NCE & IDFA INTERNATIONAL MASTERCLASS: JOE BINI

After last year’s successful International Documentary Masterclass, the NCE and IDFA Industry Talk proudly presented this year’s edition on Saturday, November 18, with a very special guest: renowned American film editor Joe Bini.

Bini’s work is very versatile, as he has edited both scripted and non-scripted productions. He worked with Werner Herzog for many years on over 25 films, including Grizzly Man, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Rescue Dawn, The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call and Into the Abyss, and has also edited award-winning feature films like We need to talk about Kevin and American Honey.

During the masterclass, film editor Menno Boerema, NCE engaged in a conversation with Joe Bini about this extraordinary mix of genres, Joe’s approach to editing and about how he uses his experience as a feature film editor when cutting documentaries. As remarked by Menno, Joe’s way of editing is quite groundbreaking. It’s not quite standard plot-driven editing and feels way more intuitive and free of ‘rules’.

It was very interesting to hear Joe Bini’s vision on this, as he explained that to him “A movie is at its best when you’re in the moment and you don’t know what’s going to happen next”. This makes most of the films he cut a real journey for the audience and at the same time gives a lot of artistic freedom to the editing process.

As an added bonus and to illustrate Joe’s free way of editing, we got a special preview of a few scenes from the film You were never really here (Lynne Ramsay, 2017), which has not yet been released.

The masterclass was followed by a wonderful lunch at Brakke Grond, where the audience was able to personally engage in a conversation with Joe and of course meet other colleagues who also attended the masterclass.

It was a very inspiring day and the NCE would like to express its gratitude to Joe Bini for sharing his experiences with us.

Photography: Niels Koopman — © NCE