F.Y.I.

Four documentaries selected for Amsterdam’s IDFA

Australian films by Juliet Lamont, Jakeb Anhvu and Davor Dirlic as well as an interactive documentary from SBS Films and a short documentary by Wendy Dent will head to Amsterdam for the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, one of the top doco fests in the world.

The announcement:

IDFA is one of the world’s leading documentary festivals, and takes place from 14 to 25 November 2012. “IDFA is an important festival for documentaries,” says Documentary Manager, Liz Stevens.  “Each year we wait with anticipation to see what films will be selected from Australia. It’s a thrill to see these Australian documentaries lining up with the best in the world.”

Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls (w/d: Juliet Lamont, p: Jessica Douglas-Henry) and Missing in the Land of Gods (w/d: Davor Dirlic, p: Liz Burke) will compete with 14 other titles in the IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary, which carries a €12,500 award.

Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls, which follows the first all-girl band from Burma after 50 years of military dictatorship, will have its world premiere at IDFA. The film received Screen Australia investment from the Signature Documentary Program, which supports projects that are bold in form and content.

Missing in the Land of Gods will have its international premiere at IDFA. The film tells the story of an Australian family who must battle an emotional and cultural minefield in the search for their son who has mysteriously disappeared in India. The project received production investment funding from Screen Australia’s Special Documentary Program (the predecessor to the Signature Program).

Blush of Fruit (w/d/p: Jakeb Anhvu, p: Kim Nguyen) will screen in the IDFA Competition for First Appearance with the best debut filmmaker receiving €5,000. It tells the story of Tong Phuoc Phuc, who operates an orphanage in Nha Trang in central Vietnam, where he persuades expectant mothers from aborting with the promise of care and shelter. IDFA’s screening will mark the world premiere of the film.

The Block: Stories from a Meeting Place, an SBS Online production in partnership with the Redfern Indigenous community, will appear in DocLab. IDFA’s DocLab investigates the relationship between documentary filmmaking and new media. A ‘virtual time capsule’ that explores the history and significance of Redfern’s Indigenous-owned housing precinct, ‘the Block’, this interactive documentary is non-linear in its narrative structure, and invites the viewer to take a virtual tour around the precinct to explore the diversity of the Block and its community.

Also included in the line-up is Alias Ruby Blade: A Story of Love and Revolution, which will screen in the First Appearance Competition. It is the story of Kirsty Sword Gusmão, the aspiring Australian documentary maker who went on to become a human rights activist and First Lady of Timor-Leste (East Timor). The film is an international production with one of its producers being Australia’s Richard Keddie.

Australian filmmaker Wendy Dent will also premiere her new film December 25 next month as part IDFA’s special 25th anniversary program of 1 minute films on the theme 25.

Screen Australia’s Investment Manager, Mary-Ellen Mullane will attend IDFA, before travelling on to the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers in Washington, D.C.

IDFA will screen 317 international titles next month, including 97 world premieres.

IDFA runs 14–25 November 2012.
Details of selected films below.

THE BLOCK: STORIES FROM A MEETING PLACE
Genre Interactive/web documentary
Production Company SBS Online
International Sales SBS Content Sales Lara.von Ahlefeldt@sbs.com.au
Synopsis The Block, Sydney, Australia’s Indigenous-owned housing precinct, has reached the end of an era, its buildings demolished and its future uncertain. This interactive documentary is an online time capsule that captures the essence of the neighbourhood and its 40-year history, and reflects on it as a symbol of struggle, unity and self-determination for the Aboriginal people. The first era of the Block is documented through stories told by the people who built it and lived through its golden era and tragic decline.

BLUSH OF FRUIT
(87 mins)
Producers Kim Nguyen, Jakeb Anhvu
Writer/Director Jakeb Anhvu
Synopsis In a modest three-story home located in the beachside town of Nha Trang, (central Vietnam) reside four young expectant mothers. These runaways are given shelter, but in return, they must care for the centre’s 18 orphaned children.
The home’s owner, Tong Phuoc Phuc, has been praised by the country’s Prime Minister for his work as an anti-abortionist and a saviour to ‘fallen’ women and their unwanted children. But there is a darker side to the home’s media-savvy front. Referred to as a ‘business’ by the mothers and their local community, donations continue to pour in, despite evidence of child abuse and profiteering.
In recent years, the Tong’s popularity has continued to grow but the truth about children’s treatment and conditions has not yet reached the wider community.

MISSING IN THE LAND OF GODS
(82 mins)
Producer Liz Burke
Writer/Director Davor Dirlic
Synopsis An exploration of love, hope and determination, Missing in the Land of Gods is a road movie that follows Jock and Di Chambers, two Australian parents on their final visit to India in search of their youngest son Ryan, who disappeared in 2005. Last seen walking out of the ashram in Rishikesh, a holy city in the Himalayan foothills, Ryan left all his possessions and a note that read: “If I’m gone, don’t worry, I’m not dead. I’m just freeing minds and to do that I had to free my own”.

MISS NIKKI AND THE TIGER GIRLS
(82 mins)
Production Company Iris Pictures www.irispictures.com.au
Producer Jessica Douglas-Henry
Writer/Director Juliet Lamont
Broadcasters ITVS International Call/PBS
Sales Films Transit www.filmstransit.com
Synopsis After 50 years of military dictatorship, Myanmar’s first girl-band face a tough reality – when you’re finally allowed to speak, what do you say? A fresh and funny feature documentary about a country undergoing massive change, Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls offers a unique perspective of Myanmar as it follows the fortunes of a bunch of talented girls breaking free of tradition in their search for an original voice.

DECEMBER 25
Writer/ Producer/ Director: Wendy Dent
Synopsis: As words unravel in an email, together with the typist’s thoughts and feelings, the quiet tapping of the keys are the only sound, but the inner turmoil becomes increasingly loud and clear. So much is said, simply in revealing the subtext of so much that has been deleted. Writing a card over the holiday season is something which most people take for granted. But for many others, this film paints a powerful portrait of a predicament they face, with angst, every year: What to write, or how to even face their ‘loved ones’ over the holidays?

Source: Screen Australia press release

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