Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival
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Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival (informally Jihlava IDFF) is the largest festival of creative documentary film in Central and Eastern Europe. It was founded in 1997 by a group of grammar school students in Jihlava, since 2001, it has been organised under the banner of the Jihlava Association of Amateur Filmmakers, and since 2015, under the banner of the DOC.DREAM – Association for the Support of Documentary Cinema with “Thinking Through Film!” adopted as the festival’s traditional motto.
Jihlava IDFF takes place annually at the end of October and hosts numerous notable foreign guests. In 2005, Jihlava welcomed the renowned Japanese director, Naomi Kawase, followed by the Portuguese filmmaker, Manoel de Oliveira, in 2006. Audience could engage in interesting debates with such prominent figures as the writers, Tariq Ali, Carlos A. Aguilera, Natalya Gorbanevskaya, the Nobel Prize Laureate, Gao Xingjian, or the members of the radical Russian art group Voina, representatives of the Ukrainian feminist movement, FEMEN, the member of the Russian feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot Maria Alyokhina or an Australian computer programmer, publisher, journalist and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks Julian Assange. Among the film theoreticians who presented their views at the festival were P. Adams Sitney, Bill Nichols, Guy Gauthier, François Jost or the Dutch film historian, Thomas Elsaesser.
Competition and Non-competitions Sections, Accompanying Events
Since 2000, the festival’s expert jury has been selecting the Best Czech Documentary Film from the Czech Joy section. Another competition section entitled Between the Seas, existing since 2003, is dedicated to documentaries from Central and Eastern European countries. In 2006, a new competition section – Opus Bonum – emerged, focusing on relevant events in the field of world documentary. The fourth competition section is entitled Fascinations – a showcase of experimental films opening up unique ways of representing reality.
In 2014, the festival newly instituted awards for the Best Short Documentary Film in the Short Joy section and the First Lights competition for fresh filmmakers whose documentary debuts or second feature films compete in the Opus Bonum, Between the Seas or Czech Joy sections. In 2015 a traditional section Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz bringing Czech experimental documentary films became also a competition section.
Non-competition sections annually include Doc-fi exploring the borders between documentary and fiction film and Reality.tv, focusing on new TV formats and current cross-genre forms, such as docudrama, docusoap, reality show or mockumentary. Film works by prominent filmmakers who have left a remarkable signature in the history of documentary cinematography are reflected in the section, Translucent Beings.
In addition to thematic exhibitions, a competition for the best festival poster, and music and theatre performances, the accompanying programme also offers authors’ readings, radio documentaries and documentary theatre or the special installation, Laboratorium.
Industry Section and Year-round Activities
Since 2001, the festival has also been expanding its Industry Section. In the same year, Jihlava IDFF held the first edition of today’s East European Forum, a meeting of documentary filmmakers and producers from Eastern Europe. Three years later, the festival expanded its range of activities for film professionals with the East Silver Market. Since 2007, students of film theory and journalism have had the opportunity to join the Media and Documentary workshop, benefiting from the guidance of leading foreign lecturers. The first edition of Festival Identity, a meeting of film festival organizers, took place in 2008. Three years later, in 2011, Jihlava saw the first edition of the Inspiration Forum, a meeting of selected directors from around the world and significant personalities from outside the film community: scientists, writers, visual artists and philosophers. 2012 was when the festival first organized the Visegrad Accelerator, a platform bringing together Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Polish filmmakers. In the same year, the promotional and educational project, Emerging Producers, showcasing talented documentary film producers from EU countries, was launched.
Jihlava IDFF is a co-founder and member of the association of European documentary film festivals called Doc Alliance. Its on-line portal distributing documentary and experimental films, Doc Alliance Films is also among Jihlava IDFF’s original projects, initiated in 2006 under the title Doc-Air.
In association with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the festival has, since 2009, been organising the Docu Talents from the East panel, originally held in association with the Institute of Documentary Film, presenting the most remarkable creative documentary projects from Central and Eastern Europe in the stage of production or post-production.
Aside from its varied festival and industry programme, Jihlava IDFF also publishes specialized literature and the printed critical supplement and on-line periodical, Dok.revue, and organizes other cultural, social and educational events.
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