Andrew Berends
TFI Support
About
Andrew Berends is a documentary filmmaker and photographer, and recent recipient of IDA's Courage Under Fire award. He spent six months working in Iraq to create two independent documentary films, The Blood of My Brother and When Adnan Comes Home. The Blood of My Brother had its U.S. premier in competition at Tribeca International Film Festival 2006 and played at festivals worldwide including Amsterdam, Prague, Greece, Teheran, and Dubai. It played in theaters around the US in the summer of 2006, and is currently available on DVD at Blockbuster, Netflix, and Amazon.com. When Adnan Comes Home is currently playing at festivals, and recently won Best Documentary at the Vail Film Festival. His previous documentary film, Urk, was the International Documentary Association's Pare Lorentz Award nominee and also screened in competition at the Cinéma Du Réel International Documentary Film Festival in Paris.
Berends' recent photography includes projects in Haiti dealing with sexual violence against girls. His work in Brazil ranges from the slums of Salvador and Rio de Janeiro to the timeless fishing techniques still practiced in remote villages in Bahia. In New York, he has documented the conditions of underprivileged Brooklyn youth in housing projects and on public assistance.
Delta Boys
Delta Boys is an unprecedented intimate look at the daily lives, culture, hardships and mindset of the young rebel men who have taken up arms on the brutal Niger Delta. Their stated goal – to localize control of Nigeria’s oil, to secure reparations for environmental destruction caused by foreign oil companies, and to obtain amnesty for themselves.