

Frontlight 

2G*
Dir. Karim Sayad 

#Racegirl – The Comeback of Sophia Flörsch
Dir. Sonia Otto

Bila Burba*
Dir. Duiren Wagua 

Behind Closed Doors
Dir. Joao Pedro Bim

Copa 71
Dirs. Rachel Ramsey, James Erskine

Donga*
Dir. Muhannad Lamin 

Hiding Saddam Hussein*
Dir. Halkawt Mustafa 

Inivisible Nation
Dir. Vanessa Hope 

In Wolf Country
Dir. Ralf Bücheler

Our Land, Our Freedom*
Dirs. Meena Nanji, Zippy Kimundu 

Stamped From The Beginning 
Dir. Roger Ross Williams 

Son Of The Mullah 
Dir. Nahid Persson

The Border Crossed Us*
Dir. Loretta van der Horst 

They And Them*
Dir. Ingrid Kamerling 

The Kyiv Files*
Dir. Walter Stokman