Apr 2

Apr 2 Our Picks From IDFA's Huge Free Online Documentary Collection

The International Documentary film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world’s largest gathering of documentary professionals, taking place every winter in the ‘Venice of the North’.

But, did you know that their website also holds a huge collection of free documentaries? Over the years, the IDFA team has been collecting festival films that are now freely available for everyone to enjoy online.

Within the Netherlands about 300 free titles are available and for everyone else there are nearly 200! In fact, the collection is so broad that you can easily get lost in it. But fear not, IDFA have developed several streams, specially curated for you to enjoy during the global lockdown.

To make things even easier, we’ve selected our favourite film from each stream so that you can kick off your own documentary binge on the right foot.

Paparrazzi by Piotr W. Bernas

Our pick from the 10-film stream “Profession: Journalism” is the tyre-screeching rollercoaster ride ‘Paparrazzi’ by Piotr Bernas.

A nerve-racking introduction into the life of a ruthless Paparazzi on the streets of Krakow, this film sucks you in from the first scene to the last. Every buzz of the photographers’ phone is followed by the roar of his car’s engine, the lighting of a cigarette and eventually a blatant, and self-confessed, invasion of a celebrity’s privacy. Swearing matches, frenzied gum-chewing and the machine-gun fire of a camera shutter give the experience an unrelenting pace that is impossible to tear yourself away from.

A gripping and eye-opening watch, we highly recommend you start with this gem of a documentary.

Drona & Me by Catherine Van Campen

Knee-deep in homeschooling for the first time? Or just struggling to keep the kids distracted? Look no further than the "Children’s Documentaries" stream. These are films suitable for all audiences focused on the lives of young people and the different perspectives they hold. Watching documentaries helps children form opinions, broadens their view, and teaches them to be critical of what they are shown, so why not give it a go.

Our favourite from the 29-film collection is Catherine Van Campen’s short ‘Drona & Me’ from our friends over at Journeyman Pictures. This is an entertaining observational film about 9-year-old autistic Drona, shot from the endearing perspective of his older brother Arjun. Drona knows the entire Amsterdam bus network by heart and dreams of being a driver himself, but his brother worries for him and his future. Not to mention that he’s sometimes embarrassed when Drona sticks his tongue out at strangers or asks too many questions, as he’s very much prone to doing.

This is a touching short film that we guarantee will make you smile.

Poor Us - An Animated History of Poverty by Ben Lewis

The third stream, “Solidarity in Times of Distancing” is a call to reflection on what we can do to break social divisions while we temporarily maintain a physical distance between ourselves.

The selection packed with great films but Ben Lewis’ ‘Poor Us - An Animated History of Poverty’ is a particularly brilliant watch. Using beautifully smooth and expressive animation married with clear, informative explanations from historians and economists, the film seeks to explain why extreme poverty still exists today.

Indeed, despite 2,500 years of efforts, we don’t seem any closer to abolishing poverty. Why not take a mesmerising trip through some of humanity’s key moments in history, from prehistory to the industrial revolution, to find out why.