IDFA puts our tears under the microscope
Stunning new campaign, “Real Emotions. Real Film.” for IDFA, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, was created by We Are Pi and uncovers the unique beauty of our tears under the microscope, delivering the message that every tear tells a different story.
November 5th 2020, IDFA, the world’s leading documentary film festival, best known for its support of independent filmmakers and artistic excellence, today launches a campaign to celebrate the beauty and power of emotions with “Real Emotions. Real Film.”

Created in-house by Amsterdam-based ideas company WE ARE Pi, in collaboration with artistic director Maurice Mikkers, the campaign takes an intimate look at different emotions under the microscope to capture the beautiful range reactions to documentary film.
“IDFA explores the depths of human emotion through their documentary films. We wanted to show just how real and beautiful those emotions are.” says Co-founder and ECD at We Are Pi, Barney Hobson.
The creative spirit of IDFA is conveyed by showing a new way to express emotion - by discovering the tangible art forms hidden within every single teardrop. The unique structure of minerals, shaped by different feelings, tell their own stories.
The idea to place tears under the microscope was inspired by Mikkers, who wondered what our tears looked like up close and made a curious discovery back in 2014 that under a microscope, each tear looked like a uniquely beautiful work of art.
To bring the campaign to life, WE ARE Pi worked with Mikkers to collect hundreds of tears, each representing a unique human experience, ranging in emotions from joy to sorrow, pride to heartbreak. To collect them, We Are Pi provided tear collection kits for people to then capture their moments of real emotion. “The images of these tears are already beautiful on their own, but it’s all about the story.” says Mikkers.
On the creative process, Artistic Director at IDFA, Orwa Nyrabia, says “together with Mikkers and WE ARE Pi, we were able to bring together science and fact with poetry, philosophy, and art.”
On the ambition of the campaign, WE ARE Pi Design Director Seth Josephs says, “We wanted to share the emotions of IDFA’s audience back with them. To show them just how real and beautiful our feelings are, and to invite people to experience that beauty with us at the festival through the power of film.”
To compliment the abstract beauty of tears under a microscope, We Are Pi created a fully immersive film of slowlapsing tears as they move under a microscope. The entrancing tears of pride, grief, love and joy, build up to a crescendo of visual splendour before inviting you to feel the beauty yourself by taking part in IDFA 2020.
The campaign roles out across the Netherlands in Cinema, Social, Print, Outdoor and PR.
For those that would like to explore their own breadth of emotion through film, the festival dates this year are 16 Nov - 6 Dec. In order to ensure safety protocol for the coronavirus, the festival will now include screenings, talks and workshops both in physical locations across Amsterdam, and online via their website. You can learn more at www.idfa.nl
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About IDFA
IDFA is an international documentary film festival that takes place each November in Amsterdam. Every year, the festival presents a program of around 300 creative documentaries and interactive documentary projects, accompanied by performances, conversations and debates with filmmakers, protagonists and special guests.
About WE ARE Pi
WE ARE Pi is an Amsterdam-based international Ideas Company, founded in 2011. Named Small Agency of the Year 2018, 2019 and 2020 by Adage and Creative Pool. Guided by the promise to ‘Never Settle’ the creative indie exists to build brands that thrive in changing times. WE ARE Pi delivers integrated strategies and innovative creative platforms for clients including Heineken, Nike, Just Eat Takeay.com, Intersport, LEGO, TED Conferences, Desigual, and Quintet bank. www.wearepi.com
CREDITS
Client
Brand: IDFA
Artistic Director: Orwa Nyrabia
Festival Director: Cees van 't Hullenaar
Partnerships Manager: Andrea van den Bos
Head of Marketing Communications: Martine Van Duijn
Communications Coordinator: Marjolein Polder
Social Media Manager: Cengiz Can
Designer: Kaz Salemink
Agency
Agency: We Are Pi
Chief Executive Officer: Alex Bennett-Grant
Executive Creative Director: Barney Hobson
Executive Creative Director: Rick Chant
Design Director: Seth Josephs
Creative Director: Matteo Maggiore
Creative Director: Valerio Mangiafico
Creative: Kyle Foreman
Creative: Brigitta Szaszfai
Designer: Nick Fatouris
Designer: Fleur Ellis
Production Director: Kim Buttery
Producer: Ekaterina Golovkina
Production Assistant: Amani Barr
Head of Strategy: Mark Lester
Strategist: Paris Bethel
Managing director: Patrick Garvey
Business Director: Agathe Derrstroff
Account Executive: Slav Slavov
Business Affairs: Barrie Williams
Production
Production company: Pi Studios
Director & DOP: Richard Hu
Photographer: Maurice Mikkers
Music & Sound Design: Antfood
Music & Sound Design Creative Director: Pedro Botsaris
Sound Designer: Rory White
Composer: Rory White, Luis Bergmann, Wilson Brown, Yuta Endo
Colour Facility: De Grot
Colorist: Joppo in de Grot
Download PDF
Download PDFAbout WE ARE Pi
We Are Pi is an award winning Creative Innovation Consultancy that partners with clients to build brands worthy of thriving in changing times by initiating transformation programs. We Are Pi Client partners include Amazon, Nike, IDFA, Heineken, Intersport, Pepsico and Patagonia. We Are Pi was named Small Agency of the Year 2018, 2019 and 2020 by Creative Pool and Ad Age.
We Are Pi cultural research platform, New Society Rules, helps brands navigate cultural change. We Are Pi content arm, Pi Studios, produces ground breaking stories about cultural change. We Are Pi is proud sponsor of Black Strat, Plus Plus One and Creative Jam Session.