A contingent of Canadian nonfiction producers and broadcasters made the trip to the Netherlands late last month for the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam.

Those on hand for the 11-day affair - which wrapped Dec. 2, after Playback went to press - included TVOntario creative head Rudy Buttignol, Oscar nominee Erin Faith Young (Hardwood) and Up Front Entertainment CEO Barbara Barde, as well as producers and directors sent by the Ontario Media Development Corporation as observers at the IDFA Forum, where 45 projects were to be pitched to a packed audience over three days.

Doc filmmakers had seven minutes to make their pitches and to screen a brief trailer - flanked by commissioning editors who had eight minutes to respond.

Two Canadian teams were pitching this year. Producer Kathleen Smith and director/producer Alison Murray (Mouth to Mouth) were presenting Carny, a doc that promises to "capture the romance of the fair and its flipside, the tough lives" of carnival workers, with mentoring by Buttignol. Nick de Pencier and Jennifer Baichwal were pitching Act of God - an exploration of "the physics and metaphysics of lightning" - with producer Daniel Iron and The Documentary Channel's Michael Burns.

Producer/director Mark Johnston of Nomad Films again headed up the observers. Johnston had a "perfect experience" at his first IDFA, privately pitching his multiple award winner In the Shadow of a Saint to Dutch broadcaster Ikon and Australia's SBS, which came in for the final $30,000 needed to make the doc.

His advice: "Stay in your seats for all three days. You can discover the tastes of different commissioning editors, not just as individuals, but as representatives of their stations."

The main thrust of the observer program is the forum lunches, where Johnston arranges for commissioning editors to listen to short pitches by the delegation.

"This year we have Sabine Bubek-Paaz from ZDF/ARTE Germany, Tore Tomter from NRK Norway and Thierry Garrel from ARTE France all confirmed for our lunch slots," he said before departing.

IDFA screens more than 300 films and hosts over 400 film professionals ranging from distributors to commissioning editors to film financiers. This year's seminars included discussions on "Media Realities in the Age of Terror" and talks by such notables as Harper's editor Lewis Lapham. Film programs ranged from Kids & Docs to Docs at War to a retrospective on photojournalist and filmmaker Raymond Depardon.

www.idfa.nl