10 BEAUTIFUL NEW IDFA FILMS ABOUT FRIENDS

Friendship has a profound effect on the mind and body. We have curated a collection of beautiful documentaries that each examine friendship in a unique way.

We are thrilled to be attending the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) again this year, underway right now, currently featuring the films highlighted below.

1. OLGA -- TO MY FRIENDS

Director: Paul Anders Simma, Finland / Sweden / Norway.

This is a beautiful film that documents the life of Olga, a woman who lives in the remote Russian part of Lapland, some 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) north of Moscow, a place with reindeer, but few human friends.

Olga spent 177 days by herself this year, with only her cat to keep her company. She braves winter temperatures that dip down to the negative double digits and must make her way through impossibly thick layers of snow to do her job -- taking care of rations and vehicles for the reindeer herders, who won't return until spring.

When rumors circulate that the brigade is going to be shut down, she is truly worried. If Olga loses her job and her house, what will become of her?

Learn more about Olga - To My Friends.

2. MY LONG DISTANCE FRIEND

Director: Carina Molier, The Netherlands.

My Long Distance Friend presents parallel stories about the life of a beautiful Zimbabwean girl, named OG, and the life of Carina Molier, the filmmaker herself.

They both grapple with loneliness, rooted in each of their childhoods, with  absent fathers and restless journeys, their stories overlap and weave in and out, like an experimental diary entry, appreciating both the joys of solitude and the longing for companionship.

Get to know more about My Long Distance Friend.

3. ALMOST FRIENDS

Director: Nitzan Ofir, Nitzan Ophir, Israel.

Samar is a 12 year old girl who lives in Lod, a racially mixed crime-filled city in Israel, along with her Arab Israeli mother and Palestinian father. Linor, 11, lives in Tlamim, a religious jewish settlement 67 km from Lod. Could they ever be friends in this world?

While the girls are on opposite sides of national, cultural, religious, and ideological spectrums, they are brought together to participate in an educational technology program. They begin their dialogue online. And friendship sprouts and pokes its tender head through the cracks of their rock-hard realities.

Once the two friends meet face-to-face, the complexities that stem from their roots, branch out to their families, and swirl around their communities, challenge them and impact their futures.

Learn more about Almost Friends.

4. MATT SHEPARD IS A FRIEND OF MINE

Director: Michele Josue, USA.

Matthew Shepard became famous for a tragic reason. In 1998, at the age of 21, he was brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming, because he was gay. The horror of this crime ignited communities around the country.

People on all sides of the issues and sentiments around gay rights mobilized and spoke out against anti-gay hate crimes, seeking to enact and influence legislation that they hoped would stop the violence.

Filmmaker Michele Josue made this film about her friend Matt, offering a window into his life, as she visits with his family and friends. The film is laid out chronologically, showing Matt as a kind and talented boy -- one for whom friendship had great meaning.

Get to know Matthew Shepard is a Friend of Mine.

5. MY BAREFOOT FRIEND

Director: Seong-Gyou Lee, South Korea.

Amidst a mass of 10,000 rickshaw drivers in Calcutta, two find friendship in each other. Shalim and Husein brave the overcrowded chaos of the city, pulling their riders as they trek, barefoot, through the hot dirty streets.

Filmmaker Seong-Gyou Lee befriended the pair, and followed them -- walking in their footsteps -- as they tried to follow their dreams. They don’t dream big -- they’d love a motorized rickshaw, or a roof and some food for their families -- and their dreams are not likely to come true. Yet their friendships and love keep them happy and their hopes keep them pushing forward.

Get to know more about My Barefoot Friend.

6. TWICE AS WISE

Director: Piet Eekman, Germany.

Two immigrant kids find friendship and challenges in Germany, their new home. Serge, transplanted from Poland three years ago, and his new best friend, Filip, a Rwandan refugee, navigate a foreign homeland, full of bullies who are happy to have them as victims.

The two boys manage to rise above their challenges, helping each other and gaining new wisdom along the way.

Get to know more about Twice as Wise.

7. SHANNE AND HER FRIENDS

Director: Sussie Weinold, Ulla Søe, Denmark.

What happens when your best friend moves to another country? Instant challenge.

Shanne is 13 and she struggled with the reality that her good friend Emma is moving to France. It’s excruciating for them both. But as life unravels, these young teenagers find solace in other friends. Life shuffles them about and new relationships form with new “dance partners.”

But building new friendships is a sometimes tricky business. It changes each partner in crime. Watch the shifting sands of this young collection of friends in this sensitive, beautifully shot film.

Get to know more about Shanne and Her Friends.

8. PACO DE LUCÍA: A JOURNEY

Director: Francisco Sanchez Varela, Spain.

Paco de Lucía, was an incredible Andalusian flamenco guitarist who died earlier this year. He was a leading proponent of the New Flamenco style, merging this traditional music and dance genre with classical, jazz, and rock & roll music.

Paco was a friend to other players, collaborating with the greats, like Eric Clapton, John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola and Larry Coryell.

De Lucía was noted for his fast and fluent picados (fingerstyle runs) and rasgueados (Flamenco strumming), combining them with more gentle tones and abstract chords.

IDFA MELKWEG

Film screening followed by a live performance by Eric Vaarzon Morel a loving homage to virtuoso flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía (1947-2014).  

Get to know more about Paco de Lucía: A Journey.

9. FILM: KILLER SLOPE

Director: Geertjan Lassche, Netherlands.

What happens when a group of friends endeavor to climb a mountain together? Check in on the recent adventure of a group of Dutch expeditionists as they climb Cho Oyu on the border of Tibet and Nepal, the sixth highest mountain in the world.

Filmmaker and investigative journalist Geertjan Lassche examines the forces that drive these people, delving into their sometimes ruthless and arrogant personalities, as all hell breaks loose as they tackle the mountain and the mountain tackles them.

Get to know more about Film: Killer Slope.

10. TEA TIME

Director: Maite Alberdi, Chile.

There’s a lot that’s extra- beautiful about friendships that last a lifetime. Maitre Alberdi’s film about a group of women who have been meeting, once a week for the past six decades.

Fimmaker Maite Alberdi filmed the friends once a month for five years. “It was the only way to make this movie to feel the dimension of time in a group characterized by their constancy over time. "

Get to know La Once (The Eleven).

Of the XX theaters hosting IDFA, our favorite is the Pathé Tuschinski. It was commissioned by Abraham Icek Tuschinski in 1921. The interior and exterior are a spectacular mix of styles, as designed by Hijman Louis de Jong, including that of the Amsterdam School, Jugendstil, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco. It is considered as one of the most beautiful cinemas in the world.

IDFA is world’s largest documentary festival. For IDFA 2014’s theme, the camera was transformed into a mirror, showing a reflection of reality, “the core of each documentary.”

Read more about Beautiful Friendships, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact, including We Are Moved by Beautiful Encounters, An Animal Friend in Need is a Beautiful Friend Indeed, Breaking Beautiful Bread Together, Beautiful Friendship Makes Beautiful Art, and 10 Beautiful Places to Share with Friends Now.

Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Friendships in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 11.23.2014. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!

PHOTO CREDITS:

1. Photo: Courtesy of Taskovski Films. Still from Olga - To My Friends.
2. Photo: Courtesy of Taskovski Films. Still from Olga - To My Friends.
3. Photo: Courtesy of Taskovski Films. Still from Olga - To My Friends.
4. Photo: Courtesy of SNG Film. Still from My Long Distance Friend.
5. Photo: Courtesy of the Heymann Brothers Films. Still from Almost Friends.
6. Photo: Courtesy of the Heymann Brothers Films. Still from Almost Friends.
7. Photo: Courtesy of the Run Rabbit Run Media. Still from Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine.
8. Photo: Courtesy of Trump Media. Still from My Barefoot Friend.
9. Photo: Courtesy of the Blinker Filmproduktion GmbH. Still from Twice as Wise.
10. Photo: Courtesy of the +plus Pictures. Still from Shanne and Her Friends.
11. Photo: Courtesy of the Ziggurat Films. Still from Paco De Lucia: A Journey.
12. Photo: Courtesy of EO. Still from Killer Slope.
13. Photo: Courtesy of the Micromundo Producciones. Still from Tea Time.
14. Photo: by Ksenia Novikova. Pathé Tuschinski.
15. Photo: Courtesy of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. Promo for the Festival.