• IDFA 2023 with Orwa Nyrabia

  • IDFA 2022 Program Review + Watch List with Wouter Jansen

  • Paradise with Alexander Abaturov

    IDFA 2022 - International Competition

  • All That Breathes with Shaunak Sen

    IDFA 2022 - Best of Fests

  • Foragers with Jumana Manna

    IDFA 2022 - Best of Fests

  • Geographies of Solitude with Jacquelyn Mills

    IDFA 2022 - Best of Fests

  • 2021 IDFA Watch List with Venice Atienza

  • Children of the Mist with Diem Ha Le

    IDFA 2021 - International Competition

  • Looking for Horses with Stefan Pavlović

    IDFA 2021 - Best of Fests

  • A Night of Knowing Nothing with Payal Kapadia

    IDFA 2021 - Best of Fests

  • Taming the Garden with Salomé Jashi

    IDFA 2021 - Best of Fests

  • Last Days at Sea with Venice Atienza

    IDFA 2021 - Best of Fests

  • Nothing but the Sun with Arami Ullón

    IDFA 2020 - Opening Film

IDFA 2023 with Orwa Nyrabia

[November 08, 2023] Today is the first day of the 36th edition of IDFA, the world's largest documentary film festival - and this year will feature more than 250 titles in 22 sections. Earlier this week, I sat with Orwa Nyrabia, the Artistic Director of the festival, to speak with him about the role, responsibility, and relevancy of film festivals and how IDFA is meeting the current moment - a moment marked by an unimaginable amount of violence, pain, and suffering. 

We also discuss some of the new sections in the program, including SPECIAL SCREENINGS, SIGNED, and the highly anticipated introduction of CORRESPONDING CINEMAS, a unique program featuring a series of films from filmmakers who have inspired one another, including Sky Hopinka, Basam al-Sharif, Jumana Manna, Ibrahim Shaddad, and Abderahmane Sissako. 

We end the conversation with an amusing story of how Wang Bing came to be this year’s Guest of Honor. 

  • Born in Syria, Orwa Nyrabia started his career as an actor and journalist before moving into film production. In 2002, together with his partner and fellow filmmaker, Diana El Jeiroudi, they established an independent production company. In 2008, he moved into festival organizing where he and his partner launched DOX BOX which grew to be the most important documentary film gathering in the Arab world. Just before the 5th edition, the organizers made a public statement announcing the suspension of the festival in protest against the violation of human rights in Syria. Instead they advocated for Syrian films to be shown in festivals around the world as an act of solidarity in light of the violence that by then had taken hold in Syria. Orwa was subsequently arrested in Damascus and the international film community came together and successfully called on the Syrian Government for his release. Now exiled in Europe, Orwa continues advocating for the power of documentary film and the rights of filmmakers.

  • Christina is a researcher, filmmaker, and founding editor of Docs in Orbit, where she leads the curation of content.

  • 00:03:30 How is IDFA meeting the current moment

    00:08:22 Films in the program on Orwa's mind: Occupied City (2023) by Steve McQueen, Socialist Realism (2023) by Raul Ruiz and the 20th anniversary of Arna's Children (2003)

    00:12:00 SPECIAL SCREENINGS

    00:13:34 SIGNED

    00:16:28 16 WORLDS ON 16, including works by Agnes Varda, Sarah Maldoror, Chantal Akerman, Maya Deren, Robert Frank, and The First Year (1972) by Patricio Guzman and First Case. Second Case (1979), by Abbass Kiaristami

    00:21:30 FABRICATIONS, including notable works from Shirley Clarke, Rosine Mbakam, Safi Faye, and David Schickele

    00:26:26 CORRESPONDING CINEMAS, including works of Sky Hopinka, Basma Al Sharif, Jumanna Manna, Ibrahim Shaddad Abderahmane Sissako

    00:40:00 - 00:46:00 WANG BING, Guest of Honor and his curated TOP 10 films

IDFA 2022 with Orwa Nyrabia

[November 29, 2022] Last week brought the close of the 35th edition of IDFA, and this year’s edition felt monumental. Not only for the sheer number of films on display (277) but also for the necessary and thought-provoking panel discussions that were platformed - including an examination of the growing prosecution and incarceration of filmmakers around the world, the emergence of co-creation as a practice grounded in equity and justice, and a bold, critical examination of the power dynamics inherent in film festivals that are designed around exclusivity and competition. 

All said it was an impressive offering that gave air to many meaningful exchanges. Midway through the festival, I had the great chance to catch up with Orwa Nyrabia, the Artistic Director of IDFA, to discuss the organizing of this year’s festival experience and unpack some of the ideas and notions that were pushed to the foreground.

  • Born in Syria, Orwa Nyrabia started his career as an actor and journalist before moving into film production. In 2002, together with his partner and fellow filmmaker, Diana El Jeiroudi, they established an independent production company. In 2008, he moved into festival organizing where he and his partner launched DOX BOX which grew to be the most important documentary film gathering in the Arab world. Just before the 5th edition, the organizers made a public statement announcing the suspension of the festival in protest against the violation of human rights in Syria. Instead they advocated for Syrian films to be shown in festivals around the world as an act of solidarity in light of the violence that by then had taken hold in Syria. Orwa was subsequently arrested in Damascus and the international film community came together and successfully called on the Syrian Government for his release. Now exiled in Europe, Orwa continues advocating for the power of documentary film and the rights of filmmakers.

  • Christina is a researcher, filmmaker, and founding editor of Docs in Orbit, where she leads the curation of content.

IDFA 2022 - Co-Curated Watch List with Wouter Jansen

[November 07, 2022] In this episode, I am joined with Wouter Jansen from Square Eyes ahead of his travels to IDFA to review the festival program.  IDFA is one of the largest documentary events, and their extensive programming is energizing for the international documentary film community. But it can also be overwhelming with over 250 titles and only ten days. So, before boarding our flights, Wouter joined me to go through each section of the program and co-curated a watch list to help guide our festival experience. 

Square Eyes is a sales and distribution company based in Vienna that specializes in helping outstanding non-mainstream films find the audience and recognition they deserve. With Square Eyes, Wouter represents bold, author-driven features and shorts and collaborates closely with filmmakers to devise bespoke festival distribution and sales strategies. He has a very focused catalog of films that have premiered at prestigious festivals and won multiple awards over the last few years, like main prizes at Cannes, TIFF, Berlin, Locarno, and Clermont-Ferrand. 

This year, he will be at IDFA representing two titles, ANHEIL69 by Theo Montoya, which made its premiere in the Critics Week section of the Venice Film Festival, and EUROPE by Philip Scheffner, which premiered at the Berlinale Forum section earlier this year.

  • INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

    NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS By Mila Turajlić - Serbia, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Qatar - 105’ min

    PARADISE by Alexander Abaturov - France, Switzerland - 88’ min

    COLETTE AND JUSTIN by Alain Kassanda - France, Belgium - 89' min

    ENVISION COMPETITION

    HOW DARE YOU HAVE SUCH A RUBBISH WISH by Mania Akbari - Iran, UK - 72’ min

    INVOKED by Luka Papić and Srda Vučo - Serbia - 64’ min

    SHORT DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

    SOLMATALUA by Rodrigo Ribeiro-Andrade - Brazil - 15 min

    STILL STATIC - Adam Kaplan - France - 22 min

    AWAY by Ruslan Fedotow - Hungary - 28 min

    BUDAPEST SILO by Zsofia Paczolay - Hungary - 25 min (Short Competition)

    DOCLAB COMPETITION FOR IMMERSIVE NON-FICTION

    IN PURSUIT OF REPETITIVE BEATS by Darren Emerson - UK - 35 min

    SLUMBERLAND by Emma Bexell Stanisic, Stefan Bexell Stanisic, Robin Jonsson - Sweden - 2022 - 30 min

    IDFA ON STAGE

    ARCADIA LIVE by Paul Wright - UK - 78 min

    BETWEEN NOTHINGNESS AND INFINITY, I BEGAN TO WEEP by Maxime Jean-Baptiste - French Guiana, Belgium, France - 80 min

    BEST OF FESTS

    ANHELL69 by Theo Montoya - Colombia / Romania / France / Germany - 72 min

    NAKED GARDENS by Ivete Lucas & Patrick Bresnan - U.S., France - 90 min

    FORAGERS by Jumana Manna - Palestine - 64 min

    GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE by Jacqueline Mills - Canada - 104 min

    ALL THAT BREATHES by Shaunak Sen - India, UK, U.S.A - 94 min

    PARADOCS

    EUROPE by Philip Scheffner - Germany, France - 105 min

    A LITTLE LOVE PACKAGE by Gastón Solnicki - Austria, Argentina - 81 min

    THE UNSTABLE OBJECT II by Daniel Eisenberg - United States - 204 min

    LAURA POITRAS + TOP 10

    PROJECT CROSSROADS by U.S. Department of Energy - United States - 1949 - 42 min

    THE 3 ROOMS OF MELANCHOLIA by pirjo Honkasalo - Finland, Denmark, Germany, Sweden - 2004 - 106 min (Top 10 Section)

  • Wouter Jansen is the founder of the sales and festival distribution company Square Eyes. He worked as the head of programming at the Go Short - International Film Festival during the first 10 editions. In 2013 he started Some Shorts, which changed to Square Eyes in 2019, which specializes in having outstanding non-mainstream films find the audience and recognition they deserve. With Square Eyes, Wouter represents bold, author-driven features and shorts, and collaborates closely with the filmmakers to devise bespoke festival distribution and sales strategies. This has resulted in a small catalogue of films premiering at prestigious festivals and winning multiple awards over the last few years like main prizes at Cannes, TIFF, Berlin, Locarno and Clermont-Ferrand.

    Wouter has been giving lectures at schools like Le Fresnoy, HEAD Geneva and Netherlands Film Academy and is an expert for Locarno Open Doors and First Cut Lab. He has moderated as well as led workshops at festivals like IDFA, True/False, Winterthur, VIS Vienna Shorts and others. He is a Berlinale Talents alumni.

  • Christina is a researcher, filmmaker, and founding editor of Docs in Orbit, where she leads the curation of content.

IDFA 2021 - Co-Curated Watch List with Venice Atienza

[November 17, 2021] In this episode, I am joined by filmmaker and dear friend Venice Atienza ahead of her travels to IDFA to review the festival program.  IDFA is one of the largest documentary events, and its extensive programming is energizing for the international documentary film community. But it can also be overwhelming, with over 260 titles and only ten days. So, before boarding her flight, Venice joined me to go through each section of the program and co-curated a watch list to help guide our festival experience. 

Venice is a filmmaker currently living between Mumbai and Manilla. She is a graduate of the European film school, DocNomads. Her first feature film, LAST DAYS AT SEA, debuted in March 2021 at the Berlinale and is closing out the year in the “Best of Fests” section at IDFA. She is also a returning contributor to the podcast and sat with us earlier this year to discuss her film, LAST DAYS AT SEA.

You can listen to that discussion, as well as discussions with filmmakers Salomé Jashi, Payal Kapadia, and Stefan Pavlović whose films are included in the Best of Fests section of the festival.

  • INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

    CHILDREN IN THE MIST by Diem Ha Le / Vietnam / 2021 / 92 min

    A THOUSAND FIRES by Saeed Taji Farouky / France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Palestine / 2021 / 90 min

    HOW THE ROOM FELT by Ketevan Kapanadze / Georgia / 2021 / 74 min / World Premiere

    WHERE ARE WE HEADED by Rusland Fedotow / Russia / 2021 / 63 min

    ENVISION COMPETITION

    ESKAPE by Adeline Neary Hay / France / 2021 / 70 min

    FOUR JOURNEYS by Louis Hothothot (Louis Yi Liu) / Netherlands / 2021 / 112 min

    THE BURROWS by Sanshou Hu / China / 2021 / 101 min

    IDFA ON STAGE

    THE HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR by Dziga Vertov / Russia / 1921 / 94 min /

    SPECTRAL TRANSMISSIONS by Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher / United States / 70 min

    IDFA COMPETITION FOR YOUTH DOCUMENTARY

    WILD ANIMAL by Maria Besora / Spain / 2021 / 23 minutes

    IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

    Dixie by Caroline Rumley / United States / 15 min European Premiere

    I Am Trying to Remember by Pegah Ahangarani / Iran, Czech Republic / 16 min

    Prosopagnosia by Steven Fraser - UK - 11 minutes

    Two Spirit by Mónica Taboada-Tapia - Colombia - 16 min

    BEST OF FESTS

    LAST DAYS AT SEA by Venice Atienza / Philippines, Taiwan / 2021 / 72 min

    LOOKING FOR HORSES by Stefan Pavlović / Netherlands, Bosnia-Herzegovina, France / 2021 / 88 min

    A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING NOTHING by Payal Kapadia / France, India / 2021 / 97 min

    TAMING THE GARDEN by Salomé Jashi / Switzerland, Germany, Georgia / 2021 / 92 min

    KALSUBAI by Yudhajit Basu / India / 2020 / 20 min

    HITO STEYERL TOP 10

    Essay, referenced on the podcast IN DEFENSE OF THE POOR IMAGE

  • Venice Atienza, Mumbai - Venice is a filmmaker and co-producer of Docs in Orbit. Her first feature documentary, Last Days at Sea (2021) premiered at the Berlinale and screened in festivals around the world, including Visions du Réel, Hot Docs, and DMZ Docs. Venice is also the co-founder of Svemirko Film and Audiovisual Art Productions. Her projects have received support from the IDFA Bertha Fund and Sundance, among others. Venice has a Master of Arts from DocNomads. In 2023, she was invited to serve on the international jury for the 73rd Berlinale Generation KPlus competition.

    Wouter has been giving lectures at schools like Le Fresnoy, HEAD Geneva and Netherlands Film Academy and is an expert for Locarno Open Doors and First Cut Lab. He has moderated as well as led workshops at festivals like IDFA, True/False, Winterthur, VIS Vienna Shorts and others. He is a Berlinale Talents alumni.

  • Christina is a researcher, filmmaker, and founding editor of Docs in Orbit, where she leads the curation of content.