Docs in Orbit: Recent Episodes
Docs in Orbit
A podcast that features conversations with creative documentary filmmakers whose films are making rounds in festivals ✨We are an artist-run initiative that operates ad-free. If you would like to support us, be sure to rate, review, and subscribe so that more documentary film lovers can find us.
Hi everyone, Aylin Gökmen here, with a new episode featuring a conversation with Pablo Álvarez-Mesa about his film, The Soldier’s Lagoon (2024), which received the Docs in Orbit Invitation Award at Cannes Doc-Marché du Film last year.
The Soldier’s Lagoon is a strikingly beautiful and multi-layered piece centered on the Colombian páramo region. The film explores the land’s history, encompassing Bolívar's political legacy, colonialism, and the presence of armed groups, shedding light on how past conflicts persistently impact both the land and its people. Additionally, it addresses the urgent environmental issue of ecosystem preservation, which has become even more pressing this year due to an unprecedented wildfire season that has devastated the páramo. As a result, The Soldier’s Lagoon already feels like an archive—a part of the region's historical fabric.
Blending evocative and mystical elements, Pablo Álvarez-Mesa unveils the unseen, emotionally connecting us to the páramo’s past, present, and speculated future. In this conversation, we delve into these themes as well as Pablo’s artistic process.
For show notes, visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit
Hello everyone. This is Hosein Jalilvand in Geneva with a new episode for Docs in Orbit featuring a conversation with Matthew Lancit about his latest film, Play Dead! (2023).
Play Dead! is a funny, tender video diary on living with diabetes, where Lancit playfully transforms his personal experience and fear of dying into a body horror film, where an invisible disease crawls inside his body.
The film premiered in the Camera Lucida sidebar of Dok Leipzig in October 2023 and available to stream on Arte TV in France until 16 March and at Jean Rouch International Festival in May.
I hope you enjoy our conversation and his film as much as I did.
GUEST BIO:
Matthew Lancit is an award-winning Canadian documentary filmmaker currently based in Paris, France. After leaving his advertising job as a director in a New York animation studio to live in Cameroon, Lancit embarked on the making of his first feature-length documentary, Funeral Season (2011) – which has since been chosen for preservation by the Library and Archives of Canada and selected to over 50 international festivals.
Lancit is known for his autobiographical films that intertwine his personal life with philosophical subjects. His films are marked by his simultaneously poetic gaze and self-deprecating humor, which sometimes borders on the burlesque.
CONTRIBUTOR BIO:
Hosein Jalilvand is an Iranian film director-scholar based in Geneva. His films play with the intersections of history and cinema. After completing his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, Hosein began pursuing his long interests in cinema with a Master’s in Film Studies at the University of Tehran and a Master of Arts in Documentary Film Directing from DocNomads. His short documentary “Song of the Bell” (DocLisboa, 2018) won the best director award in the Green Years competition section. Since then, he has been researching a series of texts about colonialism and its manifestation in wildlife movies while developing a feature documentary on the topic.
For show notes, visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit
We are releasing a conversation recorded on Tuesday, November 14th, 2023, at IDFA, where I met with Julian Ross and Farah Hasanbegović to recap Corresponding Cinemas.
Corresponding Cinemas was a new series at IDFA this year, and in many ways, it was an experiment to see what invisible connections surface when an institution decides to transfer over its curatorial control to filmmakers.
The idea is simple and compelling. It would be a series of films and conversations with filmmakers who have inspired one another, and the day would follow this chain of inspiration, with each filmmaker selecting the works of the next.
The series was planned months in advance and formally announced in September; in the very first announcement the festival made about its program - it reported that the event would kick off with Sky Hopinka and include Basma al-Sharif, Jumana Manna, Ibrahim Shaddad and Abderrahmane Sissako.
In this episode, Farah, Julian, and I run through the events leading up to Corresponding Cinemas as we experienced them on the ground. We first discuss the opening night and the release of IDFA’s statement apologizing for a protest banner that appeared during the ceremony and condemning a slogan that was on the banner proclaiming it should not be used in any way and by anybody anymore - despite a recent ruling by the Dutch Court of Appeals that this is not considered hate speech. In response to IDFA denouncing this slogan, Jumana Manna, Basma al-Sharif, and Sky Hopinka circulated a joint statement refusing to comply with IDFA’s statement the evening before their participation in Corresponding Cinemas.
The series took place, and Farah, Julian, and I recount how the day unfolded, detailing how each filmmaker used their screenings in different ways to transform a cinema space into a forum for urgent, meaningful, and needed exchanges.
TIMECODES:
0:00 INTRO & GUEST INTROS
4:23: OPENING NIGHT + IDFA STATEMENT
12:30 CORRESPONDING CINEMAS - FILMMAKERS REFUSAL TO COMPLY
14:30 SKY HOPINKA SESSION
17:40 BASMA AL-SHARIF SESSION
25:14 JUMANA MANNA SESSION
39:10 IBRAHIM SHADDAD SCREENING SESSION
43:12 SOLIDARITY ACTIONS FOLLOWING CORRESPONDING CINEMAS
STATEMENTS REFERENCED:Opening Night: Workers for Palestine InterventionIDFA Statement #1: IDFA and Artistic Director’s Statement about the Opening Night IDFA Statement #2: IDFA Calls for an Immediate Ceasefire I/We Do Not Comply - Artists' Refusal IDFA Statement #3: A Message from IDFA to the Documentary Community RELATED PODCAST EPISODESOrwa Nyrabia on Corresponding Cinemas, Docs in Orbit, Episode 71 Jumana Manna on Docs in Orbit, Episode 44Basma al-Sharif on Docs on Orbit, Episode 27
For show notes, visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit
Today is the first day of the 36th edition of IDFA, the world's largest documentary film festival - a twelve-day event in Amsterdam featuring more than 250 titles in 22 sections.
Earlier this week, I sat with Orwa Nyrabia, the Artistic Director of the festival, to speak with him about the role, responsibility and relevancy of film festivals and how IDFA is meeting the current moment.
We also discuss some of the new sections in the program, including SPECIAL SCREENINGS, SIGNED, and the highly anticipated introduction of CORRESPONDING CINEMAS, a unique program featuring a series of films from filmmakers who have inspired one another, including Sky Hopinka, Basam al-Sharif, Jumana Manna, Ibrahim Shaddad, and Abderahmane Sissako. We end the conversation with an amusing story of how Wang Bing came to be this year’s Guest of Honor.
[Image from the short film, Deep Sleep by Basma Al Sharif, which is screening in the Corresponding CInemas section on Saturday 11 November]
Time codes and Films Referenced
- 00:03:30 How is IDFA meeting the current moment
- 00:08:22 Films in the Program on Orwa's mind
- Occupied City (2023) by Steve McQueen
- Socialist Realism (2023) by Raul Ruiz
- Arna's Children (2003)
- 00:12:00 SPECIAL SCREENINGS
- 00:13:34 SIGNED
- 00:16:28 16 WORLDS ON 16, including works by Agnes Varda, Sarah Maldoror, Chantal Akerman, Maya Deren, Robert Frank, and The First Year (1972) by Patricio Guzman and First Case. Second Case (1979), by Abbass Kiaristami
- 00:21:30 FABRICATIONS, including notable works from Shirley Clarke, Rosine Mbakam, Safi Faye, and David Schickele
- 00:26:26 CORRESPONDING CINEMAS, including works of Sky Hopinka, Basma al-Sharif, Jumanna Manna, Ibrahim Shaddad Abderahmane Sissako
- 00:40:00 - 00:46:00 WANG BING, Guest of Honor and his curated TOP 10 films
For show notes, visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit
An abandoned house opens the door to revisit the past by bringing to life a unique, nearly destroyed image archive from the unrecognized territory on the border of the Black Sea: Abkhazia. A place normally inaccessible for Georgians because of the ethnic conflict that happened between Georgia and Abkhazia back in 1993. Combining voice, archive, and recent footage, the film examines a lost and split identity stuck between the margins. The audio-visual fragments of this archive are intricately woven together to create a personal and political biography that recalls the complicated and controversial historical past of Georgian-Abkhaz relationships.
The highly personal narration delves into the complexities of nationalism and identity in times of war and global displacement. Ultimately, these reflections on recent history become a potential manual for what can come next, once the wars are over.
Conversation moderated by Hosein Jalivand as part of Docs in Orbit coverage of films at Dok Leipzig.
For show notes, visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit
It's been a few days since Dok Leipzig wrapped up, but we are still reminiscing about the films we encountered and the people we met. So, we made a little souvenir of our time there, featuring a collection of voice memos from a cross-section of festival attendees sharing their favorite film discoveries from this year's event.FEATURING:
- Juliette Menthonnex, director of Tale of the Three Flames, speaks about Man In Black by Bing Wang
- Eka Tsotsoria, editor of Self-Portrait Along the Borderline speaks about The Der Wind nimmt die mit by Ann Carolin Renninger
- Adheep Das, director of Moonless speaks about Drijf by Levi Stoops
- Pauline Blanchet, co-director of 2 or 3 Words About the Cité 4000 speaks about No Changes Have Taken In Our Life by Xu Jingwei
- Sara Jurinčić, director of Valerija speaks on Zima by Tomek Popakul & Kasumi Ozeki Tess Martin, director of 1976: Search for Life on Zoopticon by Jon Frickey, Thies Mynther, & Sandra Trostel
- Daryna Mamaisur, director of Smoke of the Fire on Universe Department Store by Taewoong Won
- Mariana Cadenas Sangronis, director of Draw for Change: We Exist, We Resist on The Mother of All Lies by Asmae El Moudir
- Ann Carolin Renninger, director of Der Wind nimmt die mit on It’s Just a Whole by Bianca Scali
- Jani Peltonen, director of 30 Kilometres per Second on The Tuba Thieves by Alison O’Daniel
For show notes, visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit
Twenty-six years ago, for the 35th New York Film Festival, curators Gavin Smith and Mark McElhatten introduced the festival's experimental sidebar, Views from the Avant-Garde.
While their inaugural program featured names like Stan Brakhage, Gregory Markopoulos, and Nathaniel Dorsky, it also opened a space where voices experimenting with cinema's language might meet new audiences. In the festival's intervening years, the vocabulary around this type of cinema evolved and Views from the Avant-Garde has since transformed, first into Projections and then into its most recent incarnation, Currents.
When Currents was first announced in 2020, it was also the first year of Docs in Orbit, and every year since, it’s been where we have encountered gems of the festival to bring into conversation, such as My Mexican Bretzel by Nuria Giménez (NYFF58), A Night of Knowing Nothing by Payal Kapadia (NYFF59), and Rewind & Play by Alain Gomis (NYFF60).
So, for this year’s edition, we decided to focus more intently on their programming to get a behind-the-scenes look at their curatorial approach.
In today's episode, I sit down with the curators of Currents at the 61st New York Film Festival. Our guests are Aily Nash, Rachael Rakes, and Tyler Wilson. They put together an exciting collection of films, which we'll explore, and what sets Currents apart from other programs in New York and abroad.
Moderated by Emile KleinSHOW NOTES / FILMS AND BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Man in Black by Wang Bing, Last Things by Deborah Stratman, The Human Surge 3 by Eduardo Williams , Slow Shift by Shambhavi Kaul, A Prince by Pierre Creton, The Night Visitors by Michael Gitlin, The Fist by Ayo Akingbade, Nowhere Near by Miko Revereza, Live from the Clouds by Mackie Mallison, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell by Thien An Pham, Mangosteen by Tulapop Saenjaroen, Bold Eagle by Whammy Alcazaren , Coral by Sonia Oleniak, ALLENSWORTH by James Benning, Ungentle by Huw Lemmey and Onyeka Igwe, and Film as a Subversive Art by Amos Vogel (revised edition with new forward by Herb Shellenberger)
FOR GUEST BIOS AND MORE
https://www.docsinorbit.com/nyff
Image: Film at Lincoln Center NYFF61 poster by Jim Jarmusch
For show notes, visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit
As we prepared for the festival, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Franka Sachse, a director and animator who is also the curator for the Animation Night at DOK Leipzig.
Aylin Gökmen moderates the conversation.The Animation Night is scheduled for Friday, October 13th, featuring Tess Martin showcasing several of her short films that provide a fascinating insight into the artist's creative journey. The event will be divided into two parts: the first part will focus on her accomplished works as a professional filmmaker, while the second part will delve into the inspirations behind her earlier creations.
Franka Sachse - Biography
After her studies at the Bauhaus-Univeristät Weimar, Franka was selected to realise a film during the European Animation Masterclass in Halle, Germany. This marked the beginning of her career as an independent filmmaker. To create her films, she assumes the role of a scriptwriter, director and animator. Furthermore, Franka is animating young talents to animate through her sessions at international workshops and her lecturing positions at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. As a board member of the ASIFA Germany, she is committed to young talent in her home country. She is part of selection committees and juries for festivals such as DOK Leipzig, the Festival of Animated Film Stuttgart and the Festival of Animation Berlin and curates film programmes independently for various occasions.. Together with her colleagues Ana Vallejo and Catalina Giraldo, she founded the we animate collective. In the darkness of the night, she projects her colourful live visuals and handmade loops as VJ Loov.
For show notes, visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit
The festival has come to a close, but we are still thinking about many of the films we encountered there. For our recap, we invited a cross-section of attendees to share their favorite film discoveries. Included in this episode:
- Aylin Gökmen, director of EVER SINCE, I HAVE BEEN FLYING on THE ISLAND by Julien Pujol and I LOOK INTO THE MIRROR AND REPEAT TO MYSELF by Giselle Lin
- Julien Pujol, director of THE ISLAND on THE INVISIBLE FIGHT by Rainer Sarnet
- Giselle Lin, director of I LOOK INTO THE MIRROR AND REPEAT TO MYSELF on DREAMING & DYING by Nelson Yeo
- Nelson Yeo, director of DREAMING & DYING on DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD by Radu Jude
- Arya Cagin on SCORCHED EARTH by Markela Kontaratou
- Markela Kontaratou, director of SCORCHED EARTH on CONANN by Bertrand Mandico
- Anna Joos, filmmaker and academic on THE FIRST DAYS by Stéphane Breton @salutbreton
- Ruth Baettig from Film Explorer on BEEN THERE by Corina Schwingruber Ilić and THE HUMAN SURGE 3 by Eduardo Williams.
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
This year was a special year for the Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan. It celebrated its 20th anniversary and also the 100-year anniversary of Armenian cinema. To recap the event, we invited filmmakers, film critics, and other guests to share their impressions about a favorite film they encountered at the festival.
We hope you enjoy listening to this mosaic of impressions from a cross-section of participants!
- Jude Chehab, Director of Q , speaks about Silent House by Farnaz Jurabchian
- Fahd Ahmed, editor and co-producer of Q, speaks about Silent House by Farnaz Jurabchian
- Farnaz Jurabchian, Co-Director of Silent House , speaks about Luca by Jessica Woodworth
- Mohammad Reza Jurabchian, Co-Director of Silent House on Black Stone by Spiros Jacovides
- Leonardo Goi, Film Critic on Our Body by Claire Simon
- Forrest Cardamenis, Film Critic on Samsara by Lois Patiño
- Ketevan Kipiani, Producer of Kartli in the Works in Progress Workshop on The Magic Mountain by Mariam Chachia and Nik Voigt
- Levan Tskhovrebadze, Film Critic on Landshaft by Daniel Kötter
- Daniel Kötter, Director of Landshaft on Eureka by Lisandro Alonso
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
A conversation with Karen Avetisyan, the Artistic Director and CEO of the Golden Apricot Film Festival in Yerevan, Armenia, which took place from the 9 - 16th of July.
This year it marked a double milestone for the festival, celebrating both its 20th anniversary as well as the 100th anniversary of Armenian Cinema.
Eka Tsotsoria traveled to Yerevan for the occasion, and before making her way there, she sat with Karen to learn more about the programming.
In this conversation, Karen shares the origins of the festival and a bit of historical background on the development of Armenian Cinema. He also lends some texture around how the “region” is defined and the festival's role in building a new wave of Armenian Cinema.
- Moderated by Eka Tsotsoria
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
Moving beyond Empathy and Equity in Global Stories - The distinction between the West and the rest has been replaced by a multipolar world where the cultural influence of “the rest” is rising. This presents the chance for the documentary industry to re-invent itself by moving beyond empathy and equity. But is the documentary industry ready for this? A panel discussion presented at this year's Cannes Docs - Doc Day with producer, writer, and director Mehret Mandefro, cofounder of various organizations at the intersection of social impact and media in the US, Ethiopia, and across Africa at large.
Mehret Mandefro is an Emmy-nominated producer, writer, entrepreneur, physician and thought leader who champions the creative arts as a path to developing a more just society. Her track record in both using narrative to shift culture and scaling media businesses secured her a spot on Variety’s list of most impactful women in global entertainment. Drawing on her training at Harvard University in Medicine and Anthropology as the foundation to approaching social issues as a filmmaker, Mehret co-founded the independent production company Truth Aid Media in 2008 in the USA. She has since set up A51 Pictures as its sister company in Ethiopia as well as the Realness Institute in South Africa, and was formerly Executive Producer of Kana Television in Ethiopia, which was subsequently acquired by Canal+. Her latest media venture, TBTM Studios, is headquartered in Dubai and has a slate of projects across documentary and scripted, featuring Africa’s leading voices. Mehret’s credits include the Sundance and Berlinale Audience Award winner Difret, the New York Times Critic’s Pick Little White Lie and she was showrunner for Ethiopia’s first-ever teen drama series Yegna. She executive produced the American Masters feature documentary film How It Feels To Be Free and feature narrative film Sweetness in the Belly, both on Amazon Prime. Her latest documentary feature about reparations in America, directed by Yoruba Richen, is called The Inheritance and is in post-production. A member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Mehret is a sought-after speaker and has a widely watched TED talk about the impact of the creative industry on economic growth in Africa. Mehret has a BA in Anthropology from Harvard University, an MD from Harvard Medical School, a MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as a Fulbright Scholar, and a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Temple University. She was a White House Fellow in the Obama Administration.
This discussion was organized by Cannes Docs - Marché du Film with the support of Doc Alliance, Participant, LaScam in association with L'oeil d'or, Année du Documentaire, DAE, CNC, & ACID. Distributed by Docs in Orbit in partnership with Cannes Docs.
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
An impenetrable Field of Optimism: Intersections of the Personal and Political in Documentary Filmmaking - Filmmakers Zeynep Güzel, Mina Keshavarz and Sahra Mani (Bread and Roses, Special Screenings, Festival de Cannes 2023), will come together to discuss their work, dreams, aspirations, and hopes for the future, both professional and personal.
This discussion was organized by Cannes Docs - Marché du Film with the support of Doc Alliance, Participant, LaScam in association with L'oeil d'or, Année du Documentaire, DAE, CNC, & ACID. Distributed by Docs in Orbit in partnership with Cannes Docs.
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
Director & DOP Kirsten Johnson, President of the 2023 Œil d’or Jury, and writer, director, and producer Guetty Felin in conversation about the many ways filmmaking creates possibilities to search for the invisible, to bring life to the dead and to time travel in our own lives.
This discussion was organized by Cannes Docs - Marché du Film with the support of Doc Alliance, Participant, LaScam in association with L'oeul d'or, Année du Documentaire, DAE, CNC, & ACID.
Distributed by Docs in Orbit in partnership with Cannes Docs.
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
Notes from Eremocene (Berlinale Forum, 2023) by Viera Čákanyová is an experimental documentary that delves into the future possibilities of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. Through a captivating blend of analog footage and 3D scanner images, Čákanyová captures the clash between traditional and digital elements of contemporary society.
This is her third feature, concluding a trilogy that began with her debut work, FREM (2019), followed by the documentary White on White (2020). Across all three films, she explores the same themes: artificial intelligence, a dystopian future for humanity, analog versus digital, nature versus civilization, and climate change.
In a fun conversation about serious matters, this episode explores Čákanyová's artistic process, which can be solitary at times, and her approach to sound, editing, and cinematography. We also delve into the different perspectives she inhabits in each of her films and the profound questions these films raise about our existence and the future of our societies.
Moderated by Aylin Gökmen
Produced by Christina Zachariades & Aylin Gökmen
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
Panel discussion presented at Cannes Docs 2023 at the Marché du Film, Festival de Cannes and curated in partnership with the DAE - Documentary Association of Europe
The documentary industry, like the rest of the audiovisual chain, has been in a radical period of transformation in the last 10 years. We hear more and more often about content and format, rather than film and language. Where is the place for the creative documentary in this value chain? This panel discussion explores this topic with curators, distributors, and other players bringing such work to global audiences. What is the worth of a creative, author-driven documentary?
PANELIST: Emilie Bujes - Artistic director at Visions du Réel, Edo Choi - Associate Curator of Film at the Museum Of The Moving Image, Ryan Krivoshey - President/Founder of GRASSHOPPER FILM
MODERATOR: Brigid O'Shea - Co-Director at Documentary Association of Europe (DAE)
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
Panel discussion presented at Cannes Docs 2023 at the Marché du Film, Festival de Cannes on May 20, 2023 and curated in partnership with the DAE - Documentary Association of Europe
Parts of the independent film industry are currently engaged in a crucial discussion about the need for more equitable and accountable curation in film programming and selection processes. More and more filmmakers and industry stakeholders alike are openly questioning the traditional power structures that have historically influenced art and cultural institutions intending to achieve diversity, inclusion, and representation at all levels.
This panel discussion explores the latest curatorial trends, sustainable career paths, and effective audience engagement strategies from the filmmaker's perspective. Panelists from diverse geographies and artistic backgrounds share their experiences with ethical representation, storytelling, and questions of their sovereignty that they have faced making and disseminating their documentary films. Together, they also delve into how filmmakers navigate the challenges posed by the persistence of selection processes lacking awareness and accountability mechanisms and how they can influence the freedom of the filmmaker's artistic vision of the maker.
MODERATED by Rico Johnson-Sinclair - Race Equality Lead at BFI - BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE
PANELIST - Yolanda Maria Barroso - Creative and executive producer, Malin Hüber - HER Film, Nada Riyadh - Director/Producer Felucca Films, and Paul Sng - Director
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
To kick off our collaboration with Cannes Docs this year, we sat with Pierre-Alexis Chevit, the head of Cannes Docs, and Babette Dieu, the coordinator for the event, to hear about this year’s thoughtfully designed program. They also share their personal experiences that shaped their interest in documentaries and the importance of creating physical and symbolic spaces in the industry for the independent filmmaking community to feel supported.
Each year, during the Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Docs provides the documentary film community with a dedicated forum and tailored program that includes daily workshops, talks, curated panel discussions, networking events, and an energizing showcase of docs-in-progress from around the world. This year’s event will take place from the 18th of May until the 23rd and concludes with the annual Doc Day, a highly anticipated daylong celebration of documentary cinema.
CANNES DOCS PROGRAM LINKED HERE | EPISODE TRANSCRIPT LINKED HERE
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
The festival may have come to a close, but many of the films have continued to stir something inside us. This episode features a collection of voice memos gathered from a cross-section of attendees at Visions du Réel, sharing their responses to a film they encountered at the festival.
FEATURING:
- Nicole Chi, Director of Guián in the Burning Lights Competition, about This Woman by Alan Zhang
- Ghada Fikri, Director of How Are You, Baba? in the Opening Scenes section, about Locus Cordis by Alhassan Yousef
- Alhassan Yousef, Director of Locus Cordis in the Opening Scenes section, about Love is Not an Orange by Otilia Babara
- Otilia Babara, Director of Love is not an Orange in the Highlights Section, about Our Bodies by Claire Simon
- Inge Coolsaet, Film Critic for Fantomas and Representative of Argos, on Where the Green Grass Grows by Peter Mettler
- Anne Dziapshipa, Director of Self-Portrait Along the Borderline in the Medium Length Competition section, about Where the Green Grass Grows by Peter Mettler
- Vadim Rizov, Film Critic and Director of Operations for Filmmaker Magazine, about Human, Not Human by Nathan Castay
- Ben Mullinkosson, Director, of The Last Year of Darkness in the Highlights section, about Knit's Island by Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse & Quentin L'helgoualc'h
- Ekiem Barbier, Co-Director of Knit's Island in the International Feature Competition, about Corpo Celeste by Alice Rohrwacher
- Narges Kalhor, Director of Sensitive Content in the Short Film Competition section, about Waking up in Silence by Daniel Asadi Faezi & Mila Zhluktenko
- Sonia Ben Slama, Director of Machtat in the International Feature Competition, about Pure Unknown by Mattia Colombo & Valentina Cicogna
- Ziad Touma, the producer of Made to Walk in the VdR Market, about Orlando, My Political Biography by Paul B. Preciado
- Hosein Jalilivand, filmmaker, film scholar, and contributor for Docs in Orbit, about Memories of a Perfect Day by Davina Maria
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
[April 20, 2023] Docs in Orbit Podcast - Episode #55 - Visions du Réel 2023 with Emilie Bujès (moderated by Christina Zachariades)
In preparation for the 54th Edition of Visions du Réel, we sat (virtually) with Emilie Bujès, the festival's artistic director, to hear about how this year’s program came together.
Visions du Réel has a strong reputation for championing creative, contemporary non-fiction cinema and has played a vital role for independent documentary filmmakers for decades. The festival has also been a significant source of inspiration for this podcast, where we have discovered many filmmakers and invited them onto the podcast.
This year will be the 54th edition, and the collection of films has us fully energized, with more than 160 films, 82 of which are world premieres on display from April 21st to the 30th.
Episode TranscriptDocs in Orbit Podcast - Episode #39 A conversation with Emilie Bujès
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
In this episode, we turn our attention to First Look, an annual showcase of new and innovative international cinema at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.
This year’s event will mark the 12th edition of the festival, which will take place March 15 - 19th. Over the course of those five days, more than 30 works from all over the world will be exhibited for the first time in New York at the museum - this includes features, short films, fiction, and non-fiction, as well as forms that fall outside the boundaries of traditional theatrical distribution.
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure to sit with Eric Hynes, the Curator of Film at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, where he heads up year-round programming as well as the annual First Look Festival, to learn more about the program.
Eric is also a longtime critic and journalist, with outlets that have included the New York Times, the Washington Post, Film Comment, Rolling Stone, Slate, New York magazine, Sight & Sound, the Village Voice, and Reverse Shot, where he has been a staff writer since 2003 and writes a column on the art of nonfiction.
Films discussed include: Silent Love by Marek Kozakiewicz, Fremont by Babak Jalali, Away by Ruslan Fedotov, The Taste of Mango by Chloe Abrahams, The River Is Not a Border by Alassane Diago, Jill, Uncredited (2022) by Anthony Ing
Other relevant links: Museum of the Moving Image, Reverse Shot
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
Featuring a conversation with Alexander Abaturov about his film Paradise (2022), which premiered at IDFA in the International Competition section.
The film is set in the small village of Shologon in Northern Siberia, documenting the local inhabitants battling severe and extreme wildfires during the summer months.
Alexander Abaturov is a filmmaker based in Paris. He was born in Siberia. Paradise (2022) is his second feature documentary film. His first film, The Son (2018), premiered at the Berlinale Forum and documented the Russian Military training of young soldiers in Siberia.
Facilitating the conversation is Eka Tsotsoria, a filmmaker and editor from Tbilisi, Georgia, with a background in art history, creative documentary, and film criticism.
About Docs in Orbit: Docs in Orbit is an independent artist-run platform focused on contemporary non-fiction cinema and modern approaches to curation. We co-curate our selection of films, collaborating with several rotating contributors from around the world who are invited to follow the film festival circuit to discover new works and have the opportunity to explore the filmmaking process of others.
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
As we put the final touches on our first batch of episodes, we wanted to just pop on to say hi, we appreciate you tuning in, and we are excited to discover new films together!
- Christina Zachariades
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
We are joined by Cristina Nord, the Artistic Director of the Berlinale Forum, an independently curated section of the Berlinale with a focus on diverse cinematic forms and narrative approaches. I invited Cristina to speak about the rich history of the Forum and what has shaped her curatorial eye. We also discuss some of the non-fiction films included in this years collection, which will be the 53rd edition of the program.
Moderated by Christina Zachariades
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
A conversation with IDFA Artistic Director, Orwa Nyrabia.Last week brought the close of the 35th edition of IDFA, the largest documentary film festival and marketplace, a twelve day event in Amsterdam.
Midway through the festival, I had the great chance to catch up with Orwa Nyrabia, the Artistic Director of IDFA, to discuss the organizing of this year’s festival experience and unpack some of the ideas and notions that were pushed to the foreground.
This year’s edition felt monumental. Not only for the sheer number of films on display (277) but also for the necessary and thought provoking panel discussions that were platformed - including an examination of the growing prosecution and incarceration of filmmakers around the world, the emergence of co-creation as a practice grounded in equity and justice, and a bold, critical examination of the power dynamics inherent in film festivals that are designed around exclusivity and competition.
All said, it was an impressive offering that gave air to many meaningful exchanges.
RELATED LINKS:
- IDFA talks during the festival mentioned on this podcast are freely available on the VOD library on the IDFA website, https://www.idfa.nl/en/selection/141496/talks-library
- Additional Q&A’s with filmmakers featured in this year’s best of fests section are available on docsinorbit.com/idfa2022 including Jumana Manna on Foragers, Shaunak Sen on All That Breathes, and Jacquelyn Mills on Geographies of Solitude.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
- original music by Nayeem Mahbub in Stockholm.
- special thanks to Anne Takahashi, Angie Obeid and Farah Kassem.
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
In this episode, Nnenna Onuoha speaks with Alain Gomis about his latest film Rewind & Play, which I had the pleasure of seeing during last month’s New York Film Festival, and which has been selected to open the Montreal International Documentary Film Festival (RIDM) this week.
Alain Gomis is a French-Senegalese filmmaker, and his previous film, Felicite, won several awards including the Golden Stallion at FESPACO, and the Silver Bear at Berlinale, and was shortlisted for an Academy Award.
His latest film, which is also his first documentary feature, follows American jazz pianist Thelonius Monk on a 1969 trip to Paris. Monk is in town to perform at the Salle Pleyel, and along the way becomes the subject of a French television program. Rewind & Play unfolds exclusively from the recovered rushes of this recording. And from this single event the film unravels complex subjects including the media’s objectification of Monk’s celebrity, and its simultaneous refusal to recognize his full humanity.
Throughout the interview, we witness painfully, how Monk’s responses, unsatisfactory to his interviewers, are dismissed, spoken over, and edited out. Yet, with a masterful delicacy, the film inter-cuts shots of him playing the piano, allowing his music to assert itself and interrupt the unbearable media machine that has attempted to enfold him.
In the conversation, Nnenna speaks with Alain Gomis about his interest in Thelonius Monk, and how he handled the challenges of representation in the making of this film. The conversation wraps up with some practical advice about how to honor one’s creative vision as a filmmaker, in what can sometimes be a very demanding industry.
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
With such an overwhelming number of films on offer at IDFA, we invited Wouter Jansen to help curate a watch list of films that will be on display. Wouter is the founder of Square Eyes, a sales and distribution company based in Vienna specializing in bold, author driven features and shorts. This year, he will be at IDFA with two titles, ANHEIL 69 by Theo Montoya and EUROPE by Phillip Philip Scheffner. In this episode, we go through each section of the program at IDFA and take turns selecting titles of interest to help navigate our festival experience.
Films discussed include PARADISE by Alexander Abaturov, NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS, HOW DARE YOU HAVE SUCH A RUBBISH WISH by Mania Akbari, and A ROBUST HEART by Martin Benchimol, among many others. For our full Docs in Orbit x Square Eyes x IDFA 2022 watch list, please visit here.
EPISODE TIMECODES:
00:00 - Intro / About Square Eyes | 10:30 - Best of Fests | 16:40 - Paradocs | 23:40 - International Shorts Competition | 32:45 - Competition DocLab Immersive Non-Fiction | 36:30 - IDFA on Stage 41:20 - Envision Competition | 46:15 - International Competition | 53:06 - Laura Poitras Top 10
SPECIAL GUEST BIO:Wouter Jansen is the founder of the sales and festival distribution company Square Eyes. He worked as the head of programming at the Go Short - International Film Festival during the first 10 editions. In 2013 he started Some Shorts, which changed to Square Eyes in 2019, which specializes in having outstanding non-mainstream films find the audience and recognition they deserve. With Square Eyes, Wouter represents bold, author-driven features and shorts, and collaborates closely with the filmmakers to devise bespoke festival distribution and sales strategies. This has resulted in a small catalogue of films premiering at prestigious festivals and winning multiple awards over the last few years like main prizes at Cannes, TIFF, Berlin, Locarno and Clermont-Ferrand.
Wouter has been giving lectures at schools like Le Fresnoy, HEAD Geneva and Netherlands Film Academy and is an expert for Locarno Open Doors and First Cut Lab. He has moderated as well as lead workshops at festivals like IDFA, True/False, Winterthur, VIS Vienna Shorts and others. He is a Berlinale Talents alumni.
For show notes visit docsinorbit.comand be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
It is night in America. A young anteater is found dead by the side of a road in Brasilia, a boa constrictor wanders into the suburbs, and a maned wolf is found on a farm. The question is: are animals invading our cities, or rather are we occupying their habitat?
IT IS NIGHT IN AMERICA (2022) by Ana Vaz is a spellbinding film that comes to the Camden International Film Festival wielding a strong energetic power that, no doubt, will transfix spectators and provoke reflection on the visible and subjective effects of colonialism.
To hear Ana speak about her artistic process is as affecting as experiencing her work. Facilitating the exchange is Zaina Bseiso, a programmer at the Camden International Film Festival.
Fall is upon us, and what better way to begin this new season than at the Camden International Film Festival in mid-coast Maine - a major documentary event in the United States.
In anticipation for this year's festival, I caught up with Milton Guillén, Senior Programmer at CIFF to provide texture around this year's stellar line-up and how the program came together. We also discuss some of the talks and panels that will be on offer and the many ways to take part in the festival.
The festival will take place from September 15th - 18th in person with activities across Camden, Rockport, and Rockland, Maine with an online edition available to stream for North American audiences from September 16 until the 26th.
Moderated by Christina Zachariades, Docs in Orbit
Our first episode of a series covering the 28th Sarajevo Film Festival. We are joined by Rada Šešić, who leads the selection of films in the Documentary Competition.
Rada SESIC (Croatia) is a critic, film maker, lecturer and a programmer. She is specialized in South Asian and Eastern European cinema. She also organizes the DocuRough Cut Boutique which we discuss in our conversation as well as the origins of the Sarajevo Film Festival which is rooted in cultural protest during the Siege of Sarajevo.
Towards the second half of the conversation, we dive into some of the documentary films in competition, which holds 22 films from the region, 9 of which are world premieres.
A look at the 75th Edition of the Locarno Film Festival with programmer Stefan Ivančić, with an eye on some of the non-fiction films that will be on display.
Films highlighted include:
CONCORSO INTERNAZIONALE (international competition)
- Balıqlara xütbə (Sermon to the Fish) by Hilal Baydarov - Azerbaijan, Mexico, Switzerland, Turkey · 2022 · 89'
- Skazka (Fairytale) by Aleksandr Sokurov - Belgium, Russia · 2022 · 78'
CONCORSO CINEASTI DEL PRESENTE, Filmmakers of the Present (first or second feature film competition)
- É Noite na América (It Is Night in America) by Ana Vaz - Italy, France, Brazil · 2022 · 66'
- Fragments From Heaven by Adnane Baraka - Morocco, France · 2022 · 84'
- Safe Place by Juraj Lerotić - Croatia - 2022 - 102’
- ARNOLD IS A MODEL STUDENT by Sorayos Prapapan - Thailand, Singapore, France, Netherlands, Philippines, 2022, 83’
FUORI CONCORSO, Out of Competition
- Objectos de Luz (Love Lights) By Acácio de Almeida & Marie Carré - Portugal · 2022 · 67'
- Onde Fica Esta Rua? ou Sem Antes Nem Depois (Where Is This Street? or With No Before or After) by João Pedro RodriguesJoão Rui Guerra da Mata - Portugal, France · 2022 · 87'
- Nuit obscure - Feuillets sauvages (Obscure night - Wild leaves (The burning ones, the obstinate)) by Sylvian George - France, Switzerland · 2022 · 265
In this episode, we are pleased to share a special conversation with Jumana Manna about her recent film, FORAGERS, which we discovered at Vision Du Reel this past April.
Jumana is a Berlin based visual artist and filmmaker. Her work explores how power is articulated, focusing on the body, land and materiality in relation to colonial inheritances and histories of place.
Her new film, Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, Jumana artfully blends fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. Israeli nature protection laws prohibit the collection of ’akkoub and za’atar, which have resulted in fines and trials for those caught collecting these native plants. For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land, while Israeli state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect.
Foragers intelligently moves between documentary, fiction, and archival footage, recounting the story of this contested land and its inhabitants with wry humor and meditative pace, presenting us with a work that invites reflection on the absurdity of living under Israeli occupation.
Teyama Alkamli, moderates the conversation where they discuss everything from the inspiration for the film, to the ingenious use of discordant music, which, coupled with her generous use of wide landscape shots, helps to create an atmosphere of something ominous bubbling under the beautiful surface.
Featuring a conversation with Shaunak Sen about his film, ALL THAT BREATHES.
In one of the world's most populated cities, cows, rats, monkeys, frogs, and hogs jostle cheek-by-jowl with people. Here, two brothers fall in love with a bird - the black kite. From their makeshift bird hospital in their tiny basement, the "kite brothers" care for thousands of these mesmeric creatures that drop daily from New Delhi's smog-choked skies.
That is the synopsis for the film ALL THAT BREATHES by Shaunak Sen, which could sound straight out of an allegory - but this story is far from metaphor. Instead, it brings us close to the ecological crisis our planet and all its inhabitants face and the political toxicity and violence inflicted on one another.
It's a devastatingly honest, straightforward, lucid picture of where we are in humanity. And though this film is set in a specific moment in time and place (filming overlapped during escalating social unrest that came with the passing of a new citizenship law in India that excludes Muslims), it is far from elsewhere.
The circumstances the film brings into focus, and the emotional reverberations belong to everyone - to all of us.
This festival season, I am finding myself gravitating towards films that confront the challenges of living on this planet - where not only is our ecology collapsing, but where toxic discrimination, dehumanization, and oppressive political structures also threaten us.
It is overwhelming to begin to think about the enormity of collective pain and wounds inflicted on human life and then to start to factor in non-human lifeforms as well; it just becomes too enormous to contain, to make sense of, to look at.
And that is precisely what makes ALL THAT BREATHES such a necessary film to experience. It holds all these things together in a visible way.
When I first watched this film, it was during its virtual premiere at Sundance, and I screened it together with a friend and collaborator, Eka Tsotsoria - and we were both stunned. It's a beautiful film, it's very sensitive, gentle, and layered. But it also somehow left us feeling hopeful - and we grew curious about this - how one could construct a film of this nature and still convey a sense of hope?
And as we searched for questions to ask Shanauk Sen for this conversation, it became interesting to think about the questions that the film asks for us. We are far beyond simply wondering, what are we doing to the planet? Rather, how are we coping with what we are doing to the planet, and how is the planet coping with what we are doing?
Geographies of Solitude with Jacquelyn Mills moderated by Sean Van Wert in Toronto.
Featuring a conversation with Jacquelyn Mills about her most recent film GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE.
In GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE, Mills offers us an immersion into the rich ecosystem of Sable Island and the life of Zoe Lucas, an environmentalist who has lived over 40 years on this remote, sliver of land off the coast of Canada where she spends her life collecting, cleaning, and documenting marine litter that washes up on the islands’ shore.
Shot on 16mm, the film often incorporates eco-friendly filmmaking techniques to capture, in beautiful effect, Mills' encounters with Zoe Lucas and the Island. In this sense, Zoe Lucas and Sable Island are not “subjects” of the film, but collaborators and co-creators.
We spoke with Jacquelyn Mills to learn more about her intuitive approach in making this film and the different ways she worked with her surroundings - including eco-friendly hand processing techniques like using plant emulsion, exposing parts of the film in moonlight and starlight, and placing specimens from Sable Island on film stock.
Towards the end of the episode, we speak briefly about her previous film, IN THE WAVES, a touching portrait of the director's grandmother as she grieves the loss of a sister available to stream on Vimeo.
In this episode, I am joined by two film critics whose work I adore, Inge Coolsaet and Jordan Cronk - both of whom I had the great pleasure to meet at this year's swiss festival, Visions du Réel.
Inge Coolsaet is a film critic based in Brussels. She writes for several international publications, including Point of View magazine, Filmmagie, Photogenie, and Cineuropa. She is co-editor-in-chief of the new Dutch-language, Belgian-based film quarterly Fantômas. This year, Inge was invited to Visions du Reel to serve as a Jury Member to award the FIPRESCI Prize for this year's best first feature film.
Jordan Cronk is a film critic and founder of the Acropolis Cinema screening series in Los Angeles. His writing has appeared in Artforum, Cinema Scope, Sight & Sound, and many others. He is a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and was invited to Visions du Reel to host a discussion on casting for non-fiction films.
We regrouped last week to talk about some of the standout films we encountered, including:
- FORAGERS by Jumana Manna
- ROJEK by Zaynê Akyol
- L’ÎLOT by Tizian Büchi
- INNER LINES by Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd
- 143 RUE DU DÉSERT by Hassen Ferhani
- VACATION IN VAL TREBBIA by Marco Bellocchio
- MARX CAN WAIT by Marco Bellocchio
- EUROPE by Philip Scheffner
LINKS AND REFERENCES
- Visions du Réel
- Visions du Réel 2022, International Feature Competition
In this episode, we feature a conversation with Diem Ha Le about her debut feature film, CHILDREN OF THE MIST, which premiered at IDFA and had its Swiss premiere in the Grand Angle section of Visions du Réel.
The film follows Dzi, a 12-year-old girl from the Hmong ethnic group in Northern Vietnam. During the Lunar new year, girls as young as Dzi become part of the customary practice of "bride kidnapping," where young girls are abducted by a boy who wishes to marry them and held for ransom while the families negotiate the price of the bride.
Dzi finds herself in a situation where she is forced to grow up and find her way of navigating between the Hmong culture and her own desires.
In this conversation, filmmaker Diễm Hà Lệ speaks about keeping a memory of childhood alive through film and shares with us insight into her relationship with Dzi and how she navigated opposing opinions as she bared witness to Dzi's abduction and bridal negotiations. Diem also speaks of the personal and practical challenges she faced while filming and how she was able to translate the complicated relationships and situations that were unfolding in front of her into cinema.
Moderating the conversation is Venice Atienza, whose film, LAST DAYS AT SEA, also shares an inquiry into the fragility of childhood and was invited to screen at Visions du Réel last year in the Grande Angle section.
This episode was co-produced by Christina Zachariades in Brooklyn, Venice Atienza in Mumbai, and Aylin Gökmen in Zurich, with original music by Nayeem Mahbub in Stockholm.
An episode focused on Visions du Réel, the international documentary film festival held in April in Nyon, Switzerland.
Visions du Réel has a strong reputation for championing creative, contemporary non-fiction cinema and has played a vital role for independent documentary filmmakers for decades.
And it has also been a significant source of inspiration for this podcast, as we have made several film discoveries, including El Father Plays HImself, Looking For Horses, My Mexican Bretzel, and Faya Dayi... the list goes on and on!
And this year, the 2022 selection is full of promise, with more than 160 films on display and a broad spectrum of forms, including many hybrid works.
Before traveling to Nyon for the festival, I had the great pleasure to speak with Emilie Bujès, the artistic director of the festival. The conversation turned a masterclass on programming, with insight into her journey into film curation and influences along the way.
Emilie also walks me through the International Feature Film Competition that holds 16 films - most of which are world premieres and over half from first-time feature filmmakers. We also briefly touch on one of the non-competitive sections (and one of my personal favorites), LATITUDES.
LINKS AND REFERENCES:
- FROM THE EAST by Chantal Akerman, 1993, 110 min
- MY MEXICAN BRETZEL by Nuria Giménez
- EUROPE by Phillip Sheffner, 2022, Germany,
- DAY OF THE SPARROW by Phillip Sheffner, 2010, Germany / 104 min
- Yann Andrea Steiner by Marguerite Duras
- Other Lives But Mine by Emmanuel Carrére
- Visions du Rèel
- Visions du Rèel 2022, International Feature Competition
- Visions du Rèel 2022, Latitudes
This episode was co-produced by Christina Zachariades in Brooklyn and Aylin Gökmen in Zurich with original music by Nayeem Mahbub in Stockholm.
Special Thanks to Ursula Pfander and Fanny Graf.
This episode pulls focus on CPH:DOX - one of the biggest documentary film festivals in Europe today. Situated in Copenhagen, the festival began on March 23, and we just wrapped up a full week of screenings!
This year, the festival is hosting many exciting in-person events in Copenhagen and online offers for both the industry and the public, with a selection of films streaming online in Denmark for the first ten days of April.
Eka Tsotsoria from Tbilisi joins Nico Centrone in Italy and Daniel Oxenhandler in Copenhagen to recap the festival.
Eka and Nico have been following the festival remotely, while Daniel offers his perspective directly from the ground. Apart from the ambiance and energy of CPH:DOX this year, we discuss our highlights from the program, including, The Territory by Alex Pritz, Holidays by Antoine Cattin, and the spellbinding film Afterwater by Dane Komljen.
This episode was co-produced by Eka Tsotsoria in Georgia, Nico Centrone in Italy, Daniel Oxenhandler in Denmark, and Christina Zachariades in the U.S.A, with original music created by Nayeem Mahbub in Sweden.
Edo Choi, a curator at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York and film critic extraordinaire joins the podcast to discuss several standout films we encountered at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival. Films discussed include Avec amour et acharnement / Both Sides of the Blade / Fire, Rimini, Dry Ground Burning, Europe, Rewind and Play, See You Friday Robinson, and A Little Love Package. We also spend the last 15 minutes discussing First Look which is an annual festival showcasing an artfully curated selection of international films at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image from March 16th to 20th.
TIMECODES
- 0:00 - 5:00 Introduction, Edo Choi and the Berlinale Festival Vibe
- 5:30 Avec amour et acharnement / Both Sides of the Blade / Fire by Claire Denis
- 12:00 Rimini by Ulrich Seidl
- 18:00 Dry Ground Burning by Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós
- 22:50 Europe by Philip Scheffner
- 30:45 Rewind and Play by Alain Gomis
- 34:40 See You Friday, Robinson by Mitra Farahani
- 37:30 A Little Love Package by Gastón Solnicki
- 45:00 First Look Festival at the Museum of the Moving Image, Program Review
LINKS
- First Look Festival: https://movingimage.us/series/first-look-2022/
- Museum of the Moving Image: https://movingimage.us
- Reverse Shot: http://reverseshot.org/
- Fire by Claire Denis at Film at Lincoln Center: https://www.filmlinc.org/films/fire/
Greetings from Berlin. In this episode, we are joined with Anna Henckel Donnersmarck, the curator and head of Berlinale Shorts.
Berlinale Shorts is the section dedicated to daring works of the short form. This year’s line up does not disappoint, with a selection of 30 international and world premieres from new and established filmmakers like Radu Jude, Atsushi Wada, Sky Hopinka, and many more as well as new filmmakers with equally strong and aesthetically interesting perspectives.
Earlier this week, I sat down with the curator and head of the section, Anna Henckel Donnersmarck to get a glimpse into all the gems to be discovered and a little insight into how the program came together.
The program runs through February 11 - February 19th. Tickets can be booked online.
In this episode, we recap some of the films we encountered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival with special guest Milton Guillén - an award-winning filmmaker, faculty member at CalArts, and a programmer at the Camden International Film Festival.
Films we discussed include:
- 4:58 FIRE OF LOVE by Sara Dosa
- 9:12 ALL THAT BREATHES by Shaunak Sen
- 15:53 WE MET IN VIRTUAL REALITY by Joe Hunting
- 25:38 DOS ESTACIONES by Juan Pablo Gonzalez
- 29:58 I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE by Reid Davenport
In this episode, I am joined with filmmaker and dear friend, Venice Atienza ahead of her traveling to IDFA where we review the program.
IDFA is one of the largest documentary film events, and their extensive programming is energizing for the international documentary film community but it’s also very overwhelming with over 260 titles and only ten days.
So before boarding her flight, we went through each section of the program and co-curated a watch list to help guide our festival experience.
Venice is a filmmaker currently living between Mumbai and Manilla. She is a graduate of the European film school, DocNomads and her first feature film LAST DAYS AT SEA debuted in March 2021 at the Berlinale and is closing out the year in the Best of Fests section at IDFA.
She is also a returning contributor to the podcast and sat with us earlier this year to discuss LAST DAYS AT SEA, (episode linked here).
We also have three additional filmmaker interviews featuring works that are included in the Best of Fests section at IDFA.
- TAMING THE GARDEN with Salomé Jashi
- LOOKING FOR HORSES with Stefan Pavlović
- A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING with Payal Kapadia
And lastly, in this podcast, we reference an essay by Hito Steryel,IN DEFENSE OF THE POOR IMAGEthat you can find here.
Visit our website www.docsinorbit.com/IDFA2021 for a complete list of show notes!
In this episode, we recap films from the Camden International Film Festival which just wrapped up over the past weekend.
I sat with a dear friend of the podcast, Bronte Stahl, a filmmaker and producer from Westerly RI who is a frequent attendee at CIFF and also part of the festival's screening committee.
Bronte and I studied documentary in film school many moons ago at the European master's program, DocNomads. Since then has participated in a few fellowships and residencies including Points North Institute, Flaherty Seminar, UnionDocs, and Open City Assembly Lab.
His short films have been screened at international film festivals including Rotterdam and DocLisboa. And his current projects are supported by Sundance and DocSociety, among others.
We discuss several films from the Camden International Film Festival including
- NORTH BY CURRENT by Angelo Madsen Minax
- EXPEDITION CONTENT by Ernst Karel and Veronika Kusumaryati
- TERRA FEMME by Courtney Stephens
- FAYA DAYI by Jessica Beshir
- Spirits and Rocks, an Azorean Myth by Aylin Gokmen
- A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING by Payal Kapadia
- ASCENSION by Jessica Kingdon
Featuring a conversation with Payal Kapadia about her remarkably brave and powerful film A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING which took home awards at Cannes, TIFF, and CIFF. Here, she discusses with us her artistic approach, sources of inspiration, and the freedom she finds in documentary filmmaking.
Kapadia is a filmmaker and artist based in Mumbai, and she studied at the Film and Television Institute of India. A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING is her debut feature film.
The film is structured around a series of love letters, written by a university student in India to her estranged lover and separated because of caste differences. Read in voiceover from an unseen protagonist, the letters provide an intimate glimpse into a young woman's life and the drastic changes taking place around her, while shining light on a contemporary convoluted India.
Composed mostly of grainy black in white analog film, and mixed with newspaper clippings, family archives, and viral videos found off the internet, A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING takes on an amorphous form, merging reality with fiction, dreams with memories, fantasies with anxieties. It unfolds like a long, unpredictable night, where we are all in the dark of what to expect next.
It’s a remarkably powerful and brave film that I still find myself circling back to days after watching. And it is with great admiration that we reached out to Payal Kapadia to invite her to speak about her artistic practice, sources of inspiration, and the freedom she finds in non-fiction cinema.
Facilitating the conversation is Aylin Gökmen. Aylin is a Turkish-Swiss filmmaker. Her short film SPIRITS AND ROCKS: AN AZOREAN MYTH premiered at Locarno, and has screened at a number of festivals including Sundance, and Telluride. Aylin also takes on a formally inventive approach, blending carefully composed black and white documentary images with archive and an evocative soundscape.
For a list of sources and references from this episode, visit https://www.docsinorbit.com/a-night-of-knowing-nothing
The Fall Film Festival season has begun! And to kick things off, we invited Milton Guillén, a programmer from the Camden International Film Festival, to take us through the 17th edition of the festival lineup, featuring over 70 documentary films (features and shorts).
In this episode, Milton provides a peek into how the program came together and adds texture to some of the films in the different sections.
This year, the festival will take place both physically (September 16 - 19th) as well as virtually. An online edition of the program will be available to stream for North American audiences from September 16 - 26th.
It's a truly excellent curation of films and for folks who are unable to attend in person, please do consider streaming via their online platform as it is a wonderful way to support a festival that has long had a tremendous impact on advancing the documentary film genre.
FILMS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:
- SPIRITS AND ROCKS AN AZOREAN MYTH by Aylin Gökmen
- MOTORCYCLIST'S HAPPINESS WON'T FIT INTO HIS SUIT by Gabriel Herrera
- DATURA'S AUBADE by Jean-Jacques Martinod and Bretta C. Walker
- A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING by Payal Kapadia
- FAYA DAYI by Jessica Beshir
- OSTROV - LOST ISLAND by Svetlana Rodina and Laurent Stoop
- PROCESSION by Robert Green
- MAGALUF GHOST TOWN by Miguel Ángel Blanca
- NORTH BY CURRENT by Angelo Madsen Minax
- LAST DAYS AT SEA by Venice Atienza
- ROOTS by Tea Lukač
- TERRA FEMME by Courtney Stephens
- and others!
We covered a lot of ground!
https://pointsnorthinstitute.org/ciff/
ABOUT MILTON GUILLÉN
Milton Guillén is an award-winning Nicaraguan filmmaker and programmer whose work centers on the cinematic intersections of de-colonial ethnographic research and affect. Milton’s films have screened globally at CPH: DOX, Hot Docs, DOK Leipzig, Rooftop Films, and more. In 2017, his debut feature, The Maribor Uprisings, co-directed with Maple Razsa, received the Society for Visual Anthropology’s Best Feature Award. Milton recently received support from the Tribeca Film Institute and ITVS for his project, On the Move. He also was named a North Star fellow at the Points North Institute, a MediaMaker Fellow at Bay Area Video Coalition, a Kartemquin Diverse Voices in Documentary, and is the recipient of several international artists’ residencies and grants.
For our third episode dedicated to the 27th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival, we feature a conversation with Stefan Pavlović whose film, LOOKING FOR HORSES, took home the Special Jury Prize in the documentary competition.
Looking for Horses is Stefan’s first feature-length film and the result of his graduate studies at the Netherlands Film Academy in Artistic Research in and through Cinema titled, From Filming Intimacy to Filming Intimately, where he investigates how the cinema apparatus can overcome the limits of verbal language and how the camera can be a tool to practice intimacy with and through.
Looking For Horses chronicles a growing friendship between the filmmaker who struggles to communicate in his mother tongue due to a heavy stutter, and Zdravko, a fisherman he meets who lost most of his hearing during the Bosnian Civil War. Despite their speech and hearing limitations, a bond develops between the two as they forge a common language between them.
Facilitating the conversation is Docs in Orbit co-curator Kopal Joshy. Kopal is an Indian filmmaker and cinematographer who is currently in the process of expanding her thesis film from her MA studies in DocNomads into a feature film. In her film, Joshy chronicles her encounters with a man that lives in solitude by a lake in Portugal and engages in similar questions about filmmaking as an intimate act of sharing between two people.
The festival just wrapped but our coverage continues! In this episode, Christina Zachariades is joined by Macha Tsarencov and Steve Rickinson to discuss their travels to Sarajevo, the atmosphere of the festival, and several documentary films that screened as part of the competition.
Films discussed include FACTORY TO THE WORKERS by Srđan Kovačević, THE SAME DREAM by Vlad Petri, DISTURBED EARTH by Kumjana Novakova and Guillermo Carreras-Candi , RECONCILIATION by Marija Zidar, and LOOKING FOR HORSES by Stefan Pavlović.
Our first episode of a series covering the 27th Sarajevo Film Festival. We are joined by Rada Šešić, who leads the selection of films in the Documentary Competition. We discuss her work as a filmmaker, critic, mentor, and film programmer.
We also talk about the origins of the Sarajevo Film Festival and how it's rooted in cultural protest, review some of the films included in this year’s Documentary Competition including LOOKING FOR HORSES by Stefan Pavlović, LANDSCAPES OF RESISTANCE by Marta Popivoda, WHEN WE WERE THEM by Danis Tanović and Damir Šagolj, and the Georgian documentary film, SUNNY by Keti Machavariani.
More episodes from the ground are in the works, so please be sure to subscribe to get more updates!
Featuring a conversation with Basma Alsharif, whose films we recently encountered on Another Screen's beautifully curated program titled “FOR A FREE PALESTINE: Films by Palestinian Women”, featuring a rolling selection of work from over a dozen Palestinian directors.
It was through this program that we here at Docs in Orbit were introduced to the works of many incredible Palestinian filmmakers, among them: Basma Alsharif.
A visual artist and filmmaker of Palestinian origin, Basma was raised as something of a nomad between Kuwait, France, the US, and the Gaza Strip. Her work straddles that line between cinema and installation, centering on the human condition in relation to shifting geopolitical landscapes and natural environments.
We stepped into the program without knowing anything about Basma but soon found ourselves returning to her films, again and again, parsing through layers thick with visual metaphor, and deeply moved by her powerful use of sound.
We hope you enjoy this conversation and have the chance to view her work available on Another Screen until June 18th.
Reference Links:
- “FOR A FREE PALESTINE: Films by Palestinian Women”: https://www.another-screen.com/films-free-palestine-women
- Donating to Another Screen is encouraged, which will go towards supporting organizations on the ground, as well as filmmaking and cultural programs in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
- More about BDS Movement: https://bdsmovement.net/
A roundtable conversation featuring three filmmakers presenting work at Hot Docs International Film Festival in Toronto, in the shorts section and were made within the framework of DocNomads, a European Master degree program in Documentary film, Directing.
Anna Artemyeva’s film, DON'T HESITATE TO COME FOR A VISIT, MOM (2020) is a powerful and timely film chronicling Anna’s separation from her young daughter as she was unable to obtain a visa for her family to join her in Europe from Russia. The film was completed before the pandemic and has since screened at several festivals, recently receiving the IDFA Spotlight Award in the Opening Scenes section at Visions du Reel.
Olga Lucovnicova’s film NANU TUDOR (2021) premiered at Berlinale where it won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film. In her short film, Olga courageously travels back to her great-grandparents' home in Moldova to confront a childhood trauma. Remaining calm throughout the confrontation, Olga is incredibly somehow able to distance herself as a filmmaker from herself as a traumatized child.
Andrés Cornejo’s film, LETTER FROM EUSAPIA, is an essayistic short film that
ridging past and present time between Belgium and Ecuador to tell a story of loss and uncertainty and a family separated by a global pandemic.
Moderating the conversation is Teyama Alkamli, filmmaker and Alumni of DocNomads based in Toronto.
*While we highly recommend seeing all three of these films, we think it is important to let audiences know that MY UNCLE TUDOR / NANU TUDOR contains graphic descriptions that could be retraumatizing for survivors of sexual abuse.
In this episode, we feature a conversation with Venice Atienza about her film LAST DAYS AT SEA which was part of the Grand Angle section of Visions du Réel.
LAST DAYS AT SEA follows Reyboy, a twelve-year-old boy living in an isolated fishing village in the Philippines where he grew up. Reyboy loves his village and the sea, but by the end of summer, he will have to leave to study in the city.
At the heart of the film lies an environmental story of marine preservation, but one that is told ever so subtly through Reyboy's charming young eyes, and Venice’s contemplative narration.
What’s most striking about the film is the tender relationship between Venice and Reyboy, who seem more like affectionate siblings than Director and Protagonist.
LAST DAYS AT SEA is a beautiful piece of empathetic filmmaking, one that transports us to a dream-like existence.
- Teyama Alkamli, Filmmaker and Co-Curator of @docsinorbit
Special coverage of the 52nd edition of Visions du Réel that begins 15 April - 25th April.
In this episode, we are joined by Steve Rickinson in Bucharest from The European Documentary Magazine, Modern Times Review. The print publication has been a staple at many European documentary festivals and they offer expansive coverage of film reviews and industry news online.
Steve Rickinson heads up the industry section and joined me earlier to discuss our picks from Visions du Reel.
On the list of films we discuss are FAYA DAYI, ZINDER, LAST DAYS AT SEA, RADIOGRAPH OF A FAMILY, SHELTER, LANDSCAPES OF RESISTANCE, DIRTY FEATHERS, A BLACK JESUS, THE MUSHROOM SPEAKS, and a short film, DON'T HESITATE TO COME FOR A VISIT MOM.
If you have any films that you recommend, please send us a message on our website or through any of our social media channels, we would love to hear from you!
In this episode Aylin Gökmen, filmmaker and contributor / co-curator of Docs in Orbit invites Jessica Beshir for a conversation about her film FAYA DAYI which premiered at Sundance and will be having its international premiere at Visions du Reél this month.
The film is an immersion into Harar, Beshir's hometown in Ethiopia, where many people’s lives revolve around the harvest, the trade, and the consumption of khat - a leaf that is chewed as a stimulant and also as a part of spiritual rituals.
Khat is a narrative and visual thread that weaves together the individual stories of the community that Jessica spent 10 years filming. These stories are full of light and darkness, just like the stunning black-and-white cinematography which, together with a hypnotic soundscape, make this film a beautiful piece of atmospheric cinema.
Aylin caught up with Jessica to discuss her approach, her inspirations, and how she makes the intangible felt through cinema.
We also discuss her previous short film, HAIRAT, which was filmed in parallel with FAYA DAYI and is available to stream on Vimeo and Criterion Collection.
Links to screenings
FAYA DAYI by Jessica Beshir (2021)
North America:
- https://truefalse.org/program/films/#faya-dayi
- https://www.siff.net/festival/faya-dayi
- https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/celebrating-50th-years-of-new-directors-new-films-2021-lineup-announced/
- https://boxoffice.hotdocs.ca/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=141667~367cbc04-eb03-453a-90f8-88ca48c4cf79&epguid=da382742-ea7c-44b6-ab36-80af94cedc7f&
Europe:
- https://www.visionsdureel.ch/film/2021/faya-dayi/
HAIRAT by Jessica Beshir (2017)
- Vimeo (Worldwide)
- Criterion Channel (North America)
On the occasion of its screening at Essay Film Festival, we are re-releasing our conversation with Nuria Giménezabout her film, My Mexican Bretzel.
The film will be available to screen on their online screening room from 25 March - 3 April for free to anyone in the UK.
My Mexican Bretzel is Nuria’s debut feature film made entirely out of her grandfather's home footage, 16 mm film from the 1950’s and 60’s juxtaposed with excerpts from a diary to reveal the inner thoughts of Vivian Barrett, the beautiful wife of Leon. The entire film works as a personal reflection where love, desire, and death are all explored. Through these images and Vivian’s diary entries, which are placed as subtitles, we are privy to their beautiful holiday travels around Europe and the world, skiing in the winter and sailing in the summer. A seemingly aspirational lifestyle is contrasted with Vivian’s everyday concerns and observations that allow us, as viewers, a more nuanced and intimate reading of the images and reminded us that not everything is as it seems.
It is an excellent film; one of those rare times that as soon as it ended, I went back and started watching it again from the beginning. Out of pure admiration, I contacted the filmmaker to invite her to speak about her process.
Visit essayfilmfestival.com for more information on how to get tickets.
And don't forget to like and subscribe to Docs in Orbit so that more film lovers can easily find us.
Thank you for listening.
In this episode, we feature a conversation with Georgian filmmaker, Salomé Jashi about her film TAMING THE GARDEN which premiered at Sundance.
An ode to the rivalry between men and nature, Taming the Garden is the story of how a powerful man indulges in an unusual hobby by having century-old trees uprooted in communities along the Georgian coast and transplanted to his private garden.
Kopal Joshy, a filmmaker and DocNomads alumni currently living in Lisbon moderated the conversation.
Some links:
✨www.docsinorbit.com ✨for all the films and filmmakers that entered our orbit
✨www.docsinorbit.com/about✨ for info on how it all began
✨www.docsinorbit.com/contributors✨ for bios of the voices you hear
✨www.docsinorbit.com/support ✨ for ways to support this initiative
✨or just reach out and contact us through our social channels or at docsinorbit@gmail.com. we love notes
Season 2: Films entering our 2021 Orbit✨New episodes are coming this week! But before we release our first episode of season two, we wanted to extend our heartfelt gratitude to our listeners and supporters. And for those who may be just discovering this podcast, offer a little about who we are and what you can expect in episodes to come.
Welcome to a new season! We are grateful to be in your orbit.
Some links:✨our homepage for all the films and filmmakers that entered our orbit:
✨about docs in orbit and how it all began
✨our contributors
✨how to support us
✨or just reach out and contact us. we love notes
We revisit our conversation with the remarkable and highly acclaimed feminist, experimental filmmaker and poet, Lynne Sachs on the occasion of her upcoming retrospective curated by Edo Choi at the Museum of Moving Image in New York.
In this episode, we discuss ideas present in Sachs' work, including feminist film theory, experimental filmmaking, and her collaborative approach. We also discuss her previous films, THE HOUSE OF SCIENCE, TIP OF MY TONGUE, and FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO which are made available through the Museum of Moving Image Virtual Cinema until January 31st.
FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO opens Jan. 15th in virtual cinemas nationwide via distributor Cinema Guild.
In this episode, we feature a conversation with the legendary filmmaker, Victor Kossakovsky, about his recent film GUNDA.
I have been a fan of Kossakovsky’s work ever since seeing one of his first films, THE BELOVS (1993), his portrait of simple village life, sometimes tender and sometimes harsh, captured mostly in a steady observational gaze until the last scene where we are shaken by the filmmakers camera work. In Kossakovsky’s latest film, GUNDA, again Kossakovsky delivers simplicity, tenderness, and a last sequence that makes the ground shake.
GUNDA is not the masterpiece within Kossakovsky’s body of work, but a masterpiece of cinema. Experiential cinema in its purest form, GUNDA chronicles the unfiltered lives of a mother pig, a flock of chickens, and a herd of cows with intimacy. Using stark, transcendent black and white cinematography and the farm's ambient soundtrack, director Victor Kossakovsky invites audiences to slow down and experience life as his subjects do, taking in their world with a magical patience and an otherworldly perspective. GUNDA asks us to meditate on the mystery of animal consciousness, and reckon with the role humanity plays in it.
Eka Tsotsoria moderates the conversation.
GUNDA opens on December 11, 2020, for an exclusive one-week run on virtual cinema at Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles and Film Forum in New York City.
In this episode, we feature a conversation with filmmaker Hannah Jayanti about her speculative documentary film, TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES.
Set in the small desert town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, the film takes place in the shadow of the world's first commercial Spaceport. Subtly set in a near future when space travel has begun, the film follows five residents in the town. Combining documentary, archival, experimental virtual reality worlds and an improvised score by Bill Frisell, TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES is a lyrical meditation on progress, history, and how we navigate a sense of loss within ourselves and a changing world.
Aylin Gökmen moderates the conversation. Gökmen is a Swiss-Turkish filmmaker whose short documentary films also combine the real with the imagined.
In this episode, we feature a conversation with the esteemed Director Arami Ullón about her latest film Apenas El Sol (Nothing but the Sun) which was selected as the opening film at IDFA this year.
The documentary film is set in the Paraguayan Chaco region, a semi-arid region in Paraguay with a very low population density that is being rapidly deforested. It is also the home of the Ayoreo, an indigenous people that have been colonized by missionaries.
The film central protagonist is Mateo Sobode Chiqueno, who traverses the Chaco recording the voices of other Ayoreo who, like him, were born in the vast forest, free and nomadic, without any contact with white civilization, until religious missionaries forced them to abandon their ancestral territory, their means of subsistence, their beliefs, and their home.
Through Mateo, we are invited to listen to the stories, songs, and testimonies of the Ayoreo people as he attempts to preserve fragments of a disappearing culture.
The entire film is an act of care, in which Arami Ullón offers a dignified and honest representation of the Ayoreo people, not only as victims of the harsh and brutal colonial practices, but as complete men and women, owners of words and acts and ideas of their own, and of unique knowledge that we can all learn from.
Mariana Cadenas moderates the conversation. Mariana is a Venezuelan journalist turned documentary filmmaker and a programer of Peliculatina, a Latin American Film Festival in Brussels, where she is now based.
In this episode, we feature a conversation with Director Jerry Rothwell and Producer Jeremy Dear about their film THE REASON I JUMP which premiered at Sundance Film Festival.
Based on the best-selling book by Naoki Higashida, THE REASON I JUMP is an immersive cinematic exploration of neurodiversity through the experiences of nonspeaking autistic people from around the world. The film blends Higashida’s revelatory insights into autism, written when he was just 13, with intimate portraits of five remarkable young people. It opens a window for audiences into an intense and overwhelming, but often joyful, sensory universe.
Winner: World Cinema Documentary Competition Audience Award, Sundance Film Festival
Online Screening at DOC NYC from November 11 - 29
Conversation moderated by Aylin Gökmen
In this episode, we feature a conversation with Allison Chhorn about her film “The Plastic House” which is having its US premiere October 6 - 11th in the new Currents section of the New York Film Festival.
The Plastic House is a highly immersive film that takes place almost entirely inside and around her Cambodian family’s dilapidated greenhouse in South Australia. She oversees inspiring regrowth despite the sometimes harsh natural elements. Economical yet expansive, Chhorn filters and displaces her fears about her parents’ deaths and a precarious future onto an intensely moving narrative of ritual, physical labor, and isolation.
Allison Chhorn is a Cambodian-Australian filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist whose work explores themes of migrant displacement, trauma, and the repetition of memory.
Zanré Reed moderates the discussion. Reed is an interdisciplinary multi-platform storyteller and documentary filmmaker from Cape Town, South Africa. He holds a Master of Arts in Documentary Film Directing from DocNomads and is remotely teaching audio documentary and photography at the University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. With an interest in documentary work that deals primarily with memory, childhood, and family narrative, Zanré is particularly interested in films that transform personal histories into public installations.
SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS is the remarkable untold story of electronic music’s female pioneers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to transform how we produce and listen to music today.
These visionary women embarked on radical experimentation, creating the sounds of the future with tape reels, scissors, and sticky tape as their primary means. They were all women and when electronic music was finally recognized, they were almost forgotten.
Lisa Rovner rectifies this imbalance with rare archives showing their wild creativity and celebrating their contributions with both style and substance.
Laurie Anderson lends her voice to the narration and guides us through this fascinating journey of the evolution of electronic music from a female perspective.
The film was awarded the Next Wave Special Mention at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen following its first showing at SXSW, and will screen at Sheffield Doc Fest later this fall.
Facebook: @sisterswithtransistors | Instagram: @sisterswithtransistors | Episode Website: film website
We continue the conversation with the highly acclaimed feminist, experimental filmmaker, and poet, Lynne Sachs about her latest feature-length documentary film, FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO.
FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO is perhaps one of Lynne’s most personal works and the longest of her collaborations. Filmed over a period of 35 years, Lynne Sachs collected interviews with her father, her siblings, and other family members in an attempt to understand the web that connects a child to their parent and a sister to their siblings.
With a nod to the Cubist renderings of a face, Sachs’ cinematic exploration of her father offers simultaneous, sometimes contradictory, views of one seemingly unknowable man who is publicly the uninhibited center of the frame yet privately ensconced in secrets.
In the process, Sachs allows herself and her audience inside to see beyond the surface of the skin, the projected reality. As the startling facts mount, Sachs as a daughter discovers more about her father than she had ever hoped to reveal.
Film critics and programmers have described FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO as “a divine masterwork of vulnerability that weaves past and present together with ease.”
I definitely consider this film essential viewing for filmmakers who lean towards the personal.
FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO had its world premiere at Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. It then went on the screen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City as part of Documentary Fortnight and will be having its international premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest in Autumn.
Lynne also briefly speaks about her writing process, and her book, Year by Year Poems.
In this episode, we feature a two-part conversation with the remarkable and highly acclaimed feminist, experimental filmmaker and poet Lynne Sachs.
Lynne Sachs is a Memphis-born, Brooklyn-based artist who has made over 35 films. Her work explores the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences by weaving together text, collage, painting, politics, and layered sound design.
Lynne Sachs is currently one of the artists in focus at Sheffield Doc Fest where her most recent feature documentary film, FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO is presented alongside a curated selection of five of her earlier films.
We caught up with Sachs recently to discuss the many aspects of her work, including feminist film theory, experimental filmmaking, and her collaborative approach. We also discuss her short film, A MONTH OF SINGLE FRAMES (FOR BARBARA HAMMER).
https://www.docsinorbit.com/masters-edition-in-conversation-with-lynne-sachs
In this episode, we feature the distinguished Hungarian documentary filmmaker and multimedia artist, Peter Forgas in conversation with Miguel Lopez Beraza.
Peter Forgács has a long-standing reputation as Hungary’s most innovative documentary film-maker. He was recently granted the Dragon of Dragons award during the 60th anniversary of the Krakow Film Festival for his exceptional contribution to the development of the international cinema. The Dragon of Dragons award is the highest distinction granted by the Krakow Film Foundation Programme Council. Previous recipients include prominent film-makers Werner Herzog, Allan King, Albert Maysles, and Jonas Mekas.
Beyond all of his accolades and successes as an artist, Peter Forgács is a deeply kind and generous human being and we are so grateful to have had the chance to sit with him recently to discuss his works, his inspirations, and the concepts with which his work is based on.
References:
- Artists Website
- Filmography of Peter Forgács
- Artists as Amateurs: Intersection of Nonprofessional Film Production and Neo-Avant-Garde Experimentation at the Balázs Béla Stúdió in the Early 1970s
- Gábor Bódy
- Group 180
- Freedom is Mere Illusion: Experimental Music and Media Arts in Hungary
- Creative History: Engaging the Works of Peter Forgács
- Cinema's Alchemist: The Films of Peter Forgaćs by Editors, Bill Nichols and Michael Renov
In today’s episode we continue to highlight films from the Krakow International Film Festival featuring a conversation with Francesca Mazzoleni, from Italy.
Francesca graduated from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome in 2015 and has directed short films and documentaries since that won several awards. Including, Nowhere, I Know You Can Hear Me, and 1989.
She made her feature film debut in 2018 with her film That’s Life and is now successfully traveling the festival circuit with her second feature film, the documentary, Punta Sacra (2020) which had its World Premiere at Visions du Réel and received the jury award for best feature film. It also was part of the documentary film competition at Krakow International Film Festival and had its market premiere at Cannes Marche du Film, the first major virtual market since the start of the pandemic.
Punta Sacra (2020) is a sensitive documentary which focuses on a very tight community, living in illegal houses on the last triangle of habitable space at the mouth of the Tiber. Its inhabitants call it Punta Sacra, Sacred Point. We find a community resisting the forces of nature and the ever-existing threat of forced eviction, with a thirst for celebrating the community that is strong, women centered and there to stay.
The film is a character-driven story with a nostalgic feel that is built around themes of resistance, resilience, sisterhood and community. Mazzoleni demonstrates some very clear choices in her approach in form and editing, resulting in a story that leaves us with a feeling of hope.
Today we will be discussing this film and the process of its creation with director Francesca Mazzoleni. To moderate the conversation, Yvonne Nouwen, a fellow documentary filmmaker from Amsterdam and 2019 graduate of the Doc Nomads Master’s program facilitates the discussion.
In this episode, we feature a conversation with Radu Ciorniciuc from Romania about his award winning feature-length documentary, ACASA MY HOME.
The film is set in the wilderness of the Bucharest Delta, an abandoned water reservoir just outside the bustling metropolis. Here we meet the Enache family that consist of nine children and their parents living in perfect harmony with nature… sleeping in a hut on the lakeshore, catching fish barehanded, and following the rhythm of the seasons.
Their life undergoes a dramatic change when they are forced to leave the area and move into the city so the city can transform the Delta into a public national park. With their roots in the wilderness, the nine children and their parents struggle to find a way to conform to modern civilization and they each begin to question their place in the world and what their future might be in the concrete jungle.
With an empathetic and cinematic eye, filmmaker Radu Ciorniciuc offers viewers a compelling tale of an impoverished family living on the fringes of society in Romania, fighting for acceptance and their own version of freedom.
ACASA MY HOME premiered at Sundance where it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography. It then went on the screen across Europe at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, Vilnius International Film Festival in Lithuania, DOK Fest Munich where it was awarded the VIKTOR in the Main Competition, and Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece where it took home the special jury award. It recently was screened at Krakow International Film festival where it was awarded the GOLDEN HORN for Best Director and Best Film. The next screening will be at DocEdge in New Zealand.
The film is an impressive debut and essential viewing for filmmakers that lean into cinema verite style of filmmaking. Not only is the story strong and the cinematography powerful, but what is also incredible is the social impact campaign that surrounds it.
We discuss the details of this as well as the inspiration behind the film in the following conversation moderated by Romanian filmmaker, Cristina Hanes.
In this episode we feature two filmmakers, Asia Der and Sari Haragonics from Hungary to discuss their debut feature documentary, My Mother, which recently had its world premiere at Hot Docs.
The film is an intimate tale of love and freedom, a lesbian couple contends with homophobia in increasingly radicalized Hungary as they struggle to create a family through adoption.
As Hungary’s political climate becomes increasingly radicalized, Virág, a former green politician, loses faith in the democratic parliament of Hungary and retires from politics.
She and her partner Nóra decide to shift their focus on building a family together and adopt a child. With a sensitive lens and close access, directors Asia Dér and Sári Haragonics follow the two women through their long and ultimately successful adoption process to bring home their young daughter.
As the rising tides of hate and homophobia in Hungary begin to overflow into their family, their lives hit a boiling point and they must face the difficult decision of whether to leave their country behind.
To moderate the conversation, Krisztina Meggyes facilitates the conversation. Kristina is a Hungarian documentary filmmaker and lecturer at University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, where she leads a course on Ethics in documentary films.
In this episode, we highlight a film from the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival. The festival is in its 22nd year and presenting over 200 documentary films from around the world to watch free, online, for Greek audiences until May 28th. Among the many films included in their programming is a remarkably powerful and brave film, ASWANG, from director Alyx Ayn Arumpac. [GREEK AUDIENCES CAN SEE IT HERE]
ASWANG is about the national war on drugs in the Philippines. Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016 and announced his campaign to rid the Philippines of drug addicts and dealers, as many as 20,000 Filipinos have been murdered — usually at night and always at the hands of vigilantes, hired assassins, and police officers.
In her unflinching debut feature documentary Aswang, Arumpac confronts these executions and their aftermath through the eyes of several families that have been left without a father, a brother, or a son.
Aswang is a brave film, and Arumpac is a brave filmmaker that breathlessly follows the everyday struggle of those whose life was radically affected by the regime, as she chronicles the terror and systematic human rights violation that unravels against the backdrop of the Manila slums.
Aswang premiered at IDFA, where it won the prestigious FIPRESCI Award. It then was invited to screen in at MoMA in New York as part of their Doc Fortnight Documentary Film Festival, True/False, Geneva International Film Festival, One World Prague (where it was nominated for the Jury Prize), and Cinema du Reel. It is currently available for a limited time online at Thessaloniki Film Festival.
I caught up with Alyx Arumpac to discuss her film, her experience taking on a politically provocative topic, and navigating emotionally charged violent filming scenarios.
Conversation Moderated by Christina Zachariades.
In this episode, we feature a conversation with Italian - American Filmmaker, Mo Scarpelliabout her most recent feature documentary, El Father Plays Himself.
El Father Plays Himself is a dual character study of a father and son relationship. The film follows Venezuelan director, Jorge Armand, as he returns to Venezuela to make a fiction film about the troubled past of his father in the illegal goldmines of the Amazonian jungle.
The film premiered this year at Visions du Reel, winning a special mention by the jury in the Best International Feature Competition. It will be screening next at the Krakow Film Festival from May 31 - June 6th.
It is an incredibly intense and powerful film often described by critics as riveting, sensitive, compelling and provocative. It has already been named one of the best films of 2020 by Criterion Cast.
In this episode, we feature a conversation with Nuria Giménezin Barcelona. She is the director of My Mexican Bretzel.
My Mexican Bretzel is Nuria’s debut feature film made entirely out of her grandfather's home footage, 16 mm film from the 1950’s and 60’s juxtaposed with excerpts from a diary to reveal the inner thoughts of Vivian Barrett, the beautiful wife of Leon. The entire film works as a personal reflection where love, desire, and death are all explored. Through these images and Vivian’s diary entries, which are placed as subtitles, we are privy to their beautiful holiday travels around Europe and the world, skiing in the winter and sailing in the summer. A seemingly aspirational lifestyle is contrasted with Vivian’s everyday concerns and observations that allow us, as viewers, a more nuanced and intimate reading of the images and reminded us that not everything is as it seems.
It is an excellent film; one of those rare times that as soon as it ended, I went back and started watching it again from the beginning. Out of pure admiration, I contacted the filmmaker to invite her to speak about her process.
In this episode, we continue our discussions with filmmakers participating in the Swiss documentary film festival, Visions du Reel, with the film Off the Road, by José Permar.
Off the Road is a Western, Musical, Documentary film that follows locals in a small remote town in Baja California, Mexico leading up to the Baja 1000 - the world's biggest off-road motorsport race that passes through every year and animates this small village.
Permar was born in South Baja California, Mexico. He studied Audiovisual Arts at the University of Guadalajara and won an Ariel, the national film prize for his short documentary Aurelia y Pedro (2016), which was also nominated for a Student Oscar Academy Award and received a special mention at the Berlinale.
Also joining the conversation is Daniela Silva, who is on of the producer of Off the Road.
Alexandra Yakovleva, a visual artist, facilitates the discussion.
Since streaming of Off the Road is limited, the director has kindly offered to make his short film, Aurelia y Pedro, available on Docs in Orbit to coincide with this episode.
In this episode, we feature a conversation with Director / Producer Afsaneh Salari from Iran about her feature film, The Silhouettes, which is having its World Premiere at Vision du Reel and available to watch until 2 May on the festival's website.
The Silhouettes tells the intimate story of an Afghan refugee family living in Iran for over 35 years as their youngest son takes the difficult to return to Afghanistan because of the limited opportunities that exist for immigrants in Iran.
Afsaneh has an impressive eye that is immediately visible in her framing from the first shot of the film and carries through until the last frame. However, her talents as a filmmaker go beyond composition. She also has strong intuition as a filmmaker and manages to artfully capture the tension in quiet, everyday moments. As a result, we feel the burden and limitations placed on this family of immigrants in Iran as if it were in our own country.
In the conversation, Anna Savchenko, a former classmate of Afsaneh’s speaks with her on the eve of her premiere to discuss the inspiration for the film and how she managed multiple roles as Producer, director, and cinematographer. Afsaneh also talks about her decision to premiere the film online during these times of COVID.
In this episode, we feature a conversation with three filmmakers, Isabella Rinaldi from Italy, Cristina Hanes from Romania, and Arya Rothe from India that make up the NoCut Film Collective, which they founded in 2016.
Their first feature length documentary, A Rifle and a Bag, premiered earlier this year at Rotterdam in the Bright Future section of the festival, and was awarded Special Mention from the jury. It is also an official selection for the Swiss documentary film festival, Visions du Réel and is available free to stream on their website www.visionsdureel.ch
We caught up with them via skype to discuss the film, collaborative co-directing, and working remotely on transnational productions.
Also featuring a special track at the end of the episode, courtesy of Vandana from her studio in Brooklyn.
Streaming 24 April - 7 May via Visions du Reel / Swiss Premiere
A woman, too afraid to leave her house begins to make a series of calls to authorities reporting suspicious activity happening outside her window.
We kick off our premiere podcast with a conversation with Farah Kassem about her award-winning short documentary film, Cleaning Schaerbeek (Belgium/Lebanon), available to stream for a limited number of days on docsinorbit.com, courtesy of the filmmaker.
Film Critics describe this film as "an equally intelligent and amusing essayistic look at paranoia and the obsession with security".
We caught up with Farah through Skype to talk about her filmmaking process and making “interior based” films.
Relevant Links:
- Watch Cleaning Schaerbeek
- Hammana Artist House : multidisciplinary art residency space with a focus on performing arts, located in the village of Hammana near Beirut, Lebanon
- Chicken & Egg Pictures: platform supporting women nonfiction filmmakers, providing financial grants and creative mentorship.