The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has announced its 2012 programme today, including four productions involving the Scottish Documentary Institute.

I AM BREATHING by Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon will have its world premiere in IDFA’s prestigious Competition for Feature-Length Documentary. IDFA is the world’s pre-eminent festival for creative documentaries.

Exploring “the thin space between life and death”, the film follows Neil Platt who suffers from Motor Neurone Disease, a terminal illness affecting around 5,000 people in the UK. Neil invited the filmmakers to follow him through his final months, while he’s trying to sum up his life in a message to his baby son.

I AM BREATHING was co-produced by ECA-based SDI Productions and Danish Documentary, with investments by Creative Scotland, Danish Film Institute, Wellcome Trust, MND Association and the former UK Film Council. Broadcasters involved in the production are Channel 4, DR (Denmark) and YLE (Finland).

Caroline Parkinson, Director of Creative Development at Creative Scotland, commented: “Creative Scotland congratulates the documentary filmmakers in competition and wishes them every success.  It is testament to the depth and quality of filmmaking talent working in Scotland today that they are selected for one of the world's most prestigious film festivals.”

IDFA will also show Pablo’s Winter directed by Chico Pereira, which will have its world premiere later this month at Dok Leipzig, one of the longest-running documentary festivals in the world. Presented as classic black-and-white cinema, Pablo’s story is one of “nicotine, mercury, and matters of the heart,” a homage to a retired Spanish miner against a backdrop of decay.

In addition, two short documentaries made as part of this year’s edition of Bridging the Gap will have their international premiere at IDFA in Amsterdam: Polaris, also by Chico Pereira, follows Filipino fishermen in the North East of Scotland, and Pouters,by Paul Fegan, chronicles the fight to become Glasgow’s “doo fleein” (pigeon flying) champion. Both films were first shown at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June.