Please note: Only Dutch speaking participants are eligible for this workshop.
For the 11th year in a row, a group of selected filmmakers will participate in the annual Kids & Docs Workshop, to be held from September 2011 to April 2012. During the workshop, participants develop a film plan for a short children’s documentary lasting 15 minutes. Each of the ten filmmakers receives support from one of the ten participating broadcasters.
Throughout the research phase, filmmakers stay in contact with the children and collaborate with them as much possible. The children are the driving force behind the documentaries, which address an event or situation that relates to them or is important to them in some way.
At the end of the workshop, an independent jury selects the winning Kids & Docs Documentairy. All projects will be produced and broadcasted. Since the start of the workshop in 1999, it has produced 61 children’s documentaries. The educational process, the seven-month workshop, and the growing involvement of a large number of public broadcasters now make a sizeable contribution to the creation and retention of this genre.
During the last edition of the Kids & Docs Workshop, Erna Slotboom won the prize for her project Op eigen benen.
IDFA 2011
Nine films in the Kids& Docs program of IDFA 2011 came out of the Kids & Docs Workshop. These are: From Africa to Assen, Inside My Head, The Man Who Can, My Granny Lien, Nadia Ticks, One Way Ticket to Bussum, Play for Keeps, Raman and Wild Lilly.
All the documentaries that have been made within the Kids & Docs Workshop are shown at Cinekid and IDFA. Also, a special 15-minute slot at children’s TV network Zapp is reserved for broadcasting the documentaries.
The Kids & Docs Workshop is a joint initiative of IDFA, Cinekid and the Dutch Cultural Media Fund.
Read more about the Kids & Docs workshop on the Dutch section of this website.
Other initiatives
In past years, similar initiatives have been developed in different countries. In Germany, the Duisburger Filmwoche has organized a workshop to stimulate production within this genre. Two films in the Kids & Docs program are the results of this initiative: Edna’s Day (Bernd Sahling, Germany) and Mister Rücker (Anna Wahle, Germany).
In August 2008, six filmmakers from Nairobi developed a short children’s documentary in a workshop led by Dutch director Duco Tellegen. This initiative received support from IDFA's Jan Vrijman Fund.
Many Dutch documentaries from the Kids & Docs section are selected and awarded at International festivals. Like Drona & I at the Berlinale 2010 and We are Boys at the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen.