New IDFA programs Frontlight and Luminous now complete

With due diligence to the investigative, journalistic documentary film, Frontlight honors the political activists and whistle-blowers of our time. Notable selections include Soyalism (Enrico Parenti and Stefano Liberti), in which two filmmakers travel the world to examine the agricultural economics of our obsession with soy, and its impact on the planet. Survivors (Arthur Pratt) investigates the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, setting itself apart from its counterparts by virtue of its first-hand perspective: the filmmakers of Survivors hail from the same town which the Ebola virus initially ravaged. Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalaski (Irek Dubrowolski) marks the Netflix premiere of a new documentary film on the idiosyncratic Polish artist Stanislaw Szukalaski, who rose to sudden prominence only after his death. Bellingcat – Truth in a Post-truth World (Hans Pool) goes behind the scenes of the open-source investigators of Bellingcat, the grass roots community who shook the world with their revelations on the Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) case, among other political scandals. Presented in collaboration with VPRO, Bellingcat’s world premiere at IDFA will be followed by a Q&A with founding member Eliot Higgins and the director.

Luminous, on the other hand, paints a more hyperbolic picture, offering up the gravity of personal experience as a window into contemporary society. Of the additions, selected highlights include Celebration (Olivier Meyrou), an exquisitely intimate account of haute couture designer Yves Saint Laurent and long-time business partner Pierre Bergé. Due to the disapproval of the latter, this superb film was not shown for 15 years, with the exception of a screening at Berlinale 2007. Now, having received the green light, we are proud to re-premiere Celebration in the presence of its director at IDFA 2018, and to celebrate the film’s newly gained freedom. Other Luminous highlights include By Then (Matthieu Dibelius), a film which depicts the driver of a Parisian accessibility vehicle, poetically observing the daily lives of his passengers as political turmoil unfolds in the city around them. Dark Corner (Fabio Caramaschi) tells the story of famed boxer Mirco “The Predator,” whose violent upbringing leads to a life of turbulence. Finally, Last Reactor offers a sobering observation of the outcasted Ukranian families who call an abandoned Soviet nuclear reactor home.

The complete selections of the Luminous and Frontlight programs have been made public today. You can now view all titles for these new IDFA programs online.

The IDFA audience program is supported by Fonds 21, VSBfonds, and Creative Europe Media.