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Every year IDFA screens a great number of documentaries about human rights and human dignity. Films that sing the praises of freedom or bring charges against oppression. Films about the big issues of abuse of power, state terror, terrorism - and films about ordinary people who try to survive injustice, violence and poverty. Serious films, humorous films, provocative films. Since last year IDFA has a competition for these documentaries, the AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL - DOEN programme. An international jury judges the competition films on, among other things, the manner in which the theme is represented, the quality, the originality of the style and approach, the originality, the power of expression and the personal commitment of the maker.
The winner of the Amnesty International - DOEN Award at the IDFA 2003 is the documentary Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer by Joan Churchill and Nick Broomfield. The film is about the fate of Aileen Wuornos, US' first female serial killer. The winners will receive a scholarship of € 5000 and a small release of the film in The Netherlands. The Amnesty International - DOEN Award goes to a film that exposes in a subtle and multi-layered way the systematic violation of the human rights of a person in a state that presents itself as the defender of democracy, freedom and human rights.
The jury members of the Amnesty International - DOEN Award would like to give a special mention to a film that depicts the perpetual assault on kidnapping menace in Columbia, which is a major human rights issue and must be kept in focus. The special mention goes to The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt by Karin Hayes and Victoria Bruce.
Aileen: Life and death of a serial killer (Nick Broomfield & Joan Churchill, UK 2003)
Checkpoint (Yoav Shamir, Israel 2003)
In satmar custody (Nitzan Gilady, Israel 2003)
The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt (Victoria Bruce & Karin Hayes, USA 2003)
Miguel në terren (on the spot) (Lluís Jené & Enric Miró, Spain 2003)
Molly and Mobarak (Tom Zubrycki, Australia 2003)
Prisoners of the Caucasus (Yury Khashchavatski, Germany/Poland 2002)
The Prisoner of the iron bars (Paulo Sacramento, Brazil 2003)
S21, La Machine de mort Khmère rouge (Rithy Panh, France 2002)
Tarifa traffic - Death in the straits of Gibraltar (Joakim Demmer, Germany/Switserland 2003)
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Chairman Christine Choy announces the winning film
© Bram Belloni |
Christine Choy (chairman)
The New Yorker Christine Choy (China, 1954) studied architecture at Columbia University and film directing at the American Film Institute in California. Back in New York Choy she founded Third World Newsreel, a distribution channel for feminist films, human rights films and other films in the margin. Meanwhile she has made at least seventy short and feature-length films and documentaries about “the voiceless people around the world”. In 1989 Choy was nominated for an Oscar for her documentary ‘Who killed Vincent Chin?’. Other award winning films were ‘The Shot Heard Round the World’ and ‘My America… or Honk if You Love Buddha’ (both 1997). Christine Choy was appointed chair of NYU Film School in 1994 and was the founding Dean of the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong from 1998 to 2001.
Azza El-Hassan
Azza El-Hassan (Jordan, 1971) is a young documentary filmmaker of Palestinian descent. After completing her Masters studies at Goldsmith College in London in 1994, the filmmaker left for Ramallah on the West Bank on a tourist visa. Her work usually centers on the effect of the political situation on her Palestinian society. In 2001 El-Hassan received the special jury Award for her documentary ‘News Time’ at the Arab Screen Independent Film Festival in Qatar. The same film won her the British Grision Award for Best newcomer in 2002. El-Hassan’s other work includes: ‘3 cm less’ (2003); ‘The Place’ (video art); ‘Sindbad is a She’ (1999) and ‘Title Deed from Moses’ (1997).
Donald Mattera
Donald Mattera (1935, South Africa) is an author, poet, journalist, dramatist and human rights activist. He was born in Western Native Township, Johannesburg and was a founding member of the Black Consciousness movement. Mattera’s work is focused firmly on the social and political world of South Africa. His publications include ‘Azanian Love Song’ (1983), a book of poems that won a PEN award in 1983 and ‘Gone with the Twilight’. He works as a journalist for the Guardian/Weekly Mail. In 1973 Mattera was banned and put under house-arrest, a condition he endured for over eight years. Besides many literary prizes like the African Writers Citation, Mattera won various humanitarian awards.
Presently Don Mattera is observer at the Maurits Binger Film Institute in Amsterdam.
Ziba Mir-Hosseini
Anthropologist and filmmaker Ziba Mir-Hosseini works and lives in London. The Iranian is associated with the Universities of London and Cambridge and does research into Islam, gender, family relationships, law and development. This work has led to several publications including Marriage on Trial; A Study of Family Law in Iran and Morocco (1993) and Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran (1999). Together with the winner of last year’s Amnesty International- DOEN Award, Kim Longinotto, she made the films ‘Divorce Iranian Style’ (1998) and ‘Runaway’ (2001). This last documentary, about girls who run away from unbearable home situations and end up in a shelter in Teheran, was nominated for a Joris Ivens Award in 2001.
Duco Tellegen
Duco Tellegen (The Netherlands, 1967) studied Audiovisual Media at the College of Arts in Utrecht. He works as a director, screenwriter, producer and sound operator on mainly documentaries. His films are often based on an intensive research. For his four-part documentary ‘Behind closed eyes’ (2000) about children trying to overcome their war experiences he received, among others, the City of Utrecht Prize (Dutch Film Festival 2000), the Dick Scherpenzeel press award and the Historical Documentary Award (International Meeting of Cinema & History, Istanbul 2001). In 2001 the IDFA nominated Tellegen’s ‘Nisha’, about an eleven year old girl from India who is infected with AIDS, for a Silver Wolf.
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