IDFA Meets
Records archivist Moataz Rageb a.k.a. Disco Arabesquo (left) and host Youssra Oulad Meesaoud (right) at IDFA Meets Nour Magazine: Before the Dying of the Light. Photo by Lin Woldendorp.
New voices, in new locations, made possible with new partners—that’s the impressive result of the work and vision of the IDFA Meets team. Together with guest curators, they brought exciting and engaging topics to a young and diverse audience all around Amsterdam.
Andrea van den Bos
IDFA Meets Project Manager:
“IDFA Meets is a program that bridges the gap between documentary and a young and diverse audience which has not yet found its way to IDFA. By giving young creative talents the role of guest curator and programmer, IDFA Meets gives them the freedom to put together a program based on a documentary film that appeals to them and their community.
“In 2021, we collaborated among others with author Munganyende, Night Mayor of Amsterdam Ramon de Lima, and youth organizations Young Amsterdam & VoorUit. With these guest curators we were able to organize events in locations throughout Amsterdam, including OSCAM in the Bijlmer and de Appel in Nieuw-West, around themes such as escapism, citizenship, intersectionality, transgenerational trauma, and the importance of archiving.".
Q&A with Ramon de Lima,
Chairman of the Nachtburgemeester Foundation and Guest Curator IDFA Meets Stichting N8BM: A Twist in the Fabric of Space
IDFA Meets is all about connecting a young audience to creative filmmakers and thinkers. ‘Night Mayor’ Ramon de Lima certainly falls into the latter category, with his passion for and vision on a creative nightlife culture—in which documentary films play a big part.
How did you experience the program you curated for IDFA Meets? Due to the COVID-19 measures, the program had to take place online. I didn't want a standard approach, but a more cinematic one. The IDFA Meets team has really succeeded in this. The great thing about the chosen film, A Twist in the Fabric of Space by Morgan Knibbe, was that it is quite abstract, which allowed the panel discussion afterwards to be quite broad.
An important topic that evening was the urge to escape from reality, a subject that often spurs on a lot of debate and moral judgment. What is your take on that? The theme of escapism gives space to different topics from a variety of points of view and perspectives. Wanting to escape from reality is often viewed negatively, both with nightlife and cinema. But besides blowing off steam, this also leads to new insights and to marvel yourself. It also makes you a more tolerant person, because you see stories that you are not familiar with. It creates more awareness about things, such as the bio industry or the consequences of COVID-19. How do you see your role within IDFA Meets? The strength of IDFA Meets is the collaboration with guest curators. By using their network, a new audience has been able to become acquainted with IDFA. For me that is a very important thing.
From left to right: sociologist Iris Andriessen and moderator Roziena Salihu at IDFA Meets Young Amsterdam & VoorUit. Photo by Pier van den Elsen.
Munganyende
Author and Performance Artist and Guest Curator IDFA Meets Munganyende: Breakfast in Kisumu: "This collaboration was fun, inspiring, and motivating, especially because of the inclusiveness of the IDFA Meets team (which includes women of color) and their perspective on the world. I'm really looking forward to doing more projects together in the future. It was such a great collaboration in a difficult COVID-19 era. Thank you for being a source of light in the darkness."
Film still: Breakfast in Kisumu, dir. Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell.
