Ally Derks, member of the Jury

Laughter must be universal

After studying Dutch literature she started studying Film and Theater S cience at the University of Utrecht . From 1995-1997 Ally Derks was coordinator of Festikon, a yearly educational Film and video festival in Hilversum . In 1988 she started with help of the Netherlands Film Institute - The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Since 1989 she is the director of IDFA. Besides the selection of the yearly competition program she was responsible for different retrospect's focused a/o on Cuban, Kazakh, Lithuanian, Palestinian/Israeli and Polish documentaries.
Ally is director of the Jan Vrijman Foundation and head of the selection committee of the Jan Vrijman Foundation, a Foundation that supports documentary filmmakers in developing countries. She also is a member of the advisory committee from the Amnesty International Film Festival Amsterdam.

She took part in different congresses and seminars around the world a/o: Dokumentar Kongress Munich, FORUM Bornholm International Film and Television Forum China , Hot Docs ( Canada ), IDA ( Los Angeles ), etc.

Ally was in different juries a/o: Krakow Film Festival for Shorts and Documentaries (1991), Netherlands Film Festival (1994), Message to Man: Documentary Festival St. Petersburg (1997), Nordisk Panorama: Documentary Jury, Kiruna/Sweden (1998), It's All True: Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo (1999), Sundance Film Festival (2000), International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Prague/Chicago International Documentary Festival (2004)

She came to Belgrade on Thursday, and it seems that she already feels at home:

- It is really beautiful. The time that I am spending here is of the highest quality; I have seen excellent films. I must say that I am an expert, first of all, in documentary films, but it was my great pleasure to see all those experimental, animation and short feature films, as well. The organization of the Festival is excellent, I am a member of an excellent jury, and i am happy to be here.

About the films in Serbia and Montenegro that she has at the Festival, not as a member of the Jury, but as an experienced connoisseur of the world trends in the documentary film, she says:

- I must notice that they are very interesting, although I must add that they were made, first of all, for the local audience. Regardless of that remark, I feel the strength and the enthusiasm that they were made with. It is a bit more difficult for me to judge the experimental films. As the Director and President of the selection committee of the Jan Vrijman Foundation, I had an opportunity to include in the programmes of some festivals some film from your country and it has always been my objective to have the films from these parts shown in Amsterdam .

I wouldn't talk in this moment about the subjects of the films from Serbia and Montenegro, but I would draw your attention to the fact that the local jokes that we very often see in the films from these parts, are not understood by the international audience. I will give you an example: the audience worldwide cannot understand the film IMPORTED CROWS, dealing with the relation between Serbia and Croatia, as it is a theme that presented in that way, can only be understood by the people from this region.

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