n the idyllic English countryside lives an intensive dairy farmer called Derek. One day his neighbour, also called Derek, forsakes farming tradition and starts turning his land over to wild nature. How does the community react when one of its own turns his back on their way of life? 

Renouncing the damage conventional farming is doing, Derek Gow unleashes a whirlwind of change: wild boar turf-up fields and over a hundred ponds are being dug up. Gow turns sheds and barns into breeding pens for a host of nearly extinctnative wildlife to repopulate his revived land: storks, wildcats, mole crickets, egrets, water voles, glow worms. And he has beavers creating lagoons. 

His neighbour Derek Banbury peers over his hedge in disbelief. ‘I don’t know what he’s doing. It’s not farming, it’s just a bloody mess!’ Derek vs Derek is a funny story about a serious subject. Set against the backdrop of the growing crisis of biodiversity loss and climate change, this observational film, shot over three years, charts the relationship of the two Dereks, and the impact this momentous decision has on the local community. Meanwhile tempers fray, wild animals escape, and the land is transformed. 

James Dawson

A very experienced, award-winning, documentary director (Secret Millionaire’ won Rose-D’or and BAFTA, won BAFTAs for ‘Wife Swap’; and BAFTA and Grierson for C4’s series ‘The Trust’ about QMC in Nottingham). Moving from making films for terrestrial tv broadcasters to his own feature docs. James’ first independent feature documentary started in 2018 was ‘Organ Stops: Saving the King of Instruments’, about a group of eccentric pipe organ enthusiasts saving instruments from closing churches. Shown at film and music festivals in US and UK, was bought and screened by BBC Christmas Eve 2023.

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All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea

A wave of poisoned crabs, like a biblical plague has washed ashore on the coast of North East England, where fishermen, coastal communities and politicians are fighting for different futures after Brexit. A highly topical tale with a strong local accent.

The times are not what they used to be. Fisherman Stan Rennie and his family have been fishing in the waters of North East England for centuries. But now a wave of poisoned crabs has hit the small communities on the East coast far from London, where people for generations were either fishermen or factory workers. The fishermen think the crabs have been poisoned and it is virtually impossible to make a living from fishing. Brexit has not exactly made things better, and while the fishermen are sounding the alarm and throwing themselves into defending the sea, enterprising local politicians are nurturing visionary plans for a new industrial golden age. Jeanie Finlay (‘Your Fat Friend’, CPH:DOX 2024) approaches this complex issue with sober clarity, but also with a keen empathy for a community that has not been accustomed to having a public voice. The camaraderie is strong, however, and the locals grab a pint at the pub while planning their next move – and make sure it won’t be their last.

Jeanie Finlay

Jeanie Finlay is a British documentary filmmaker and artist known for intimate, award-winning work that resonates globally. In 2026 she premiered her tenth feature film All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea at CPH:DOX where it was nominated for the F:ACT AWARD. Her 2023 film Your Fat Friend had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, followed by its international premiere at Sheffield Doc Fest, where it won the audience award, followed by a pioneering, creative distribution path to audiences around the world.

She has made films for HBO, BBC, and IFC, including four for the acclaimed BBC Storyville strand including Bifa & Grierson nominated The Great Hip Hop Hoax and Bifa winning Orion: The Man Who Would Be King.

Whether inviting audiences to share the (extra)ordinary journey of a British transgender man, pregnant with his child (BIFA nominated Seahorse), behind the scenes of Teesside’s last record shop in her home town (SOUND IT OUT), or onto the set of Game Of Thrones: in her Emmy nominated The Last Watch, her work is known for its emotional intimacy, pathos and humour and has garnered Emmy, BIFA, Grierson wins and nominations.

A champion of creative distribution, she’s a Chicken & Egg Awardee with retrospectives at Criterion, BFI, and MOMI NYC, True Story and Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. The recipient of an honorary Doctorate of arts in recognition of her contribution to documentary, Jeanie is a member of AMPAS, BAFTA, and FWD-Doc.

She is founder of the production company Glimmer Films and co-founder of its creative distribution arm Glimmerama with creative producer and head of business affairs, Suzanne Alizart.

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An investigation into laboratory research on animals exposes a hidden world in which it’s not just the animals getting hurt. The story of Dr. Lisa Jones Engel, a primatologist turned animal welfare advocate, asks whether harming animals and ourselves in science’s name is justified. 

Animal testing, specifically on primates, has long been controversial. However, its supposed necessity for medical breakthroughs has made many in the medical community and general public accept it. Sentient questions this assumption with an open mind and deep research. It draws on evidence and testimony from people on the front lines of animal experimentation around the world, some of whom have been traumatized by what they’ve seen and done. 

With disturbing footage from highly secretive laboratories and a rigorous approach that includes conflicting voices, a complicated portrait of the efficacy of animal testing for the betterment of humankind emerges. Director Tony Jones asks us to consider, with great empathy to animals and humans alike: While we might have a need to test on animals, do we have a right? 

Tony Jones

Tony Jones is an Australian television news and political journalist, radio and television presenter and writer. Tony began working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) as a radio current affairs cadet working on the AM, PM and The World Today programs. In 1985, he joined the Four Corners program as a reporter. In 1986, Tony moved to SBS to present on the Dateline program before returning to the ABC in 1987, reporting for Four Corners. In 2011 he commenced as the host of the ABC's Q&A political panel discussion show continuing in that role until 2020.

Tony is one of Australia's most well known journalists, winning awards including four of Australia's leading journalism awards, the Walkleys. Crikey awarded him "Outstanding Media Practitioner of the Year" in 2005. Tony is married to esteemed ABC journalist Sarah Ferguson.

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While helping a woman search for her birth mother, a filmmaker is drawn into her own family history, uncovering a dark cloud that has long hung over its women. Through filmmaking as both inquiry and a gesture of care, she explores whether self-authorship can rewrite inherited family narratives.

Dr Rachel Taparjan

Dr Rachel Taparjan is a British Romanian filmmaker and academic. She lives in the north east of England and is a senior lecturer in social work at Teesside University. She has directed documentary short films selected for Sheffield DocFest, the East End Film Festival, and SEE Film Festival. She is a member of the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE). Her debut feature documentary Something Familiar has received development funding from the British Film Institute, the Romanian National Film Fund, and Creative Europe MEDIA. She was selected for the CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator programme 2022 and subsequently awarded the Cineuropa Marketing award. Something Familiar was also selected as one of the five finalists for Whickers 2024 and Presented at Cannes Docs 2025 as part of the CIRCLE Showcase of Docs-inProgress where she won the Chicken & Egg Vision Award. Something Familiar will celebrate its world premiere in the International Main Competition at CPH:DOX 2026.

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American Doctor

When three American doctors – Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian – enter Gaza to save lives, they find themselves caught between medicine and politics, risking everything to make a difference. As the world watches a besieged and heavily bombed Gaza grapple with a humanitarian catastrophe, a collapsing healthcare system, and an unprecedented civilian death toll, American Doctor tells a deeply humanitarian story from which we must not look away. 

The war in Gaza has strongly involved another country: the United States. As the attacks intensified in Gaza and medical expertise and capabilities were decimated, three American doctors felt a professional and moral obligation to act. We witness these three impressive individuals making the difficult but necessary triage decisions after an attack, caring for suffering children, and concerned for their own personal safety. Their stories reveal not only the human cost of war, but also the failure of the international community to protect civilians. Although they come from very different backgrounds and experiences, they are unified in their desire to ease suffering and raise their voices to demand action from their own government. 

From Gaza hospitals to the halls of American power, director Poh Si Teng unflinchingly depicts a brutal reality and also shows a path forward to engage with humanity and collective action. Variety magazine called American Doctor ‘a necessary watch because it dares its audience not to look away, forcing the question not only of whose story is told, but whose deaths matter and make headlines’. 

Poh Si Teng

Poh Si Teng is the producer of the Oscar-nominated St. Louis Superman and Emmy Award–winning executive producer of Patrice: The Movie. She is a former creative executive for ABC/Disney, documentary commissioner for Al Jazeera, IDA grants director, and New York Times journalist. She is the founder of Tiny Boxer Films, which produces non-fiction feature docs, and docu- and unscripted-series for the US and global majority markets. American Doctor marks her debut as a feature documentary director.

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Through cinematic landscapes and testimony from survivors, journalists, and witnesses, Kenya-Jade Pinto’s The Sandbox explores modern border control, where surveillance, AI, and militarization decide who lives and who dies. From the Arizona desert to the drone-policed Mediterranean, migrants flee unforgiving landscapes while rescuers face the Sissyphean task of keeping them safe. Meanwhile, tools tested at borders spill into databases and daily life, collapsing distance between watcher and watched. No villain stands at the center, only processes and protocols.. There is no outside: the film shatters the illusion separating “them” from us. In The Sandbox, we are all digitizable and disposable.

Kenya-Jade Pinto

Kenya-Jade Pinto is an Indo-Kenyan-Canadian documentary photographer, filmmaker, and lawyer. She grew up chasing crabs on the Kenyan coast, before moving to Alberta’s foothills as a teen. Her hyphenated worldview informs her work where she focuses on non-fiction and narrative projects that navigate themes of displacement, belonging, and access to justice.

Kenya-Jade blends her creative eye with thoughtful precision, and most recently supported Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson as an associate producer on Scarborough – all the way to the Toronto International Film Festival and beyond. 

Kenya-Jade’s training as a human rights lawyer has deepened her practice as a documentarian on projects like Not Yet Home, Level Justice, and more recently, The Sandbox. She has participated in DOC Institute’s Breakthrough Program as well as HotDocs’ Emerging Filmmaker Program. She’s the filmmaker-in-residence at York University’s Refugee Law Lab, and in 2021, she was named a National Geographic Explorer. She is currently directing her first documentary feature with frequent collaborators, Compy Films. 

Kenya-Jade is also a member of Women Photograph and Diversify Photo, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations as well as a Juris Doctor (cum laude) with a specialization in International law. She is a member in good standing of the Law Society of Ontario.

Kenya-Jade is available for assignments, collaborations and connecting at hello[at]kenyajade[dot]com.

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From a teenager’s suburban bedroom to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, Molly Vs the Machines is the story of a heartbroken father’s quest to uncover the truth behind his daughter's death and his fightback against how the most powerful corporations of the modern age operate.

Synopsis

At just 14 years old, Molly Russell came home from school, finished her homework and said goodnight to her family. A few hours later, she took her own life.

Surrounded by a loving circle of family and friends, it was a life-shattering mystery to all who knew her. In search of an answer Ian, her devastated father, pieces the final months of her life back together only to discover that, when Molly looked at her phone, social media machines dragged her into darkness.

Co-written by Harvard professor and best-selling author Shoshana Zuboff, the film follows the trail of two narratives and their devastating convergence. Molly’s friends, family and associated professionals trace in detail what happened to Molly, while the economic logic behind Big Tech helped fuel an algorithmic spiral resulting in tragic consequences.

From a teenager’s suburban bedroom to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, Molly Vs THE MACHINES is the story of a heartbroken father’s quest to uncover the truth behind his daughter's death, and his fightback against how the most powerful corporations of the modern age operate.

Now, as Big Tech's global domination escalates with AI, Molly's story reminds us that the real power is still in our hands.

Director's Statement (Marc Silver)

Telling this story was never solely about the harm done to a 14 year old girl, or the rights of all children, or the tech policy changes needed to protect them - as essential as all those things are.

We made the film as a warning about the people who control the machines, about their vision for our future and the type of power they wield.

That power is quite literally in our hands.

Everyone, everywhere, all at once tethered to Big Tech’s machines.

All of us connected to the digital, no matter who we are, no matter what we believe, are invited to watch Molly Vs THE MACHINES.

And then ask questions.

Questions like, ‘What right did the machines have to even ‘know’ that Molly was depressed? Remembering that her family, friends and teachers did not know.’

Questions like, ‘What right does Big Tech have to know anything at all about what we are doing, and how we are feeling?’

‘What right do they have to convert our lives into data, for their machines to consume?’

‘What right do they have to manipulate how we behave without us being aware?’

Ultimately we made Molly Vs THE MACHINES to help spark the huge shift needed in how we as individuals and communities see and understand Big Tech.

Over the course of making the film, the question I’m always asked is ‘what can we do about this?’ Of course, there is a wide spectrum of answers out there offered by people far more qualified than me, but nevertheless here’s what I've been imagining.

We could restrict Big Tech’s access to our lives.

We could begin by reclaiming our bedrooms as private places, prohibiting data extraction from within those four walls. After all, in the real world, we don’t let strangers sit at the foot of our beds to observe and manipulate our behaviour like puppeteers.

We could then extend the zone from bedrooms to entire houses.

To cars and public transport.

To schools, workplaces, parks, playgrounds and places of worship.

This would end the transformation of our selves into their data that is then monetized and used to manipulate us. This would give us back some control of our lives - and redirect where our democracies are headed under the steer of Big Tech.

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Gays Against Guns - AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER + SPECIAL JURY MENTION - DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Gays Against Guns takes us to the front lines of the American gun violence epidemic, seen through the eyes of an Irish immigrant, who left Ireland when it was illegal to be gay in search of the ‘Gay American Dream’. But political sands shifted and this dream quickly unraveled. The Pulse nightclub massacre changed everything. With 49 people murdered, it was the worst mass shooting in the U.S. at that time. It was also the catalyst for the formation of an extraordinary new activist group - Gays Against Guns - who have been fighting for gun reform ever since. 

We follow our narrator, the filmmaker, from neon splashed street protests into the corridors of power, as he documents GAG’s actions over a ten year period, from that fateful night in Orlando, through the chaos of today’s unhinged, divided America. The film blends the narrator’s personal reflections with fearless, outrageous, often hilarious political theatrics. GAG adopts the tactics of civil disobedience and direct action, forged during the AIDS crisis and fight for Marriage Equality, to give gun toters and puppet politicians a serious run for their money. 

Between all the action - wildly colourful protests and glittering drag - we hear survivors’ stories. Kit, who lost her beloved daughter Bailey, a Black transgender teen, to gun violence. Antonius, an Asian American artist who channels the trauma of his shooting into fierce activism. The film takes us on an emotional rollercoaster, combining deeply moving scenes with moments of levity. Legendary filmmaker John Waters even chimes in with his notoriously sharp wit.

An inspiring David and Goliath story for our turbulent times, the film is a testament to resilience, community, and the power of caring for a perfect stranger.

Produced with support from Screen Ireland.

Paul Rowley

Paul Rowley is an Irish filmmaker and visual artist based in Brooklyn, New York. For over twenty years he has been making work that combines elements of documentary, video art, and fiction into immersive and often politically engaged films. His work has screened at the Centre Pompidou, Berlin Film Festival, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Irish Film Institute, SXSW and many film festivals internationally. Past feature documentaries include SEAVIEW, a film made in collaboration with asylum seekers in the former Butlin’s holiday camp in Mosney, Ireland, and THE RED TREE which tells the little known story of Mussolini’s prison island for gay men. He has twice been nominated for Irish Films and Television Awards and was recipient of the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s Glen Dimplex Award. His 2022 film GAYS AGAINST GUNS follows a radical direct action group of LGBTQ+ activists as they work to end the American gun violence epidemic. 

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From Director Daniel Lombroso (“White Noise”), MANHOOD follows Dallas entrepreneur Bill Moore as he attempts to make penis enlargement as commonplace as Botox. Along the way, an OnlyFans star and a father of five put their bodies—and their insecurities—on the line. Blending dark humor with unexpected empathy, MANHOOD examines shame, addiction, and the fragile myths of American masculinity.

Daniel Lombroso

Director Daniel Lombroso spent eight years building the Oscar-nominated video departments at The New Yorker and The Atlantic before launching his own premium documentary studio in 2025. His debut feature, WHITE NOISE, based on his four years reporting inside the white power movement, premiered in 2020 to critical acclaim. It was named one of the year's top documentaries by Vox and The Boston Globe, and one of the 25 films that explain America by The Guardian. His short, NINA & IRENA, Executive Produced by Errol Morris, was one of the most decorated shorts of 2023. Lombroso’s work has premiered at Sundance, SXSW, TIFF, and has been recognized with eight Vimeo Staff Picks, two National Magazine Award nominations, two Livingston Award nominations, an IDA nomination, a Critics Choice nomination, an Emmy nomination, and the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. MANHOOD is his second feature-length film.

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From acclaimed Irish filmmaker Gavin Fitzgerald (Conor McGregor: Notorious), witness an intimate portrait of a once in-a-generation athlete, “The Big Fella”, Jonah Lomu. An explosive, formidable athlete, Jonah quickly became a sporting legend, holding the record for the most tries scored in Rugby World Cup history. But despite his gentle giant persona, his life was marred by tragedy, often forcing him to battle adversity and confront his inner demons as the public watched on.

Gavin Fitzgerald

Born and bred in Dublin City, Gavin FitzGerald is an award winning director whose documentaries have featured on Netflix, BBC studios and international film festivals such as HotDocs. Early in his career, he gained a reputation for making high profile celebrity biographies, including the Netflix titles, CONOR MCGREGOR: NOTORIOUS (2017, Universal Pictures) and LIAM GALLAGHER: AS IT WAS (2019, Warner Music). Since then, he has directed an IFTA nominated film, MILLION DOLLAR PIGEONS (2022, Dogwoof), a four part docu-series for the BBC, STABLE: THE BOXING GAME (2024, Lorton Entertainment), and multi-award winning short films. Upcoming projects include LOMU (Dogwoof, NZ Film Comission, UK Global Screen Fund) and SOUL OF THE SEA (Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán & TG4)

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There’s an amazing opportunity you don’t want to miss: the partnership between Nonfiction Hotlist and Yahoo Media Group is currently accepting short documentary submissions — but the deadline closes Friday, March 6! 🎬💥 

This initiative will hand-pick 20 short docs for global distribution and fair compensation, giving your work exposure across major Yahoo platforms and reaching audiences that other outlets just can’t match. 

👉 Films must be 10–40 minutes, completed between Jan 2023 and March 2026, and fit one of six vibrant categories ranging from Sports to Culture & Arts. 

⏳ Time’s running out — get your submission in before Friday!

And while you’re here, be sure to check out our special Podcast Festival Docs episode with the founders of Nonfiction Hotlist, Adam and Isis — where we dive deep on the future of nonfiction storytelling and what this opportunity means for creators like you.

🎧 Listen before the episode expires Friday as well!

#Documentary #NonfictionHotlist #Yahoo #Docs #PodcastFestivalDocs #SubmitNow

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The Golden Spurtle is a 2025 English-language documentary about the annual World Porridge Making Championships in Carrbridge, Scotland. Directed by Constantine Costi, it follows a cast of eccentric competitors and locals as they prepare for the contest, which also serves as the farewell for beloved organizer Charlie Miller. The film is described as a heartwarming and humorous look at a beloved tradition, community, and passion for the simple dish of porridge. 

Constantine Costi

Constantine Costi is a Greek-Cypriot / Australian director and writer whose work spans opera, film, and theatre. He grew up in Sydney, immersed in his family’s seafood business, but his real passion developed early when, as a teenager, he discovered opera — a vinyl recording of Pelléas et Mélisande changed his life.

He trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and earned a Bachelor in Communications (Media Arts and Production) from the University of Technology Sydney. 

Over the years he has directed many major opera productions, including La Traviata on Sydney Harbour, Pierrot Lunaire, and Il Tabarro, as well as avant-garde and immersive works. In film, his most notable work is the documentary The Golden Spurtle, which follows the World Porridge Making Championship in a small Scottish village.For this film, he spent time building real relationships in the village, aiming to portray not just the competition but the warmth, humor, and quirks of rural life.

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The year is 2003. Eight Americans daringly challenge the newly built Providence Place shopping mall. In the documentary Secret Mall Apartment, produced by Jesse Eisenberg, a group of headstrong artists find a secret space in a bustling shopping mall. They decide to turn it into an apartment, and live there, undiscovered, for four years. What could possibly go wrong, right? Come find out…

Jeremy Workman

Jeremy Workman is an American documentary filmmaker and editor based in New York City, known for his intimate and character-driven portraits of artists, eccentrics, and outsiders. A graduate of Columbia University with a degree in English Literature, Workman has directed several acclaimed documentaries, including Magical Universe (2014), which explores the world of outsider artist Al Carbee; The World Before Your Feet (2018), following Matt Green’s mission to walk every street in New York City; and Lily Topples the World (2021), which won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the SXSW Film Festival. In addition to his directing work, he serves as the Creative Director of Wheelhouse Creative, a boutique agency specializing in marketing and trailer editing for independent and documentary films. Workman is also an active lecturer and speaker on documentary storytelling and film editing.

Instagram (@secretmallapartment) or our website (www.secretmallapartment.com)

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Two female medics in Ukraine's army, whose lives are captured via phone and body cam footage, navigate the chaos of war with bravery, humour and friendship.

Codenamed Cuba and Alaska, two field medics serving on the frontlines of the Ukrainian conflict regard the absurdity of war with a combination of grit, humour and hope. Mostly comprising footage from phones and GoPro cameras attached to their helmets and chests, the film offers rare access to the medics’ daily lives, their reliance on each other a testament to the camaraderie required to survive in this world. But when one of them is injured and they are separated, the realisation of how despairing the conflict can become gradually sinks in. A raw and powerful film, Cuba & Alaska is an essential reminder of the importance of human connection, especially at a time when hope in the direst of circumstances feels increasingly elusive.

Content Guidance: Film contains scenes of war, bereavement and death.

To further support the film and its protagonists, please click here.

Yegor Troyanovsky

Yegor Troyanovsky is a Ukrainian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He has professional experience in the audiovisual sector, working in film production, television programs, advertising, and music videos on Ukrainian and American TV.

Since 2019, Troyanovsky has worked for American public broadcaster PBS and its flagship nightly newscast, NewsHour.

He is the author and director of his first short documentary films, Rear(participated in the VI Odessa International Film Festival) and Aerodrome. His first full-length documentary film, Demon, participated in the XI Odessa International Film Festival in 2020 and received the FIPRESCI award for Best Film.

Troyanovsky is also one of the creators of the critically-acclaimed historical documentary series Collapse: How Ukrainians Destroyed the Evil Empire (2021), award-winning short movie Anna (2019, premiered at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival), In Search of Skovoroda (2022), a documentary that presents the key theses of world-renowned philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda, among others.

CUBA & ALASKA

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A documentary film about care. And love. And Patrick Lydon.

In a small wooden house in County Kilkenny, Ireland, Patrick Lydon’s life is ebbing away. Throughout his final year he reflects on an extraordinary life that took him from a budding career in rock journalism in America to trailblazing, with his wife, Gladys, the development in Ireland of the radically inclusive Camphill Movement, sharing life in community with people of diverse needs and abilities.

At a time when it couldn’t be more needed, Patrick’s story and his unique lens on the world exemplify a meaningful life lived to the full, and ask searching questions about ideas of community and inclusion and shine a special light on the otherness of others in our society.

Éamon Little

Eamon Little is a screenwriter, film-maker and radio documentary maker.

His latest film Born That Way, a documentary on the life and work of social pioneer, Patrick Lydon, launches at the Dublin International Film Festival in February 2025.

His recent adaptation of John McGahern's final novel, That They May Face the Rising Sun (co-scripted with director Pat Collins), has played in film festivals all over the world since its release in 2023 and won Best Film at the 2024 IFTAs.

His other feature film documentaries include Living Colour (2011), Red Mist (2007 - adapted from Conor O'Callaghan’s eponymous book), and he co-directed An Domhnach in Éireann (2005). Short documentary films include Camphill - The Essence from Within (2009), Nimble Spaces - An Introduction (2013) and Nimble Spaces - Inclusive Neighbourhoods (2016). He has written and directed three short fiction films: quickfix (1996), Nobody Home (2002) and Neighbourhood Watch (2010) and has a number of feature film screenplays and documentary films in development.

For radio he has made the documentaries A Backwards Glance at the Ballroom of Romance (RTÉ, 2012), All Those Names for the Mystery of Love (Lyric Feature, 2014), My Mind Was a Stranger (Newstalk, 2016) and his latest documentary, If the Stick Dances, a journey into the life of a violin bow, Lyric Feature, 2016), Out of the River and the Fields (Newstalk, 2018), Abhainn Dú (MidWest Radio, 2020) and No Ordinary Joe (Newstalk, 2020) – all of which can be heard here LittleVision Radio Works.

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Four years after the breakthrough success of his debut album Beginner’s Guide to Bravery, Dundalk songwriter, musician, and composer, David Keenan, is at a crossroads. After touring extensively and building a reputation as one of Ireland’s leading live performers, he returns to the studio to record new music. “Anger is easy to portray, it’s the hurt that’s hard”, he says, as we explore David’s wordsmithing over the course of 500 days.

This is a portrait of one artist as a young man, which in turn is a portrait of every musical artist as they endeavour to stand out in a world of “algorithm and blues”, and remain authentically and powerfully true to themselves.

Ceithre bliana i ndiaidh dó a chéad albam Beginner’s Guide to Bravery a eisiúint, tá an t-amhránaí, ceoltóir agus cumadóir ó Dhún Dealgan, David Keenan, ag crosbhóthar. Tar éis dó camchuairt fhairsing a dhéanamh agus cáil a bhaint amach mar dhuine de na taibheoirí beo is spéisiúla in Éirinn, filleann sé anois ar an stiúideo chun ceol nua a thaifeadadh. “Is furasta fearg a léiriú, is é an ghortú atá deacair”, a deir sé, agus muid ag scagadh cumadóireacht David thar thréimhse 500 lá.

Portráid í seo d’ealaíontóir amháin agus é ina fhear óg, ach is portráid í seo de chuile ealaíontóir ceoil agus iad ar a ndícheall seasamh amach in aghaidh na halgartam, agus fanacht dílis dóibh féin agus dá ngairm ar bhealach cumhachtach.

David Keenan

David Keenan wrote the ode to his hometown of Dundalk on the Irish border “El Paso” at 14. Self educated and guided by his grandfather’s storytelling gift songwriting has always been a full time vocation. After a number of self released EPs his first album “A Beginner's Guide to Bravery" (2020) reached number 1 in the Irish indie Charts and was followed by the critically acclaimed second "WHAT THEN?" a year later. Other works include live album/concert film "Alchemy & Prose” and the d.i.y “CRUDE” records. With a reputation as a uniquely poetic singer-songwriter/storyteller and relentless live performer he has toured consistently from a young age across Ireland, the UK, Europe, North America and Australia with events including two headline nights in Dublin's Olympia theatre, the main stage of Electric Picnic, appearances at Lowlands, SXSW, Sydney Fest, Folk Alliance, Eurosonic, Glastonbury and Celtic Connections, residencies in Paris and New York's Irish Arts Centres & a recent headline show in Ireland’s National Concert Hall.

Paddy Hayes

Paddy Hayes is one of Ireland's leading drama and documentary filmmakers based in Galway, on the West Coast of Ireland. His editorial line is simple - he makes documentaries that are dramatic, and dramas that have something to say.With 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry, Paddy Hayes is a leading Irish drama producer currently executive producing the second season of Hulu's Obituary, starring Siobhán Cullen and Máiréad Tyers.

He initiated and produced the show's successful first season in 2023. Hayes also produced the award-winning feature film Foscadh, which represented Ireland in the Best International Feature Film category at the 2022 Academy Awards.

His past drama credits include the teen comedy EIPIC and the IFTA award-winning Corp & Anam, starring Maria Doyle Kennedy, a series that earned significant acclaim on VoD platforms in the US and Europe. Hayes is the author of the non-fiction book Breakout, published by O’Brien Press.

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When three of their four children are diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare and incurable disease that leads to severe visual impairment, the Pelletier family’s world changes forever. In the face of this life-altering news, Edith Lemay, Sébastien Pelletier and their children set out on a trip around the world to experience all its beauty while they still can. As they fill their memories with breathtaking destinations and once-in-a-lifetime encounters, the family’s love, resilience and unshakeable sense of wonder ensure that their uncertain future does not define their present.

DANIEL ROHER 

DIRECTOR

Daniel Roher is a filmmaker from Toronto, Canada. His first film, “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band,” was a music documentary executive produced by Martin Scorsese. His follow-up, “Navalny,” won Sundance’s 2022 Festival Favorite Award, the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, as well as the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature. His latest project, “BLINK,” will premiere at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival and will be released by National Geographic Documentary Films in the late fall. In addition to his work in film, he is an accomplished visual artist whose work has been exhibited in galleries around the world. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, son, and dog, Moose.

EDMUND STENSON 

DIRECTOR

Edmund Stenson’s work as director, producer and editor spans both documentary and fiction and focuses on social issues, loners and nomads. He recently directed “BLINK,” a National Geographic feature about the Lemay-Pelletier family, who dropped everything and traveled the world after learning three of their four children were losing their vision. Before that, he was an associate editor on BAFTA- and Oscar®-winner “Navalny” (2022), a documentary-thriller about the Russian dissident’s poisoning.

In 2018, he directed the award-winning “Finding Fukue,” the viral CBC success that has amassed over 14.5 million views online. He has also cut award-winning documentary features, shorts and television series in English, French and Japanese: most notably, Canadian Screen Award winner “Being Black in Toronto” (2020), “Ciao Plastique” (2020), “Ghosts of Our Forest” (2017), “Ma vie Made in Canada” (2017), “Sourtoe: The Story of the Sorry Cannibal” and “Retour aux sources” aka “The Roots Remain” (2015). Stenson is also somewhat obsessed with the Chilean filmmaker and magician Raúl Ruiz, as well as another kind of magician: Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy.

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Debuting filmmaker Myrid Carten has been filming since she was a child, and when her mother goes missing, she picks up her camera again in response to this new crisis. Her mother Nuala, once a successful social worker, suffered a mental breakdown after the sudden death of her own mother. She shuffles between rehab clinics, psychiatric hospitals, and occasionally the street.

Intimate, surprising, and often darkly funny conversations with her mother and other family members reveal the trials of loving someone who struggles with addiction and madness. Home videos from Myrid’s childhood and recordings of video installations from her current work as an artist form a playful blend of fictional and documentary elements, which compellingly capture the vicious cycle of care and rage.

Atmospheric Irish ballads about vagrant drinkers and dreamlike images of the neglected family home conjure the cultural and relational roots at play. In fresh and inventive ways, the film returns to a familiar, universal question: how can we be with those we love without losing ourselves?

Myrid Carten

Myrid Carten is an Irish filmmaker who makes works for cinemas and galleries. She trained in Artists’ Film at Goldsmiths University London

and Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, UAL. Her work interrogates both the struggle for intimacy and the ways we are compromised by our pasts. She received the Arts Council of Ireland’s Next Generation Artist Award 2018- 19. Her films have screened internationally and been supported by the BFI, Doc Society,

Screen Ireland, NI Screen, New Dawn Fund and the Netherlands Film Fund. A Want in Her is her debut feature.

Recent solo exhibitions

Preta Act 2, Mother’s Tank Station, London

(2023)

Preta (Hungry Ghost), Mother’s Tank Station,

Dublin (2022)

Recent group exhibitions

In the Same Breath, Freelands Foundation, London (2023)

Bones in the Attic, Hugh Lane Gallery (2022 A Different Horizon, Lismore Castle Arts,Waterford Ireland (2022)

My Body is an Exhibition, Sadler’s Wells London (2021)

Recent residencies

ISCP NYC 2020-21

Hospitalfield 2020-2021

Artlink Dunree 2020

British Council/ACNI International Artist residency, India 2017-18

Recent awards

Arts Council of Ireland’s Commission Award 2020-21

DocsIE Pitch Award 2019

TBG&S Project Studio Award 2018-19

Fire Station Artists Studio Digital Media Award 2018

Arts Council of Ireland’s Next Generation Artist Award 2018-19

Her work is in the Arts Council of Ireland and Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s national

collections.

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After a local factory worker named Dorem Clery dies under mysterious circumstances, Werner Herzog travels to Getunkirchenburg to investigate his perplexing death. But Herzog, our narrator, is not who he seems, and the film is not what we expect…A computer will not make a film as good as mine in 4500 years. Werner Herzog

About a Hero is an adaptation of a script written by an AI trained on Herzog’s body of work. The fictional narrative it produced, ironically self-reflective, is intertwined with a series of interviews with artists, philosophers and scientists reflecting on the notion of originality, authenticity, immortality, and the soul in the age of AI.

Piotr Winiewicz

Piotr Winiewicz is an artist and a filmmaker. He is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His work focuses on questioning the human role in the cosmos. About a Hero, a Pressman and Tambo Production, will be his debut feature film.

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Where Dragons Live

Following the death of their parents, Harriet and her siblings must unpack their childhood fears as they prepare to sell their dragon-filled Oxfordshire home. Suzanne Raes’ film follows the Impey family through a major transition: rifling through the contents of their childhood home in preparation to sell it, with their own children watching on. Between the clutter and the boxes, the siblings find themselves haunted by the memories of their late parents: a dragon-obsessed father and an exacting mother, and the esoteric collections of objects they left behind. Working through her award-winning documentary collective, Docmakers, veteran filmmaker Raes (0.03 Seconde, Two Men, Close to Vermeer) carves out a disarmingly tender rumination on parent-child relationships. Giving equal weight to each sibling, balancing the light and shade of the physical and emotional spaces of their lives, Where Dragons Live also features some dazzling visuals in the way it presents this personal history.

Suzanne Rae 

Suzanne Raes has been working as an independent filmmaker for more than 20 years. Her early films The Houses of Hristina (2007), The Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Island (2009), and The Successor of Kakiemon (2012) premiered at IDFA and won several awards at international film festivals. Her film Come Closer about Boudewijn de Groot received the IDFA Music Audience Award in 2015. 

For her film about the Rotterdam social service, Quid pro quo (2015) Raes won a Golden Calf, the most important film award in the Netherlands. The international co-production Ganz: How I Lost My Beetle (2019) had a theatrical release in the Netherlands and has been broadcast in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. 

In 2023, her film Close to Vermeer was the only Dutch feature-length documentary that qualified for an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature, following successful theatrical runs in the Netherlands, United States and Germany. The film was also nominated for a Golden Calf and won the Special Jury Prize at Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival. Close to Vermeer has been sold to 15 countries to date.

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Don't Forget to Remember

An artist navigates his mother's life and memories as they are being eroded by the advance of Alzheimer's.

This collaboration between filmmaker Ross Killeen and Irish street artist Asbestos documents the latter’s creation of an installation inspired by his mother, Helena, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The artwork is an attempt to preserve Helena’s memories of her life – capturing her experiences and feelings – and her love for those who have played a part in it. At the same time, Killeen captures Asbestos’ own love for his mother as he attempts to preserve her recollections. The film is also a record of how life-changing a condition Alzheimer’s is – a moving and poignant portrait that conveys the lived experience of a neurodegenerative condition. But it is also a joyous celebration of a life lived and a testament to the vivid, if fragile, nature of our memory.

Ross Killen

Ross Killeen is a film director based in Dublin. He founded the award winning production company, Motherland which

works across film, commercials and music videos. Ross’ directorial debut feature documentary Love Yourself Today, centred on the music of Damien Dempsey and had a nationwide cinematic release in Ireland. The film was nominated for an IFTA and also played all over the UK, New York and

Australia. Brian Eno quoted in relation to the film “I have seen no better film about the social value of art”. Killeen’s other films include 99 Problems and Becoming men. 99 Problems was a short documentary which looked at the murky underworld of the Dublin ice cream business. The film premiered at

Tribeca film festival in New York and won the audience award at Dublin International Film Festival. It also played at Sheffield Film

Festival and Raindance in the UK. Becoming Men was Killeen’s first short film and put his company, Motherland on the map as a maker of authentic documentary films that resonate with an audience. Ross has two more feature documentaries in development.

Asbestos

As a prolific Irish artist, Asbestos has been producing street art since 2003, utilising masks to convey narratives and elicit emotions.

His works have been displayed worldwide, and he was nominated for “Best International Street Art 2021” for a mural that drew attention to the

housing crisis in Ireland. In 2022 he collaborated with the band Idles at Roskilde festival in Denmark on a project called “I Beat Myself Up” where they

smashed piñatas off their heads to encourge people to talk about their mental health. His art delves into society’s fixation with self-image while using anonymity to become more transparent and candid in his creations. Notably, he reveals his own vulnerabilities, providing insight into what it means to be human. By opening up to the public his work starts a conversation with the viewer making their contribution essential to his work and giving them a voice in it.

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Director Duncan Cowles takes us on a journey through male mental health, stigma and taboo in the UK. Part road trip, part coming-of-middle-age tale, Cowles’ laconic humour and frank approach to his subject proves effective in exploring aspects of masculinity that all too often are little discussed. Admitting that he is not always open and intimate in his conversations with loved ones, the BAFTA-winning Scottish filmmaker sets out to define masculinity in the modern age – what makes men tick and, more importantly, coming to terms with all aspects of health, both physical and mental. The questions asked in Silent Men may seem simple, but their answers betray underlying tensions, as Cowles’ subjects make all too clear. The film grapples with being able to express oneself as a man – to become someone at peace with themselves, their life and the ones they love.

Duncan Cowles

Duncan Cowles is a BAFTA Scotland Award winning documentary filmmaker whose short films are often known for their comedic, self-aware and sensitive approach. His shorts have gained significant online exposure through screenings at A-list festivals such as BFI London Film Festival and online platforms such as Short of the Week, Vimeo Staff Picks, BFI Player, BBCiplayer, MUBI, It’s Nice That, TED and numerous others.

Duncan has won a selection of awards at festivals such as Glasgow Short Film Festival, Open City Documentary Festival, BFI Future Film Festival, Hamburg Short Film Festival, Kyiv Short Film Festival, Szczecin European Film Festival, The Smalls and received numerous nominations including being twice shortlisted for Best British Short Film at the London Critics Circle Awards.

In recent years Duncan has been commissioned to write and direct documentaries for Channel 4, STV, BBC Scotland, BBC Radio 4, TED and Adobe. In 2020 Duncan was commissioned to make x6 30minute episodes of his own new documentary TV series ‘Scary Adult Things’ which looks at the struggles of the millennial generation for BBC Scotland and aired in March 2021.

In 2017 Duncan founded his own production company Relative Films Ltd to facilitate the production of his first feature documentary project which he initially took to IDFA Academy before being awarded development funding from Screen Scotland & The Whickers. The film is currently nearing the end of post-production and due to be completed in 2023.

Duncan has also hosted a range of documentary filmmaking workshops for all ages for University of Edinburgh, BFI, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Mental Health Foundation, Glasgow Film Festival, Glasgow Youth Film Festival, Flatpack Film Festival, VIS Vienna Shorts, Screen Academy Scotland and more.

Duncan graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a 1st Class degree and a specialisation in documentary film, winning an Award for Distinguished work by the University upon graduating. He then went on to work for the internationally renowned Scottish Documentary Institute for three years on training programs and feature documentaries such as I am Breathing, Future My Love, Pablo’s Winter, Seven Songs for a Long Life, Donkeyote, Time Trial, Becoming Animal & Nae Pasaran. He also served for five years as part of the programming team for selecting feature documentaries for the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013-2018.

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Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee’s ode to the forgotten soul musician Jackie Shane documents a life of eclipsed stardom and trailblazing trans musical history. 1960s soul singer Jackie Shane’s story began in Nashville. She achieved musical success rubbing shoulders with the likes of Little Richard and Jimmy Church. In Any Other Way her great nieces unearth a treasure trove of memories, trinkets and tales about her life. But the real star of the film is Jackie herself, narrating her life through never-heard-before audio recordings. With warmth, humour and honesty, Jackie tells of life in the Jim Crow-era South and how she escaped there, rose through the music industry and became one of its pioneering Black trans performers. Other voices in the film include music royalty and trans leaders and educators, while animation further enlivens what is already an extraordinary life.

Lucah Rosenberg-Lee

Lucah Rosenberg-Lee is a Toronto-based independent filmmaker, speaker and entrepreneur. Lucah was adopted from the Dominican Republic into a Toronto family, where he developed his love of activism through film and his passion to tell stories of marginalized voices.

Lucah has produced and directed a variety of film projects, including Passing and For Nonna Anna, that have been screened at TIFF, Inside Out and Sundance. He specializes in both documentary and LGBTQ+ content, bringing unique stories to life, including his own.

Lucah has spoken to more than 20,000 students from British Columbia to Newfoundland about his personal experience being a trans man in today’s society and the importance of LGBTQ+ representation, kindness and acceptance.

Currently, Lucah is the head of brand storytelling at his own company, Monday Media, which works to create compelling pieces of digital content in the modern marketing landscape.

Michael Mabbott

Michael Mabbott is a Toronto-based filmmaker. His first feature, The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico, which he wrote and directed, premiered at TIFF to popular and critical acclaim, receiving the Best Canadian First Feature Award. His second directorial effort, Citizen Duane, also premiered at TIFF.

Michael co-created, executive-produced and directed the six-part half-hour comedy series The Yard, for HBO Canada/TMN/Movie Central. His first documentary film, Music Lessons, premiered at Hot Docs.

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Elahe returns to her hometown in Mashhad, Iran to assist her family's move to a new house after 40 years. Even though Elahe stopped wearing hijab many years ago, she still had to wear it when she was among her religious family. Influenced by the Woman Life Freedom movement, she has decided to stop wearing the hijab on all occasions, which is challenging for her deeply religious family's norms.

As they move home, in an intimate and honest atmosphere this documentary takes us into the unique space of an Iranian family after the big social movement, highlighting that the feminist resistance still exists, despite all the suppressions. It explores this parallel transformation within Elahe's family and her homeland; and in this context, it suggests that not only Elahe’s home, but potentially her homeland too, will be a better home for everyone, when no one forces their opinion on the other and everybody coexists in peace.

Elahe Esmaili

Elahe is an MA alumna in directing fiction at National Film and Television School in the UK. She was ranked 1st on the university entrance exams (Konkour) and did her BA in film at Tehran University of Art.

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Elahe’s first film was her BA graduation film, a short doc titled "The Doll". It is awarded as Best International Short at Hot Docs 2021 and nominated/selected for prestigious awards like International Documentary Association(IDA), Critics Choice Awards, Student Academy Awards, One World Media Award as well as prestigious festivals include more that 10 Oscar qualifying festivals such as Full Frame Documentary FF, Atlanta FF, Athens IFVF, Kerala IDSFFK well as tens of other International festivals like Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival. (Overall more than 50 festivals)

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Her second documentary "Can I Hug You?" was world premiered at the International Short Competition at Sheffield Doc Fest, Jun 2023. It also won the award for best short documentary at SIMA awards. It also won the IDA ACI award, and some other awards.

It is acquired by the DW Germany channel and will be aired on it later in 2024.

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"A Move" won the best pitch award at Dok Leipzig Germany 2023, and the best short award by the youth jury in Visions du Reel 2024.

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"Shadow", her NFTS gradfilm and Elahe's debut fiction short is on the official selection of Cleveland International Film Festival, USA, April 2024, and ShortShorts Film Festival & Asia, Japan, June 2024. 

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The festival will open on 18th June with the award-winning documentary The Flats, directed by Alessandra Celesia. Fresh from winning the prestigious DOX:AWARD at CPH:DOX, one of the largest documentary film festivals in Europe, the documentary follows four people from the New Lodge flats, a working class, Catholic community in Belfast as they revisit the collective memories that shaped their lives and the district they live in.

Docs Ireland’s annual Pull Focus competition which celebrates excellence in Irish documentary will feature a stellar line-up including Neasa Ni Chianáin’s The Alexander Complex, on the bizarre tale of a group of ‘gentlemanly explorers”, Colm Quinn’s Ransom '79, where a historic fraud case collides with immediate mortality and Andrew Gallimore's One Night in Millstreet, which captures the Celtic Tiger through a historic boxing match. Other Irish documentaries on the programme include Alan Gilsenan’s IFTA winning The Days of Trees, Ross Killeen's Don’t Forget to Remember, Éanna Mac Cana's Burkitt, Leo Regan's My Friend Lanre and Katherine Waugh and Fergus Daly,  I See a Darkness. The festival will also present an eclectic selection of international documentaries across its line-up, including 3D screenings of classic documentaries, a selection of music documentaries in its Shellshock Music programme, the Maysles Brothers Competition for Observational Documentary which rewards the best in observational non-fiction filmmaking all over the world, and its Focus on Palestine and Focus on Finland programmes. Some of the best new short films in Ireland will be showcased through four Irish short film programmes.

The Industry programme will return with Docs Ireland's fifth Marketplace. Taking place over two days, it provides an opportunity for filmmakers to meet one-to-one with leading international documentary industry players, including international funders, broadcasters, distributors and exhibitors. The programme is packed with opportunities for those working or aspiring to work in the documentary film industry to attend a wide range of panels, workshops, talks and networking opportunities.

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Māori tribal leader Ned Tapa takes a group of friends and family on a breathtaking canoe trip down the Whanganui River in Aotearoa, as the Māori call New Zealand. The Whanganui is the first river to be recognized as a legal person. Together, this diverse group of people embraces the spirit of the river and tries to find what is needed to save the planet.

The Whanganui River in Aotearoa/New Zealand is the first river in the world to be recognized by law as a legal person, and as a living and indivisible being. The Māori fought for these rights for over 150 years. Māori river guardian Ned Tapa takes a group of friends, family and activists on a 5-day canoe trip down this sacred river. Joining them are a First Nations Elder from Australia and his daughter, who are activists dedicated to save their own dying river back home, an Australian artist and an international film crew.

Everyone in the group – including the film crew – has a voice and becomes a character in this film. The river organically unites them in their goal to bring about a fundamental shift in values, to protect our planet for future generations. The Whanganui River sparked a global ‘rights of nature’ movement and is the iconic main character of the film. Filled with beautiful meditative images of the breathtaking nature. ‘If you sit and listen, you’ll hear the country singing,’ Ned Tapa says. ‘All together, intertwined, in harmony, in sync.’ 

Corinne van Egeraat & Petr Lom

Corinne van Egeraat & Petr Lom are an internationally recognized filmmaking couple whose award-winning work has premiered at Berlin, Venice, IDFA and Sundance and has screened at

over 450 festivals around the world and broadcast in more than 30 countries. They are driven by the need for creative storytelling in the service of movies that matter. Specializing in urgent stories that reflect their values of dedication to justice, they work from a deep place of humility and generosity seeing storytelling as a form of love and friendship, an act of giving and sharing. Their goal is ego-less filmmaking, that itself is a political act: collaboration without competition, made in the faith that cinema has a transformative power to enlarge our hearts and inspire us to embody our better selves.

This ideal of solidarity inspired them to work in Myanmar for the better part of the last ten years on several films. The most successful of which has been Myanmar Diaries, which won

the prestigious Berlinale Documentary Award, along with fifteen other international prizes, a hybrid film about daily life in the aftermath of the 2022 military coup, made together with ten

young anonymous Burmese filmmakers. A film entirely without credits, it best embodies their ideal of ego-less filmmaking: the international film team abstained from public credit out of

solidarity with the anonymous Burmese filmmakers. Since the last seven years, they have also expanded their focus to work on stories of climate justice: I Am The River, The River Is Me (2024) a film about New Zealand’s Whanganui River, the first river in the world recognized as a legal person. The other, The Coriolis Effect (2024) is a highly visual essay about our world spinning out of control, set in the islands of Cape Verde, the place where hurricanes are borne. These stories about the rights of nature and changing our relation to the natural world, are in line with their own values, as they live at Schoonschip in Amsterdam, the most sustainable community of floating houses in Europe, developed by a community of like-minded residents.

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TAKE ACTION — YINTAH (yintahfilm.com)

Yintah

Spanning more than a decade, the film follows Howilhkat Freda Huson and Sleydo’ Molly Wickham as their nation reoccupies and protects their ancestral lands from several of the largest fossil fuel companies on earth.

YINTAH is about an anti-colonial resurgence—a fierce and ongoing fight for Indigenous and human rights in the face of a colonial government committed to seizing lands at gunpoint.

Wet’suwet’en land is unceded: There is no treaty, no bill of sale, or no surrender placing the land under Canadian authority. In 1997, the Dinï ze’ and Tsakë ze’ (Hereditary Chiefs) of the Wet’suwet’en people proved in Canada’s top court that they had never given up ownership to 22,000km2 of land.

Yet, despite this court ruling, Canada has authorized fossil fuel giants to build pipelines across Wet’suwet’en land. The result: a decade long clash between Wet’suwet’en land defenders and Canadian police seeking to seize Wet’suwet’en land at gunpoint.

YINTAH is the story of the Indigenous right to sovereignty over Indigenous territories. Freda, Molly, and the Dinï ze’ and Tsakë ze’ are part of a centuries-long fight to protect their children, culture, and land from colonial violence. For the Wet’suwet’en, their very future is at stake.

Jennifer Wickham

Jen is Cas Yikh (Grizzly House) from the Gidimt’en (bear/wolf) clan of the Wet’suwet’en people. Jennifer grew up in and around Wet’suwet’en territory, and has actively participated in her nation’s governance system since 2008. Jen's background is in writing and Indigenous resurgence, with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Victoria and an Education degree from the University of Northern British Columbia. She has worked as an educator, a mental health advocate, and community support worker. She is a founding member of the Indigenous Life School on Wet’suwet’en territory. From 2018 to 2020, Jen worked as the Executive Director of the Witsuwit’en Language and Culture Society. Since 2018, and currently, Jen has been the Media Coordinator for the Gidimt’en Checkpoint.

Freda Hudson

Freda Huson is the face of Indigenous sovereignty in Canada’s Northwest. After quitting a well-paying job and abandoning a comfortable life on the reservation, she moves onto her ancestral lands to protect them. As she coordinates hundreds of volunteers to build cabins, lodges, and a three story healing center in the path of several pipelines, she is dubbed an “Aboriginal extremist” by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and her home is labeled Canada’s “ideological and physical focal point of Aboriginal resistance to resource extraction projects.” Facing off with pipeline workers and police, a woman with no prior background in politics or public relations becomes the spokesperson for the Unist’ot’en people of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. It’s a role entrusted to her by the elders and highest ranking chiefs of her clan, who honour her by giving her the chief name Howilhkat.

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‘You’ll have to send a copy of this script to my lawyer,’ Rachita Taneja tells the filmmaker at the start of Drawing a Line. The reason: Rachita is facing legal problems because of cartoons she made about the Supreme Court. It caused her to be charged with ‘contempt of court’, for which she could go to prison. Her lawyer advises her strongly that these cartoons should not be shown, or their contents discussed, in the film. ‘It’s just stick figures,’ she wonders. ‘How is the highest court in the largest democracy in the world talking about my stick figures?’

Rachita’s Sanitary Panels is a popular cartoon series known for its sharp socio-political commentary, and it has captivated young, liberal Indians. While waiting for the outcome of the court case, Rachita seeks guidance and support from like-minded individuals dedicated to amplifying their voices. The film explores Rachita’s inner world and her creative expression, depicting a dystopian narrative where freedom of speech rapidly erodes. 

Rachita Taneja 

Indian artist Rachita Taneja’s stick-figure cartoons are deceptively simple. However, just these few clear lines, accompanied with some carefully chosen words, have brought her before the highest court in the land. Now, she is possibly facing prison. There are a lot of misconceptions about Indian cartoonist Rachita Taneja, as she says in the documentary Drawing a Line. ‘The funniest one is that I am a man,’ she says. ‘I don’t know where it comes from. I guess it’s just good old-fashioned misogyny.’ In her popular web comic Sanitary Panels, Rachita’s work is rooted in a strong social and political conscience. ‘My comics sometimes come from a place of anger,’ she says. ‘When I see something that feels unjust to me, I’m going to make a comic about it.’ It may come as no surprise that before she started drawing cartoons, she worked at Greenpeace.

Amid an increasing government crackdown on press freedom and freedom of speech in India, Rachita bravely takes on the Hindu-nationalistic ideology promoted by the current Modi government. As a result, she is subjected to threats and vile trolling. ‘There are rape threats, death threats, threats of violence against my loved ones,’ she says. ‘There’s the fear that one day I walk up to my balcony and there’s a group of people just waiting there to do what they’ve promised, which is to hurt me.’

Immediately at the start of the documentary, it becomes apparent that the film will not be an easy project. ‘You’ll have to send a copy of this script to my lawyer,’ Rachita tells the filmmaker. The reason: Rachita is facing legal problems because of cartoons she made about the Supreme Court. It caused her to be charged with ‘contempt of court’, for which she could go to prison. Her lawyer advises strongly against showing these comics or discussing their contents in the film. ‘It’s just stick figures,’ she notes, surprised. ‘How is the highest court in the largest democracy in the world talking about my stick figures?’

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The Payne family lives on a small, remote farm in a Norwegian forest. Parents Maria and Nik, along with their four children, embrace self-sufficiency and home-schooling, and strive to live in total harmony with nature. To make ends meet, Maria occasionally works as a photographer, capturing her family and surroundings in photos and stories shared on her blog, “Wild + Free.” But their world turns upside down when tragedy strikes and Maria suddenly passes away. Nik must sell the farm, give up his independent lifestyle and reluctantly return to civilization in order to raise his children. “But Mom will come with us,” the kids assure him, and Maria’s photos and stories, present throughout the film, maintain her memory as a constant presence and narrator. A New Kind of Wilderness is a universal story about life choices and responsibilities, a blueprint for living and loving, and a touching message about climate crisis and sustainability through the loss of a mother and Mother Nature.

Silje Evensmo Jacobsen

Silje has directed award winning documentary films and series for the past 15 years. Some of the titles are; Team Ingebrigtsen (2016, 2018), Faith Can Move Mountains (2021) and her last feature documentary A New Kind of Wilderness (2023) who won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2024 (World Cinema Documentary Competition).

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American Cats

In this documentary, comedian Amy Hoggart (Full Frontal with Samantha Bee) dives deep into the controversial world of cat declawing in the United States. On the surface, it appears as a simple, harmless surgery for the convenience of pet owners, but as Hoggart digs deeper, a disturbing nationwide conspiracy unfolds. Through interviews with veterinarians, activists, and pet owners, the documentary unveils a powerful industry lobby that not only promotes but profits from this inhumane procedure. As Hoggart navigates the maze of misinformation, she discovers the profound physical and psychological effects declawing has on our feline friends. "American Cats" is a thought-provoking exposé that challenges the ethical implications of our choices and calls for a nationwide reflection on our treatment of animals. And also lots of jokes and cute kittens.

Todd Bieber

Peabody Winner and Emmy Nominee Todd Bieber has produced over 200 episodes of late night television for TBS and Comedy Central - primarily directing/producing in the field/documentary department.

Because of this, he thrives in weird places. Whether it’s embedding with the Georgia militia for Jordan Klepper Solves Guns, heading backstage to interview today's most respected comedian for his feature documentary Thank You Del, or submerging into the Furry scene at the Dallas Marriot for Full Frontal… Todd is used to making friends with oddballs for documentaries.

In addition to being a Producer/Director for Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Klepper, and The Opposition, he served as Creative Resident at Viceland when the network launched, Creative Director of UCB Comedy when people still watched online videos horizontally, and Writer/Footage Coordinator for The Onion when the footage was impressively coordinated. 

Amy Hoggart

Amy Hoggart (born 14 April 1986) is a British-American stand-up comedian and actress, best known for starring in Almost Royal, a faux-reality show on BBC America, and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, an American political satire show on TBS.

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• CANADA: FLY will be coming later this year to National Geographic Channel and Disney+. Check local listings.
• USA: FLY will be coming later this year to National Geographic Channel, Disney+ and Hulu. 

Fly

What if the very thing that fuels you could also be your downfall? Humans have long dreamed of the freedom of flight. In the heart-stopping documentary FLY, from National Geographic Documentary Films, directors Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau (“Shaun White: The Last Run,” “Immigration Nation,” the Emmy® Award-winning “Trophy”) immerse viewers in the exhilarating yet perilous world of BASE jumping. At the heart of the film are three couples: Jimmy and Marta, pioneering figures affectionately known as the “Mom and Pop” of BASE jumping; the fearless wingsuit pilot Scotty and his newfound love, Julia; and the resilient duo Amber and Espen, whose bond is tested by triumph and tragedy. Through breathtaking aerial footage, vérité scenes and intimate interviews, the film explores the complex balance between passion and sacrifice. A poignant love story that celebrates the spirit of those who dare to defy gravity, capturing the essence of what it truly means to live on the edge. 

Shaul Schwarz

Shaul Schwarz is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. His debut film, "Narco Cultura", premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. He co-directed the Emmy-winning film, "Trophy" & co-directed the Netflix Original series, "Immigration Nation" that won an Independent Spirit Award and Peabody Award. Shaul is the co-founder of Reel Peak films.

Christina Clusiau

Christina Clusiau is an award-winning filmmaker. She co-founded the production company Reel Peak Films. Christina co-directed the Emmy-winning documentary "Trophy", which premiered at Sundance in 2017. She co-directed the Netflix Original Docuseries, "Immigration Nation" which won an Independent Spirit Award and a Peabody Award.

Amber Forte

Amber Forte (born 2 September 1991) is a world record holding skydiver. Born in Torquay in Devon county, Amber is currently ranked #1 female wingsuiter in the world and holds the world record for the fastest female in a wingsuit. In 2018 Amber became the first female in history to place top 10 at an international FIA performance wingsuit competition.

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Her determination and success during international competition representing Norway, meant that in 2018 she became the first female member of the Norwegian national wingsuit team. In 2021 Amber won a silver medal at the FIA world championships in Acrobatic Wingsuiting. 

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​Amber is a passionate content creator and works actively with Instagram sharing unique and exciting images and videos daily.

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Nice Ladies

With the recent escalation of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the seemingly unbreakable bond of a vibrant cheerleading team of 50+ year old women called “Nice Ladies” is challenged. They face impossible choices between motherland and grandmotherhood, between staying and leaving.

Core team member Sveta flees with her family to the Netherlands, while captain Valia and coach Nadia stay behind in the repeatedly bombed city of Kharkiv. Torn apart, the ladies try to keep contact to hold on to their sanity amid terror, heartbreak, and the plague of Sveta’s survivor’s guilt.

Will the team be able to reunite, save their sisterhood, and find a common language through the emerging scars of war?

Mariia Ponomarova

Mariia Ponomarova (1991, Kyiv) is a film director, screenwriter, and creative producer permanently based in The Netherlands since 2014.

Mariia studied film directing and screenwriting at Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema & Television in Ukraine graduating cum laude in 2013. Focusing on character development in film during her course, Mariia graduated from the Master of Film artistic research program in 2016 at the Netherlands Film Academy.

Short fiction and documentary films written and directed by Mariia were screened at such festivals as DokLeipzig, Sheffield DocFest, Chicago IFF, Sarajevo FF, Vancouver IFF, VIS Vienna Shorts, Odesa IFF, CineDOC-Tbilisi, Go Short ISFF, Netherlands FF, KISFF, FebioFest, RVK Feminist FF and others.

Her first fiction feature project 'The Right Answer' took part in Boost NL programme that included pitchings at NFF/Holland Film Meeting and IFFR/CineMart and it was developed as a part of the EAVE workshop.

Mariia's directing first documentary feature 'Nice Ladies' was presented, among others, at DokLeipzig Co-Pro Market, Meet Market and received a B2Bdoc Award at Producers Meet Producers event. Working on this film Mariia took part in IDFAcademy and DokIncubator workshop. The film had its Dutch & World premiere at Movies that Matter festival & will have an International premiere at HotDocs 2024.

Mariia's producer's documentary project 'Fragile Memory' that she co-wrote with Igor Ivanko was selected to multiple international festivals, including IDFA, Sheffield DocFest, DokLeipzig, Krakow Film Festival, Docudays UA, Baltic Sea Docs and Sarajevo FF, where it received a Special Jury Prize.

The fiction short film ‘The Diaper Cake’ that Mariia also produced received a Vimeo Staff Pick and was selected by festivals like Palm Springs Short FilmFest, Short Shorts Asia, Festival REGARD, Chicago International Film Festival, Interfilm Berlin, Molodist International Film Festival and more.

‍She is a frequent moderator, panel guest and case study speaker within the film industry (DocudaysUA IHRFF, Tempo Documentary FF, Millennium Docs Against the Gravity, Eastern Neighbors FF, HERdocs and more), a project manager for CineCoPro Conference at Filmfest München, a member of the Ukrainian Film Academy and a Senior Consultant at the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE), where she co-hosts the Story Room members-based activity for filmmakers' feedback.

Mariia loves rhubarb, collects graphic novels and divides her time between Amsterdam and Kyiv.

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'Daughter of Genghis' is a seven-year odyssey through the Mongolian underworld. The movie follows 33-year-old female gang leader Gerel Byamba.

She is the leader of the Mongolian organization, Gerel Khas - an ultra-nationalist group made up entirely of women. Her goal is to cleanse Mongolia from corruption and Chinese oppression and return the supposed/sought ‘glorious nation’ of Genghis Khan's time.

Gerel is a gang leader, an avenger and a fervent nationalist. She is also a shaman and a mother. We follow her conflicted life as a mother and gang leader, her fight against prostitution, for an overall gender equal and racially pure Mongolia - a struggle that comes with a high price.

Gerel lives alone with her son Temuulen, who is six years old as the film begins. She struggles with the role of being a single mother, often having to abandon her son for her nationalist cause, even though she loves him dearly.

Going forward, Gerel's gang begins to fall apart and she herself begins to question her violent methods. At the same time, Gerel harvests a dark secret that she eventually must share with her son.

'Daughter of Genghis' is the tale of an indigenous population fighting for its nation threatened by surrounding powerful empires. What means is one prepared to employ to protect its country? Will one be willing to risk their own life? Can hate be justified? 'Daughter of Genghis' takes a headlong dive into the heart of nationalism.

Directors

Kristoffer Poulsen, Christian Als

Directors Kristoffer Poulsen and Christian Als are both experienced and award-winning photojournalists. “Daughters of Genghis” is their debut as documentary film directors. Als has previously worked as a reportage photographer, specializing in documenting world conflict and disasters for leading Danish and international newspapers. In recent times, he has increasingly focused on longer-term projects that exist on the fringes of the global media agenda. Juel Poulsen's primary work is now in documentary filmmaking, and as a storyteller, he finds meaning first and foremost  in understanding other people and their life choices.

Author and idea

Knud Brix

Knud Brix is an acclaimed radio host and poet who has worked in all areas of journalism; war reporting, political journalism and creative writing before becoming the host of the Danish radio station 24syv. There, he anchored the daily newscast and had a weekly literature program. He then went on to host Genstart, the most popular daily podcast in Denmark 2020-2022. Knud has worked on several documentaries and has published both poetry and fictional books. He graduated from  the Danish School of Journalism and holds a master's degree in African Studies from CPH University. In April 2022, Knud Brix was appointed editor-in-chief of Ekstra Bladet, a leading investigative and tabloid newspaper in Denmark.

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Once Upon a Time in a Forest is a cinematic ode to a group of young radicals striving to defend Finland’s forests against the vested interests of the forestry industry and the political system, demonstrating that the outcome of this Once Upon a Time story – happily ever after or ecological disaster – rests largely on the shoulders of young activists like Minka, Ida and their comrades. 

Virpi Suutari

Virpi Suutari (b.1967) is an award-winning filmmaker known for her personal cinematic style challenging the boundaries between fact and fiction. Her films have been shown in the major festivals such as IDFA, Locarno, Leipzig, Vision du Réel and Gothenburg Film festival. The Idle Ones (2001) was nominated for the Best European Documentary (EFA award) and she has won several awards as the Best Nordic Documentary in Nordisk Panorama. Suutari has received the Finnish national Academy award, the Jussi-Award, three times. She is also the member of the European Film Academy. The previous feature documentary she directed and produced a feature documentary about architect Alvar Aalto (Aalto, 2020) received world-wide distribution. Virpi Suutari Once Upon A Time In A Forest (2024) 93 Min A People’s Radio – Ballads From A Wooded Country (2021) 26 Min Aalto (2020) 104 Min Entrepreneur (2018) 78 Min Elegance (2016) 26 Min Garden Lovers (2014) 85 Min

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Esfahan, Iran. Melina lives with her grandparents since her parents' divorce. She wants to live with her mother, but this is not possible because both her father and new stepfather are against it. Besides that, Melina's mother struggles balancing her relationship with her new spouse and fostering a proper relationship with her daughter. Celebrating her 9th birthday, Melina is finally old enough to bring her custody case to court. With the law on her side, she hopes to eventually choose her own custodian. Unfortunately, Melina is not aware of how the adult world is organized and how reality will probably play out differently. 

Atiye Zare Arandi

Atiye Zare Arandi is a storyteller, raised and educated with the heritage of the great traditional Persian art of telling stories and fables. She studied film directing with a focus on fictional narrative and continued to excel in her studies of dramatic literature. Currently she lives and works both in Esfahan and Tehran. Following her studies, Atiye has gained experience and recognition as writer/director for national Iranian fiction as well as documentary work. Her work has been represented several times at the International Cinema Verité Festival (Tehran). During the edit/post-production in Belgium and the Netherlands, Atiye collaborated with several highly established professionals to finish her international debut.

Bram Crols

Bram Crols (co-director & producer) is a graduate of the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema, Sound in Brussels (RITCS) and of the European Film College in Denmark. He gained experiences as a director and producer for TV, commercials and corporate AV productions before het redirected himself to the international creative documentary industry. Since 2007 Bram is connected as filmmaker and (executive) producer with the Belgian based production collective Associate Directors. He holds credits as (co)producer in about twenty international distributed documentaries including some industry changing documentaries such as ‘The King of Mont Ventoux’ (2014), an event documentary with involvement of EBU and 9 broadcasters, ‘Cold Case Hammarskjold’ (2019) by Mads Brügger, premiering and award winning at Sundance FF and ‘Nelly & Nadine’ (2022) by Magnus Gertten, premiering and award winning at Berlinale. Bram and his company colleagues received the 2016 ‘Gulden Mira' oeuvre award from the Flanders Film press for the combined oeuvre of Associate Directors. In 2014 Bram introduced the release network DocPoppies to introduce documentaries in Belgian cinema theatres. Since 2019 Bram is appointed part time lecturer at the AP Antwerp University College, focusing on factual storytelling in creative journalism.

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Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story

One of the most heartwarming love stories of the year is about the close friendship between a melancholic Scottish man - and an otter. An irresistible film that goes straight to the heart. In the Shetland Islands of Scotland, Billy shares his life with his wife Susan in a deserted house by the sea. Despite the endless beauty of the natural world around them and the faithful company of the couple’s dog, Billy is a melancholic man with a hole in his heart. But one day, a playful baby otter suddenly washes up on his jetty. He names the otter Molly. She ends up sticking around and the two end up becoming friends. It may sound too good (or maybe just too far out) to be true, but make no mistakes – this is one of those completely irresistible films that just wins you over. Breathtakingly beautiful, framed by the breathtaking Scottish cliffs and vast wastelands, but with scenes at otter level too, ‘Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story’ depicts how a friendship can change a man’s life forever, and how love can redirect our attention back to the beauty of nature.

Charlie Hamilton James

Charlie Hamilton James is a world-renowned National Geographic photographer, filmmaker and author known for his captivating work on wildlife and conservation issues. Growing up in the city of Bristol, his interest in photography began at a young age when his parents gave him a camera for his 13th birthday. Charlie began his career at 16, working on David Attenborough’s “Trails of Life” series for the BBC. Before becoming a wildlife cameraman, he worked on several series, including “Planet Earth” and “The Natural World.” He shot and produced his first film at 26, “My Halcyon River,” which was voted by an industry poll to be one of the top ten wildlife films of all time. Charlie’s television work has won numerous awards, including Wildscreen and the Royal Television Society Award for Cinematography twice, and he is also BAFTA- and EmmyⓇ-nominated.  

Charlie started working as a photographer for National Geographic magazine in his 30s and has shot 13 stories to date, including two covers. In 2021, his coverage of the Serengeti filled an entire issue of the magazine, showcasing the changing dynamics of life for people and animals in the region. He has also worked on stories for the magazine in the Amazon, the U.S. and across Africa, covering topics ranging from bird cognition to rats. In 2022, he was awarded the National Geographic Photographer’s Photographer Award. Charlie’s current photography work centers on a series of provocative fine art images titled “End Times.” The series documents the current state of the planet, in bold, sometimes offensive, and always controversial ways. They are designed to be both dark and funny, leaving the viewer with more questions than answers.

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The widows come together to break the vicious cycle of debt and climate related chaos in Indian agriculture that has pushed their desperate husbands to kill themselves - and leave them with the debt. A powerful and compelling film about solidarity between sisters.

The drought-stricken Indian rural region of Maharashtra is hit by a butterfly effect of chaotic crises. The climate, artificially low prices on the world market, rising imports and lack of regulation are pushing farmers into bottomless debt and deep poverty. The consequence is an unbearably high suicide rate. Some poison themselves by drinking the pesticides that put them in debt. They leave their wives with large, unpaid bank loans, the responsibility of raising their children and a farm to take care of. ‘Marching in the Dark’ turns its attention to the many women left behind who are connected by a common pain. Together they seek out a local psychologist to share stories, question orthodox practices, be vulnerable and comfort each other. But the meetings are also a silent rebellion against a patriarchal society and a first step in an inevitable liberation. A compelling story about a vicious circle and the first steps towards a resilient women’s movement.

Kinshuk Surjan

Kinshuk Surjan is an Indian filmmaker, based in Brussels and Bhopal. His graduation film POLA won the Indian National Student Film Award for Best Film and Best Script in 2013. After working as a 2nd assistant director on the film ISLAND CITY, awarded at Venice Film festival, Kinshuk went to pursue his master at DocNomads. In this period, his short, DIVIDED LINES, was screened at the 2015 Jihlava Film Festival. In 2017 his graduation film THE FLANDRIEN won the Flanders Audiovisual Fund’s VAF “Wildcard” and was later broadcasted on VRT, WDR & CT1. In 2021, Kinshuk participated in Berlinale Talents with his debut feature documentary MARCHING IN THE DARK, that will now world premiere in 2024 at CPH:DOX.

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The Bones traverses the globe alongside paleontologists on a quest to unearth dinosaur fossils that may hold the key to save humanity from extinction. It’s a race against time before the bones disappear into the hands of fossil dealers, who stand to make millions by selling them on the open market. A cinematic adventure that reaches from the Mongolian Gobi Desert to the floor of a Paris auction house, The Bones exposes the clash between science, post-colonial reckoning, and hard-headed capitalism.

Jeremy Xido

Jeremy Xido is a filmmaker and performance artist whose work has taken him around the world in an exploration of complex issues of community and personal identity. His approach to stage and film blends emotionally gripping personal stories with the larger social contexts from which they emerge.

Originally from Detroit, Jeremy graduated cum laude in Painting and Comparative Literature from Columbia University in New York.

A Fulbright and Guggenheim fellow, he studied at the Actor’s Studio and since 2003 has been the artistic co-director of the performance and film company CABULA6, which was voted “company of the year 2009” by Europe’s prestigious performance magazine, Ballettanz, and awarded “Outstanding Artist of the Year 2010” by the Austrian Ministry of the Arts.

Jeremy’s award-winning feature documentary «Death Metal Angola» has screened at more than 80 film festivals including Rotterdam, Dubai, BAFICI, Sydney, CPH:DOX, and DOC NYC. Reviews in Indiewire and the Hollywood Reporter have described it as “riveting,” “absorbing, beautifully shot… superb,” “raucously crowd pleasing,” and “a cult classic in the making.” It opened theatrically in the United States, in November 2014.

Jeremy’s three-part solo stage performance «The Angola Project» developed with funding from the European Union and a residency at the Experimental Music and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), has premiered around the world at venues such as Impulstanz in Vienna and PS122 in New York. The New York Times found it a “marvelously quixotic…jostling collage that is intimate yet informed by sweeping issues surrounding class, race and identity.”

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At the age of 38, Victoria Mapplebeck found herself single, pregnant and broke. Unable to combine motherhood with freelance directing, she was forced to abandon her career in TV, instead turning the camera on herself and her son, Jim. Mapplebeck first began documenting their lives with her old DVCAM

before shooting almost daily on five generations of smartphones, from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 13. She recorded hundreds of hours of footage, capturing each twist and turn in Jim’s life, from the thumbs-up he gave during her first scan, to his first day at college. Motherboard is a complex, personal and unsentimental portrait of a mother-son relationship from birth to adulthood, exploring Mapplebeck’s life as a woman, mother and filmmaker. An antidote to the judgmental and unrealistic expectations we have about motherhood, the film turns the ‘supermum’ myth on its head.

Victoria Mapplebeck

Victoria is a BAFTA award winning artist and director, who has worked in film, VR and immersive audio. Her works explore autobiographical stories which ask universal questions about our relationship with technology, parenting, health and wellbeing. Victoria has been shooting continuously with smartphones since 2015 and is passionate about the innovation, intimacy and diversity of smartphone filmmaking. In 2024, Victoria completed MOTHERBOARD a feature documentary, shot over 20 years which charts the joy, pain and comedy of raising her son Jim alone. 

MOTHERBOARD premiered at CPH:Dox and was made in partnership with OKRE and Autlook Film Sales. Victoria is also a Professor of Digital Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London .

https://victoriamapplebeck.com 

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In his tower-block apartment in New Lodge, Joe reenacts memories from his childhood amidst the “Troubles“. In this Catholic area of Belfast, the number of deaths was tragically significant. Joe is joined by neighbours Jolene, Sean, Angie, and others, all willingly participating in this process of revisiting the collective memories that shaped their lives and the district they live in.

Alessandra Celesia

Alessandra Celesia was born in Italy and lives between Paris and Belfast. After studying literature and theatre, she starts a career in performing arts. She makes her first film, Luntano, in 2006. Since then, she has directed several films including The Bookseller of Belfast (2011, ARTE, Visions du Réel, Best Film and Audience awards at Festival dei Popoli), Italian Mirage (Cinéma du Réel 2013), Anatomia del miracolo (Locarno 2017), and The Mechanics of Things (ARTE/ZDF, Torino IFF 2023).

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Mawda Shawri, two years old in 2018, sister of Hama, daughter of Phrast and Shamden, was shot dead by a Belgian police officer during a migration border control on a Belgian central highway. In 2023, over 40 people, both undocumented and documented resident activists, assembled before the camera at La Voix des sans papiers in Brussels to stage a collective hearing of documents from and reactions to Mawda’s case. In this collective hearing session, the speakers acknowledge a ghostly haunting caused by police impunity and the state’s lack of accountability. It is in their refusal of such a shortage of truth and human rights that they feel the need to explore beyond the official narratives. Together they produce the counter-forensic evidence of Mawda’s deadly Channel crossing.

This collective hearing is supported by Vanbesien's audiovisual grammar, which foregrounds the opaque and the poetic. Given the inability to proceed within the dominant frameworks and the urge to imagine other possible worlds, this collective hearing challenges what is visible and audible. The film moves back and forth between the hearing and the site of the crime. This dialogue is imaginary: the collective inner world of the collective hearing is projected onto a landscape, which is at once haunting and mournful.

Robin Vanbesien

As a visual artist and filmmaker, Robin Vanbesien explores modes of embodied knowledge and collective imagination engaged in social and political struggles. Through the notion of ciné place-making, he acknowledges the capacity of cinema to preserve, reclaim, or redistribute invisibilized memories, histories, and lived cultures, using a cinematic language that probes beyond the prevalent scenes of representation. He collaborates with situated emancipatory grassroots movements, exploring cinema as a space for social gathering and political engagement that rehearses the capacity to hold space collectively. In 2020, Vanbesien co-founded The Post Film Collective, which explores cinema as a form of speculative rehearsal and communal assembly. 'Under These Words (Solidarity Athens 2016)' (2017) and 'the wasp and the weather' (2019) premiered at transmediale and Cinéma du Réel. His first feature ‘hold on to her’ will world premiere at Berlinale Forum Expanded (2024).

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In a small Indian village, Ranjit wakes up to find that his 13-year-old daughter has not returned from a family wedding. A few hours later, she’s found stumbling home. After being abducted into the woods, she was sexually assaulted by three men. Ranjit goes to the police, and the men are arrested. But Ranjit’s relief is short-lived, as the villagers and their leaders launch a sustained campaign to force the family to drop the charges.

A cinematic documentary, To Kill a Tiger follows Ranjit’s uphill battle to find justice for his child. In India, where a rape is reported every 20 minutes and conviction rates are less than 30 percent, Ranjit’s decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of. With tremendous access, we witness the emotional journey of an ordinary man facing extraordinary circumstances. A father whose love for his daughter forces a social reckoning that will reverberate for years to come.

Nisha Pahuja

Nisha Pahuja is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in Toronto. Her latest film, To Kill a Tiger, had its world premiere at TIFF, where it won the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film. Since then, it’s won 19 awards, including Best Documentary Feature at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and three Canadian Screen Awards. The film grew out of a long career of addressing various human rights issues, notably violence against women in India. In 2015, Pahuja won an Amnesty International Media Award for Canadian journalism after making a short film about the Delhi bus gang rape for Global News. Her other past credits include the multi-award-winning The World Before Her (2012; Best Documentary Feature, Jury Award winner, Tribeca Film Festival; Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs; TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten; Best Documentary nominee, Canadian Screen Awards), the series Diamond Road (2008; Gemini Award for Best Documentary Series) and Bollywood Bound (2002; Gemini Award nominee).

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A bracingly intimate and hallucinatory portrait of a man with schizophrenia surviving amidst urban detritus and decay. Pushing at the limits of non-fiction cinema, A Man Imagined follows 67-year old Lloyd as he sells discarded objects to motorists and passersby. Unfolding along psychological lines, the film reveals the existential solitude of a man at once gentle and marred by a storied past.

Brian M. Cassidy (1977, USA) and Melanie Shatzky

Brian M. Cassidy (1977, USA) and Melanie Shatzky are collaborative artists working at the intersection of documentary and narrative cinema. Their films have screened at many film festivals and arts venues including, Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, IFFR, Locarno, the New York Museum of Modern Art, le Musée de la Civilisation, ICA London and the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art. Their first feature-length fiction film Francine (2012), was selected as a New York Times Critic’s Pick. A Man Imagined (2024) is officially selected for IFFR 2024.

Filmography

Fish Kill Flea (2007, short doc, co-dir), The Delaware Project (2007, short, co-dir), God Provides (2007, short doc, co-dir), The Patron Saints (2011, doc, co-dir), Francine (2012, co-dir), Animals Under Anaesthesia: Speculations on the Dreamlife of Beasts (2018, short, co-dir), Interchange (2018, short), A Man Imagined (2024, short doc, co-dir)

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As war is yet again raging within Europe, The Light explores the controversial artwork "Peace Sculpture" created in 1995 by artist Elle-Mie Ejdrup. The piece, a 532 km laser beam along Denmark's west coast bunkers, ignited a national debate about the country's dark past and liberation from Nazi occupation. Elle-Mie faced threats and ostracism due to sexist media coverage. Almost 30 years later, this documentary not only focuses on the artwork and controversy but also highlights the overlooked Atlantic Wall built during WWII and emphasizes the importance of nuanced historical narratives. 

Alexander Lind

Alexander is a Danish filmmaker who graduated from The National Danish Film School in 2013. Alexander has recently moved back to Denmark after spending 2 years in Amsterdam. His breakthrough in the industry came with his graduation film, Carl & Niels. The documentary, which portrays the struggles of two twin brothers trying to break free from their childhood symbiosis, was selected for the IDFA documentary film festival in Amsterdam and received the "Best New Nordic Voice" award at the Nordic Panorama film festival. Since then, Alexander has established his name with his debut in 2017 titled Next Summer, which tells the story of Rasmus, who fears inheriting his father's depression. This documentary led to a nomination at the Danish documentary film festival CPH:DOX and further solidified Alexander's remarkable ability to depict close and complicated relationships in both a visually artistic and deeply human way. In addition to these films, Alexander has directed TV documentaries for DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) and the Danish production company Pineapple Entertainment. He has worked on several TV series, many of which have received awards, nominations, and acclaim from the industry and audiences in Denmark. In May 2023, Alexander released his critically acclaimed documentary film, The Light. It portrays the complex history of Denmark's largest and most controversial artwork, the Peace Sculpture 1995. In the film, Alexander utilizes extensive archival footage from both the 1940s and the early 1990s to create a contemporary space of understanding through brand new studio recordings and interviews. 

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Stolen Time

A coproduction of National Film Board of Canada and Intuitive Pictures inc.

In Stolen Time, a riveting feature documentary, charismatic elder rights lawyer Melissa Miller takes on the for-profit nursing-home industry. It’s Miller’s most challenging case yet in her early career: a mass tort representing hundreds of families fighting some of the world’s most powerful long-term care corporations. Her adversaries stand accused of neglecting their vulnerable charges as they reap huge profits. Booming elderly populations worldwide add urgency to holding these corporations to account.

Stolen Time is a compelling call for justice from desperate families who’ve turned to the courts as a last resort. We witness surprising testimonies and images from researchers, advocates and, most notably, frontline caregivers whose work is often undervalued but disproportionately blamed for what goes wrong. The film is a rare inside look at a legal battle and an emerging elder justice movement with ramifications—and inspiration—for us all.

Helene Klodawsky

Independent filmmaker Helene Klodawsky is a passionate storyteller, committed to portraying complex political and social struggles. Exploring the documentary art form for over 35 years, Klodawsky’s work has been screened and broadcast around the world. The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, Hot Docs, the Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois, the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM), World Press Photo, the Mannheim Film Festival, and the Jerusalem International Film Festival are among the many festivals and events that have honoured her work.

 FILMOGRAPHY

Stolen Time (2023), Feature doc

The Invisible Everywhere (2019),

Short web documentary

From Janet with Love (2017), Interactive story

Grassroots in Dry Lands (2015),Feature doc

Come Worry with Us! (2013), Feature doc

Malls R Us (2009), Feature doc

Family Motel (2007), Feature alternative drama

No More Tears Sister (2005), Feature doc

Undying Love (2002), Feature doc

What If? About Judith Merril (1998), Feature doc

Motherland: Tales of Wonder (1994), Feature doc

Shoot and Cry (1988), Feature doc

Painted Landscapes of the Times (1984), Short doc

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Jaydon Martin’s feature directorial debut combines fiction and documentary to present a compassionate portrait of blue-collar life in Australia. Cass Cumerford has borne more than his fair share of setbacks in life. Now in his seventies, he decides to return to his childhood home of Bundaberg, a small city famous for its rum, in Queensland. Through conversations with the strangers he encounters, and the friends he makes, Cass gradually reveals the events that have shaped his life – the mistakes he has made, the moments of joy and the grief that weighs him down.

Drawing on the lives and past of a rich panoply of characters in Bundaberg, Martin creates an environment that allows those in front of the camera to perform – summoning the fabric of their lives to interact with others, with subjects that range from addiction, race, faith and the forces that bind and repel us. Shot in crisp monochrome, Flathead traverses its landscape in search of a country that rarely appears in the headlines or on screen. In doing so, it becomes a vital, spirited and poignant portrait of community life.

Jaydon Martin

Australian born film director Jaydon Martin has worked in both narrative and documentary. He was camera operator on the feature documentary GENERAL HERCULES (Sydney Film Festival, MIFF & TiDF 2023). Jaydon has made many BTS documentaries for the BBC, WNO, WMC, National Theatre of Wales

and Artes Mundi in the United Kingdom.

Drawing upon his life experiences growing up in a violent low-socioeconomic area of Australia, his creative expression is deeply rooted in the exploration of maligned cultures and mundane existence. Working class expression is at the forefront of his work both in front and behind the camera.

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Mick Mahon has been at the forefront of editing in Ireland over the past twenty years, with a particular focus on documentary. He has edited a host of award winning films, and his work has been screened at festivals worldwide. He is a two time IFTA winner, in 2015 for  Rough Rider and in 2020 for GAZA, which was Ireland's entry for Best International Feature at the 2020 Academy Awards. 

In 2022, Nothing Compares, a documentary about Sinéad O'Connor was released to international critical acclaim. Mick was nominated for BIFA, IFTA and BFE awards for his work on the film.

Other credits include I, Dolours, The Queen of Ireland, Love Yourself Today , Notes From Sheepland and Neil Jordan's Marlowe.

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An emotive, intimate, feature-length portrait of Lyra Mckee - the remarkable young journalist murdered in Northern Ireland in 2019 after a life fearlessly committed to truth and justice.

Alison Millar

Alison is one of the UK and Ireland’s most respected documentary film-makers. She’s a BAFTA, IFTA and Prix Italia winner with a reputation for making emotionally compelling films. Trained at the National Film and Television School, Alison then worked with Mike Leigh’s producer Simon Channing- Williams at ‘Imagine Films’ in London. She went on to make observational documentaries for BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4 with many of the UK’s best-known Independent Companies, as well as working in-house for the BBC Documentary Department in White City.

Alison moved back to Belfast and founded Erica Starling Productions Ltd in 2010.

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Subject explores the life-altering experience of sharing one’s life on screen through key participants of acclaimed documentaries The Staircase, Hoop Dreams, The Wolfpack, Capturing the Friedmans, and The Square. These erstwhile documentary “stars” reveal the highs and lows of their experiences as well as the everyday realities of having their lives put under a microscope. Also featuring commentary from such influential names in the doc world as Kirsten Johnson, Sam Pollard, Thom Powers and Sonya Childress, the film unpacks vital issues around the ethics and responsibility inherent in documentary filmmaking. As tens of millions of people consume documentaries in an unprecedented "golden era," Subject urges audiences to consider the often profound impact on their participants.

Camilla Hall - Co-Director

Subject is Camilla Hall’s third independent documentary feature film. She recently completed directing Kingdom of Dreams, a new documentary series about the golden age of luxury fashion produced by Emmy-award winning Misfits Entertainment, the filmmakers behind McQueen and Rising Phoenix, for Sky and HBO Max. Her first documentary feature, Copwatch, a film about police brutality, premiered in Competition at the 2017 Tribeca Festival and sold to Amazon and her second, Garenne, an investigation into a child sexual abuse scandal on a tax-haven island, was broadcast across Europe by BBC Storyville, Arte, NRK, SVT, and DRK. Camilla has also produced films including Sirens (Sundance 2022) and Circus of Books (Tribeca, 2021 and

Netflix). She is an executive producer on Black Barbie: A Documentary, directed by Lagueria Davis, and will serve as an executive producer on Rita Baghdadi’s next film. She taught the inaugural documentary filmmaking class at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Prior to filmmaking, Camilla was an award-winning journalist at the Financial Times covering Wall Street in New York, and spent five years covering the Middle East prior to that. She now works on films between London and Los Angeles.

Margie Ratliff - Producer & Film Participant

Margie Ratliff is a producer of Subject and was a participant in The Staircase, a Netflix true-crime series released in 2018 that documented her father’s legal battle after he was accused and convicted of the murder of her mother. A shorter version of the series, which aired in 2004, was re-released on Netflix with three new episodes. Margie’s life has moved far beyond the series. She is now an independent Producer/Director of documentary films, a marathon runner and a passionate world traveler.

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When legendary leader Dedan Kimathi of the Kenyan Land and Freedom Army, the Mau Mau Rebellion, was hanged by the British authorities in 1957 for possession of firearms, they dumped his body at an unknown location. Now, his daughter Wanjugu Kimathi follows in her mother’s footsteps to look for her father’s remains. Kimathi's search becomes an investigation into British colonial atrocities including concentration camps and land theft that left hundreds of thousands of Kenyans destitute. As her mission expands, she transforms into a powerful advocate championing justice and land resettlement for those dispossessed. Along the way she meets Mau Mau veterans, families of others who lost their land and inspiring activists. Our Land, Our Freedom is her story, a painful but also hopeful chapter in postcolonial history.

Meena Nanji

Meena Nanji is an award-winning filmmaker who has produced, written and directed independent documentaries, experimental videos and short narratives that have screened at international film festivals and got broadcasted on global television. She has programmed film- and video festivals, guest lectured at UC Santa Barbara and Otis Parsons School of Art and Design and is the co-founder of GlobalGirl Media, a non-profit organization that trains girls from underrepresented communities of the world in digital media and citizen journalism. Meena is now working on a feature documentary about the legacy of colonialism in Kenya and the ongoing struggle for land.

Zippy Kimundu 

Zippy is an award-winning Kenyan Filmmaker who has been working in the film and television industry across continents as a director and editor for over a decade. She co-directed a short documentary, A Fork, A Spoon and A Knight with Mira Nair for Tribeca Film Institute’s ‘Power of Word Series’, and was the assistant editor on the Disney film Queen of Katwe. Zippy holds a masters in Fine Arts from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a film educator for under represented communities at I’ll Tell You My Story, who give storytelling workshops in Africa for teenage refugee girls. Besides this, she is the founder of Afro Films International, a women-led film and TV production company and creative collective based in Nairobi and Kilifi, Kenya, and is currently working to ignite political consciousness, and action, across continents. Her short films have screened internationally and she continues to create both fiction and non-fiction content globally. 

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Juneco’ is a community centre in Belgium that provides shelter and guides 15 minor refugees until they're 18 years old. In this multicultural hub the youngsters integrate and grow up without their families and friendships are made. Helen and Dalina , two Eritrean girls, share the same mother tongue, Tigrinya. They find comfort in each other while sharing stories, religion, songs and uncertainties. Helen, who’s in the procedure of family reunion, tries to stay positive and continues to develop her own identity. She is unsure what will happen once her family, who she has not seen in 6 years, arrives in Belgium. As they integrate in their new country and grow up without their families, How Do You Spell Home? looks at their search for a sense of home away from home.

Louisiana Mees-Fongang

Louisiana Mees-Fongang is a Belgian fiction and documentary writer and director. She studied directing at KASK (The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium). An education that is notably characterised by the cultivation of a filmmaker's distinct, personal language

Louisiana is known for making raw yet intimate portraits of youngsters residing in precarious situations. At the heart of Louisiana's scholarly endeavours lies a profound exploration into the myriad forces that shape the experiences of youths grappling with displacement, lack of guidance, disconnection, uprootedness or uncertainties stemming from their social backgrounds or socio- political circumstances. Her humanitarian and poetic work is always injected with sparks of humor and a nuanced touch of surrealism.

Louisiana's creative prowess was lauded when her short film Waithood secured the esteemed VAF Wild Card for fiction prize in 2018, a testament to her narrative finesse. In the autumn of 2023, she marked a significant milestone by debuting her feature documentary, How Do You Spell Home?, at the prestigious IDFA 2023. Simultaneously, her third short film, Fikri, makes its premiere at the International Short Film Festival Leuven, showcasing her versatile storytelling capabilities. Notably, her fourth short film, Igor, where is Igor?, is currently in the making.

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Cuviví is the Ecuadorean indigenous name for the upland sandpiper, a wading bird that has special significance for the communities living around the Ozogoche lakes in the middle of the Andes. Each year, these birds migrate south from North America. Around September they pass the Ozogoche lakes, where large numbers then “commit suicide,” plunging from great heights into the ice-cold water. The dead birds wash up on the banks, where they are gathered and used to prepare a feast, accompanied by rituals.

If the cuviví makes a sacrifice by migrating, the same can be said of the many indigenous inhabitants of the páramo who follow the route in the opposite direction. Work is scarce and there is less food due to climate change. Many young people therefore migrate to the United States, despite the dangers of the journey. With stunning photography, Ozogoche shows the everyday life of a girl who lives near the lake. Her uncle lives in the US, and she might be heading there herself. In the meantime, she awaits the arrival of the cuvivís, few of which have appeared in recent years. The lakes are drying up.

JOE HOULBERG SILVA - DIRECTOR

Joe Houlberg Silva studied Film and Philosophy at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito and earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago SAIC. His professional experience includes directing, assistant directing, and producing film projects. He has produced and/or

assisted films of three renowned Ecuadorian directors: "Tinta Sangre" (2012) directed by Mateo Herrera, "El Telón" (2013) directed by Victor Arreguí, and Ana Cristina Barragán ́s first films: "Alba" (2016) and “La Piel Pulpo” (2022), which premiered at Rotterdam and San Sebastian

respectively.

In 2019, he founded the production company Botón Films, dedicated to producing independent Ecuadorian films that challenge the audiovisual language from an authentic and intimate perspective.

Currently, Joe is involved in the development and production of several projects, including: "Ozogoche" (2023) his debut documentary, as director and producer, which will premiere at IDFA and received support from various organizations such as Buenos Aires LAB (BAL) at BAFICI, IFCI national fund for documentary production, Co-Production Meeting of the Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG), SANFIC industry in Chile, Nuevas Miradas of EICTV in Cuba, IDFA Bertha Fund Classic, IDFA Bertha Fund Europe Copro, IDFA Project Space, IDFA Forum Rough Cut and the Doha Film Institute fund for post production; "La Hiedra" (2024), as producer and directed by Ana Cristina Barragán, supported by the IFCI national fund for production, CNC Aide aux cinémas du monde, Ibermedia Production fund, Cinemart IFFR, Brlab in Brazil, Ikusmira Berriak residency from San Sebastian Film Festival, among others; “Amapola” (2025), also as producer and directed by Ana Cristina Barragán, selected to participate at the Locarno Open Doors HUB;

the short film “Ave” (2023), that recently had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival TIFF.

In addition to his filmmaking endeavors, Joe teaches film at USFQ and is an active member of the Association of Independent Directors and Screenwriters of Ecuador and the Academy of Audiovisual and Cinematographic Arts of Ecuador.

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Allister, an amateur radio enthusiast in Northern Ireland, has difficulty speaking due to damaged vocal cords. At first glance, his world seems small, consisting of hanging up laundry, vacuuming and dozing in a chair. But in the 13 minutes of this film, we see his horizons expand.

Grainy, faded images of a motocross race, a factory, or a woman smiling and waving at the camera are like windows to the past. And from a room full of radios and cables, under a roof full of antennas, Allister makes contact with the outside world.

Echo is a layered and moving portrait showing the intrinsic human need for connection, the need to feel part of a community—and the surprising forms such a community can take.

Ross McClean

Ross McClean is a filmmaker from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He studied creative documentary in Canada, Hungary, Portugal & Belgium and graduated from the European documentary directing masters program DocNomads. On returning home, Ross lectured in Documentary and Film Production at Queens University whilst creating work about his homeland.

His films have screened in over 50 local and international film festivals. Hydebank (2019) premiered at DokLeipzig, IDFA, Hot Docs and won Best Short Documentary at Galway, London Short, Spektrum, Docs Ireland and Leeds. His latest short film, Echo (2023), premiered at IDFA, True/False & Sheffield DocFest.  Ross is currently in production on his first feature length documentary supported by BFI DocSociety, Arte, Screen Ireland and IDFA Project Space, among others. 

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Few places in the world are better suited for showing our vulnerabilities than the sauna. The women in this intimate documentary bare all, both literally and figuratively, in a remote spot in the freezing cold, somewhere in Estonia, where the smoke sauna tradition is on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage.

The camera seems to be part of the group as it respectfully and affectionately records the women sharing their experiences—some of these are beautiful, while others are traumatic. No subject is taboo as the women talk of the stillbirth of a child, sexual abuse, coming out, domestic violence, sickness and recovery.

Touching close-ups in the sweltering sauna alternate with wide shots of the women running naked in the snow, kindling the fire, playing music and smoking pork. An elderly woman talks about the sexist traditions of her younger days, presenting a stark contrast with the intense sense of support and strength that the women feel in this safe, therapeutic sauna.

Anna Hints

Anna Hints has a background in contemporary art and experimental folk singing. She has studied Estonian and Comparative Literature and Folklore and has a degree both in Photography and Film Directing. Her student film ‘Free World’ brought her Kaljo Kiisa named Young Filmmaker Award and Best National Short Film award at Black Nights FilmFestival.

Her debut short ‘Ice’ was selected to more than 90 film festivals and won 14 awards, including Best Short Film Award at Estonian Film and Television Awards in 2018. Her new short fiction in pre-production is set in India and combines environmental and women issues. Anna is part of female music trio Eeter that was nominated for The Best Composer Award at Estonian Film and Television Awards in 2019 for the original score for ‘Wind Sculptured Land'

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In This Blessed Plot, which takes its title from John of Gaunt’s deathbed speech singing the praises of England in Shakespeare’s Richard II, director Marc Isaacs examines the social and cultural fabric of the United Kingdom, the subject of all his films. This time he creates an eccentric mix of documentary and fiction in Essex.

Lori, a Chinese filmmaker, visits the historic village of Thaxted, where Pier Paolo Pasolini filmed part of the Middle English epic The Canterbury Tales. Looking for a subject for a film, Lori hears stories of ghosts from the past, including one about the 20th-century socialist vicar Conrad Noel. She is curious about how his socialism differs from the Chinese version, and has conversations with his spirit in the afterlife.

Lori meets some remarkable locals, who talk to her about love, parting, grief and loss. Gradually she becomes involved in a plot between villagers Keith, Sue, Maggie, Norman and ”Uncle,” which is at times farcical, and at others dramatic, and she is introduced to English folklore and spirituality.

Marc Isaacs

Since 2001, Marc Isaacs has made more than 18 creative documentaries for the likes of BBC, Channel 4 and Film Festivals. His films have won Grierson, Royal Television Society and BAFTA awards, as well as numerous international film festival prizes. In 2006, Marc had a retrospective at the prestigious Lussas Documentary Film Festival in France. 2008 Marc received an honorary doctorate from the University of East London for his documentary work. Marc has been a guest tutor at numerous universities and film schools in the UK and overseas, including the London Film School and the National Film and Television School. A complete box set of his films was released by Second Run DVD in 2018. His current film, The Filmmaker's House, has recently become a hit on the international festival circuit.

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Young filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly is visiting a film festival in Tromsø in 2014, when the borders to his home Gaza close indefinitely and he is unable to return. Not only is he now considered stateless, but his application for an artist visa is rejected as it does not meet the qualification criteria, being a self-taught filmmaker. After several appeals, Mohamed decides to go to court and is backed by a growing group of supporters within the film industry and beyond. While waiting for the decision, Mohamed films himself and his friends and colleagues in the snow-covered serenity of the Nordic landscape as he tries to stay connected with his family in Gaza who have once again come under attack.

Mohamed Jabaly

Mohamed Jabaly is a Palestinian filmmaker, producer, and artist from Gaza City. He came to Norway in 2014 and has since made a name for himself in the international film industry. His first full-length documentary Ambulance, has been shown at several of the world's largest film festivals and has won several awards. These include the One World Media Award for Best Feature Documentary at BAFTA in 2017, the BBC Arabic Young Journalist Award, the SunBird Award at Days of Cinema in Palestine, the FIPA D'or Award, and the Jury Award for Best Documentary at FIPA in Biarritz, France in 2017. In addition to his work in filmmaking, Mohamed has conducted filmmaking workshops for young people and served on juries for several film festivals. Currently, he is pursuing his MA in Fine Art at the Oslo National Academy of Art. He holds a BA in Moving Images from Nordland Film & Art College in Northern Norway. In 2019, he joined Stray Dogs production as a director. His feature documentary Life is Beautiful - Al Haya Helwa is premiering at IDFA 2023 in its International Competition. 

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The 13-year-old Nastia is part of an elite gymnastics team in Kiev with four other girls. The girls are a tight knit group and they are best friends. Together they train hard for the upcoming Ukrainian championship. They win the championship but just one month later, war breaks out in Ukraine. Nastia has to flee with her grandmother to Germany, leaving her parents and teammates in Ukraine. In the German suburban industrial town of Gelsenkirchen Nastia has to try to create a new life. Nastia struggles to find her way since she has no idea if she will ever be able to return to Kiev, her parents and friends. But when she joins a German gymnastics team, things slowly start to brighten up.

Alisa Kovalenko

Alisa Kovalenko is a Ukrainian award-winning documentary director. She was born and raised in Zaporizhzhia, South-Eastern Ukraine and studied documentary cinema at the Karpenko-Kary National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television in Kyiv and at the Andrzej Wajda School in Warsaw. Her debut feature-length documentary Alisa in Warland, a personal diary through revolution and war in Ukraine, had its world premiere at IDFA 2015 First-appearance competition. Home Games, a social fairy-tale about the broken dreams of a young female football player, appeared at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018 and was again at IDFA (Best of Fests 2018). In 2021 Home Games was the first Ukrainian creative documentary acquired by Netflix. In 2018, Alisa directed and coordinated Beautiful Game, a 10-parts documentary series commissioned by Current Time TV. Her latest documentary We Will Not Fade Away had its world premiere at Berlinale Generation 2023 and was nominated for the Berlinale Documentary Award

Simon Lereng Wilmont

Simon won numerous prizes among other Best First Appearance at IDFA with the feature documentary The Distant Barking of Dogs and his two previous films The Fencing Champion (2014) and Chikara – The Sumo Wrestler’s Son (2013) both premiered at IDFA, won the Jury Award for Medium length Documentary and Best Short Children Documentary Award at Al Jazeera Film Festival 2015. In 2022 Simon won the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award for A House Made of Splinters at Sundance Film Festival. The same film also got him an Academy nomination at the Oscars 2023. Simon Lereng Wilmont graduated as a Documentary Film Director from The National Danish Film School in 2009.

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An audio-visual, trance-like, epic diary that looks at the miracles contained in everyday things and occurrences. Peter Mettler follows and weaves, with his own unique cinematic signature, the flow of rivers and lives that include the magnitude of the passing of his own parents and the questions of where do we all go from here – both on a personal and on a global scale.

Peter Mettler

From the very beginning of his career, Peter Mettler has created films deemed impossible to make, yet readily appreciated once they exist. A key figure in the critical wave of 80's Canadian filmmakers, Mettler produces works which elude categorization. Melding intuitive processes with drama, essay, experiment or documentation, his films hold a unique and influential position in creative expression not only in film but also in new art forms where cinema and other disciplines merge. Additional artistic activities include a wide range of ongoing engagements in music, dance and photography. Over the years Mettler has presented photographic gallery exhibitions in Europe and Canada. More recently he has been experimenting with live sound and image mixing performances with a diversity of musical artists in an extremity of locales ranging from radio theatres to dance clubs and wilderness locations. Based both in Switzerland and Canada, Mettler is a strong supporter of independent creativity, having collaborated with numerous filmmakers, artists and musicians. He is active in the development of community networks which foster and share the growth of innovative creative forms and new means of production and distribution which will allow the independent artist to reach his or her particular audience while lightening the financial and ideological pressures of the commercial market. Meditations on our world, rooted in personal experience, his works reflect the visions and wonder of their characters and audiences alike. Mettler’s films have garnered many prizes and been the focus of several retrospectives internationally.

https://www.facebook.com/GrimthorpeFilm

https://twitter.com/GrimthorpeFilm

https://www.instagram.com/petermettlerfilm

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ON OUR DOORSTEP delves deep into an aspect of the ongoing refugee crisis that rarely reaches the press. With NGOs being blocked by red tape and with the absence of any positive action by French or British authorities, this film is a behind-the-scenes look at the extraordinary grassroots movement that rose to aid the Calais ‘Jungle', and the community that sprang up there, before it was forcefully demolished.

​

Originally arriving in the 'Jungle' as a volunteer carpenter, Thomas Laurance ended up embedding himself for a year, documenting what he saw up until the camp’s destruction. Upon returning to the UK, Thomas sourced footage from other filmmakers, activists, volunteers and refugees, weaving together a patchwork of intimate frontline experience that offers unique access to the communities of the 'Jungle'.

​

This is the story of what happens when young and inexperienced civilians are forced to devise systems and structures to support 10,000 refugees; and are left unguided to face the moral and emotional dilemmas, blurred lines and frequent grey areas of giving aid to vulnerable people. ON OUR DOORSTEP stands as a reminder of the continuing work ordinary civilians do to help those forced to seek safety away from home.

Thomas Laurence

Thomas Laurance is an award-winning, UK-based writer/director of documentary and fiction.

After studying direction at the Northern Film School in Leeds and screenwriting at FAMU in Prague, his graduation short, THE BOTTLE, won Best Film at the 2013 Horizon Film Festival. He followed up with the deeply personal, vérité documentary, WILLIAM LAURANCE & SONS MARINE ENGINEERS, which featured at Sheffield Doc Fest 2015. 

In addition to writing and directing, Thomas has worked as a a set and scenery carpenter and a model and prop maker on films such as Tim Burton's DUMBO. This skillset proved very useful in the informal refugee camp known as the Calais 'Jungle' where Thomas volunteered in 2016.

Initially planning to stay for just a week, Thomas ended up embedding himself in Calais for a year, compelled to continue helping the people he met there and to bear witness. ON OUR DOORSTEP is the product of that endeavour and a reminder of the continuing work ordinary civilians do to help those forced to seek safety away from home.

Thomas is currently working on a screenplay that will be the basis for his return to directing fiction.

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The hilly island of Muck, just off the west coast of Scotland, has been owned by the MacEwen family for more than a century. After decades of devoting himself to caring for the island, Lawrence MacEwen has now passed it on to his son. Lawrence still takes a cold bath every day, and writes in his diary—though the pages are not as full as they once were.

Days in the life of this formal but cheerful man unfold to the rhythm of the island in Dutch filmmaker Cindy Jansen’s calm, observational shots. Lawrence hugs the cows, drives cattle with his grandchildren, and reads out extracts from his diaries that span decades, applying the same methodical approach to his notations of wind directions and deaths.

The younger generation is taking its own path, and Lawrence must accept that he is reaching the end of his own. In the growing awareness that the future belongs to others, he casts his gaze back in time, reciting the poetry and tide tables that he learned by heart as a child.

Cindy Jansen

CINDY JANSEN (Veghel, NL, 1976) Lives and works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Jansen graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts in Arnhem (NL), Milan (I) and the International Script Development and Directors Program of the Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam (NL). Jansen showed her films at several national and international film festivals, among which Hamburg, Rotterdam and Edinburgh. Her videos and photo works were presented in multiple group- and solo-exhibitions, like Loop '05 Barcelona (ES), Noorderlicht Photo Festival Groningen (NL), and Gerhard Hofland Gallery, Amsterdam.

After Jansen’s attendance of the Binger Filmlab (2007), she was selected for the Berlinale Talent Campus and started to build an international network that has resulted in a prize winning cooperation with Addie Reiss, the cinematographer on her short film Come Spring. In the years that followed, Jansen made controversial films such as Don’t hit me I love you and With Love. The documentary Auld Lang Syne premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2015 and was nominated for a Golden Calf at the Netherlands Film Festival in the same year. In cooperation with production company De Productie and Faction North (UK). Jansen’s first full length feature documentary, Prince of Muck had a World Premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2021 and an International Premiere at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam. The film will was released in Dutch cinemas in January 2022, shown on BBC Scotland and BBC4 and can be seen worldwide via Amazon Prime Video. Together with production company Witfilm, Jansen is now developing the feature fiction film Clockwork Universe.

Jansen's films and videos vary from non-linear narrations to more fragmented artworks that find their platform in both the art scene and film festivals. She is known for her cinematic framing, contemplative style and slow-burn reveal editing.

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Four asylum seekers reenact their conversations with the authorities in a role-playing game that reverses the roles. What happens when your future depends on your ability to tell your own life story in a convincing way? In an ordinary and grey office like any other, four people are waiting to be called in for a hearing. The bureaucratic setting is closer to a theatre stage, however, for in ‘The Hearing’ the participants re-enact their own real-life conversations with the government officials who will assess their case. A Nigerian woman, a man from Cameroon, a transgender woman from Sri Lanka, and a young Afghan man – all four are in the same situation with everything at stake. What happens when your future depends on your ability to tell your own life story in a convincing and compelling way? The tension between reality and staging, between role-playing and reality, does not make their life stories any less moving or relevant. In a simple but brilliant move, however, debut director Lisa Gerig reverses both the roles and the balance of power. The result is a (thought)provoking film of great dignity that uses the performative interventions not as a conceptual gesture, but to give a form to four individuals’ subjective experience of a system that is alien to most.

Lisa Gerig

Lisa Gerig (*1990) studied film in Zurich and Geneva, majoring in editing. Her thesis film ZAUNGESPRÄCHE is a radically subjective look at the situation of people held in Zurich’s deportation detention center. Since graduating from the Zurich University of the Arts in 2015, she has been working as a freelance filmmaker.THE HEARING is her first feature-length documentary.

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In the midst of shocking family revelations, a young filmmaker is diagnosed with terminal cancer. What follows is an intimate and darkly humorous journey of a family’s attempt to make sense of their upended past and disrupted future.

Kit Vincent

Kit Vincent is an award winning filmmaker based in London and the South West. He is a Film Independent Fellow and JFI Fellow. His films have been supported by BFI Doc Society, Sundance Documentary Film Program, The Whickers, France TV, Jewish Story Partners and Jewish Film Institute. His debut feature Red Herring (2023) is a documentary that walks the line between humour and grief in an exploration of the nuances of living with a terminal illness. It premiered at True/False 2023, screened at Thessaloniki Film Festival where it won the 'Human Values' award.(https://www.cinephil.com/films-111/red-herring).

Kit holds a first class degree in Anthropology and Visual Practice from Goldsmiths University of London and has spoken on many industry panels, most recently for Docsociety and FWD docs with James LeBrecht and Lyndsey Dryden about disability inclusive filmmaking.

Previously, Kit worked making films and music videos and on Channel 4's flagship documentary series 24 Hours in A&E.

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In this emotional reckoning featuring unaired interviews spanning the 1980s to now, Richard Williams — the father of tennis legends Venus and Serena and the son of a cotton picker — retraces his family’s journey from the poverty-stricken streets of Shreveport, Louisiana to the grass courts of Wimbledon, fighting back against systems of racial oppression and violence and breaking every rule of the lily-white tennis establishment to forever change the sport.

Stuart McClave

Stuart McClave is known for On the Line: The Richard Williams Story (2022), Chappaquiddick (2017) and Friday Night Tykes (2014).

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Born with no hip joints and short femurs, a condition so rare that there is little reliable information about it, Ella Glendining decides to go in search of people who can share their experience and feelings about having a body like hers. In doing so, she challenges lazy ableist assumptions, experiences a number of unexpected surprises and encounters people who look like her. With great warmth and an infectious joy for her body and life as it is, Glendining challenges us to question the way we see others, like and unlike ourselves. Is There Anybody Out There? is a revelatory film that gently tugs at the viewer's biases and looks to a day when inclusivity is no longer an ‘issue’.

Ella Glendining

Ella Glendining is a writer-director dedicated to telling authentic disabled stories. She has written and directed short films with backing from Film4, the BFI, Arts Council England, Screen South, and the National Paralympic Heritage Trust. Glendining was named one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow 2020. Her latest work is IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? (2023) which has been selected at Sundance FF.

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Visual artist Melanie Manchot works with a recovery group in Liverpool, who take up roles in a semi-fictional film-within-a-film that explores addiction and mental health from multiple perspectives. It is centred around Stephen, a character recovering from gambling and alcohol addictions. References to the first police crime reconstruction, filmed in Liverpool in 1901, are a reminder that addiction has long existed within the fabric of our culture. It’s a tough process and emotionally charged scenes reveal inner truths, which gain additional power when the people playing the roles are, in some sense, playing themselves. Visually striking, STEPHEN is a startling record of this form of treatment and a reminder of how dextrous the documentary form can be.

Melanie Manchot

Melanie Manchot is a London-based visual artist who works with photography, film, video and installation as part of a performative and participatory practice. Her projects often explore specific sites and public spaces to locate notions of individual and collective identities. The work investigates particular gestures and forms of movement or activities that become the marker of a group or community.

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As the year 2000 approached, rumblings started to spread outside of the world of computer engineers and into the mainstream consciousness about a ubiquitous error in computer code that would cause computers to reset during the transition from “1999” to “2000,” causing the world’s computerized systems to grind to a halt. This fully archival feature (no interviews, verité, etc.) documents the countdown to Y2K against the backdrop of the mass hysteria that infiltrated everything from politics to pop culture. Doomsday prepper communities started to proliferate and businesses popped up with products, books, and any way to make a quick buck off the looming disaster. Time Bomb Y2K is a wild ride through the final days of the ’90s and a compelling portrait of a turning point in the digital revolution. By examining this hingepoint between millennia, the film interrogates our ever-changing relationship to technology and each other.

Marley McDonald

Co-Director, Time Bomb Y2K

Marley McDonald is a filmmaker, animator, and painter living in Queens, New York. In 2021, she was chosen as a Points North Fellow and worked as an additional editor on Penny Lane’s film Listening to Kenny G. Her associate editor work includes Spaceship Earth, and the Golden Lion-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. She most recently directed and edited her debut feature, Time Bomb Y2K (co-directed with Brian Becker) for HBO.

Brian Becker

Co-Director, Time Bomb Y2K

Brian Becker is a New York-based filmmaker who most recently directed and produced his debut feature Time Bomb Y2K (co-directed with Marley McDonald). The film premiered at True/False Film Festival in March 2023 and will air on HBO in December 2023. He served as an archival producer on Free Chol Soo Lee, MLK/FBI, and Spaceship Earth, and as a co-producer on Bobby Kennedy for President. Brian is a 2022 Doc NYC 40 Under 40 recipient, Impact Partners Producing Fellow, Points North Fellow, and a FOCAL Jane Mercer Researcher of the Year award nominee. Before turning to production, he worked as a mosquito ecologist

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In a hall in the North East of England seven men share their mental health struggles. With honesty and vulnerability, they start the process of healing. Suicide is the biggest cause of death of men under 50. The North East has the highest suicide rates in the UK. Grounding this crisis in a history of industrial decline, A Man’s Man focuses on seven working-class men who meet in a community hall to talk about their mental health – unearthing the common bonds that bring them together, the struggles that have been tearing them apart, and the processes that are leading to their healing.

Myles Desenberg

DIRECTOR / PRODUCER / EDITOR

Myles Desenberg's creative journey as a filmmaker began after completing a Fine Arts Degree in Sydney, Australia. Since then, Myles has been able to make a name for himself working across documentaries, commercials, and branded content. Collaborating with some of the world’s biggest brands including the likes of Nike, Adidas, and Toyota, his work has earned him a coveted Gold Lion at Cannes, with his first feature documentary, ‘Giving Up Your Day Job’ with dance music titans Above & Beyond, appearing in theatres globally.

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The son of a Venezuelan political prisoner tells the story of his father’s 15 year long imprisonment. Shot during house-arrest, father and son try to recover the stolen time through home-movies and challenging conversations. As both family and country fall apart, the father plots a risky escape.

Iván Simonovis Pertiñez

Iván Simonovis Pertiñez is a Venezuelan filmmaker exiled in Berlin. His work focuses on political persecution and exile. He has a degree in Communication Sciences from the University of Marburg and a Masters in Film from the Free University of Berlin. His documentary shorts for the web A LA DERIVA (2015), DESDE EL EXILIO (2017), and CARACAS 9 DE ENERO (2018) have appeared in international media outlets such as El País and Jungle World. His first feature documentary MY FATHER’S PRISON has been selected for the main competition at Visions du Réel 2023.

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Ron, the filmmaker’s father, has a brain injury that affects his ability to situate himself and retain memories. Upon realising that her father no longer recognises her, the director decides to turn her father’s notebooks into a film that plunges us into the complexities of memory and the brain, full of creativity, humour and tenderness.

The director’s father, Ron, is suffering from a brain injury that has impaired his ability to find his bearings or remember events. To keep track of his life, he writes in notebooks. When Karina Beumer realises that her father no longer recognises her, and that his illness seems to be erasing their relationship, she decides to make a film based on his writings and her own memories. In (...), father and daughter create an artistic universe together, blending Ron's writings and drawings with his daughter's sets and papier-mâché characters. At the heart of the film is a wholesome and collaborative creation process that brings to life this father-daughter reunion, made possible by the art of cinema. When the daughter asks her father what they will do once they have finished making the film, Ron responds: “another film!” Using a non-linear narrative, the film takes us on a humorous and tender journey through the labyrinth of memory and the brain, while confronting us with existential questions. Without memory, can we still have an identity and be ourselves?

Karina Beumer

Karina Beumer grew up in a small Dutch village with a huge amusement park. She is the first of two children. She went to art school because she thought she was a reincarnation of Vincent van Gogh. She obtained her Masters in Visual Arts in Antwerp and has continued to work in art. Themes in her work are: the right to exist, megalomania, competition, representation versus original, imitation, productivity and authorship. In 2022 she made a film about her father’s amnesia in which she tried to write herself back into his head.

Karina Beumer’s interactive artistic practice is brought to life by being in conversation with — or captivated by — something or someone else. Beumer searches for an absurd and surreal relationship between the inside of the head (thoughts, miscommunication) and the physical world (language, networks). In a dream-like universe she connects banal issues with personal fantasies, using strategies from existing structures such as pop songs, blockbusters and live action role playing.

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A well-known filmmaker follows a famous mountain climber to Nepal, documenting the journey. Conversations about their lives lead to philosophical reflections, as the mountain challenges their motives. As days go by, the higher altitude and the depletion of oxygen will raise their debate to interior and transcendental territories, putting at stake their trajectories and their egos when facing the mountain and its millenary depth.

Sebastian Cordero

Sebastian Cordero (1972, Ecuador) graduated in film and script writing from USC. He then returned to Ecuador with the intention of making films in a country where cinema barely exists. His first feature Ratas, Ratones, Rateros (shown in Rotterdam in 2000) won several international awards. Rabia is his third long feature. He also directed short films and music videos.

José Cardoso

José Cardoso has developed fiction, animation, and documentary films, on themes revolving around surrealism, consciousness, and anti-colonialism. His previous works as a director have been selected at Sitges Cinema Fantàstic, Havana, Cinélatino de Toulouse, and ImagineNative, among others, and awarded at Ícaro Centroamérica, China International New Media Short Film Festival, Kunturñawi Ecuador, among others. 

He worked for BBC, 100 Women series as film director of the chapter: The Femicide Detectives. After being selected for his first feature film Iwianch, the devil deer» at the 59th Ann Arbor Film Festival, he won the Tom Berman Award for the most promising filmmaker. Nowadays his work «What the Soil Remembers», has premiered at IFFR Rotterdam 2023 where it won the IFFR Ammodo Tiger Short Film Award and was selected at the 67th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen Competition, Durban Film Festival, and Sheffield Documentary Film Festival.

José is now editing and co-producing Behind the Mist, a documentary by experienced director Sebastián Cordero

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Hungry Hill documents the daily struggle of a community of sheep farmers in a mountainous region of Ireland, against the backdrop of an historical warning of ecological catastrophe from another part of Europe. Its intention not to analyse, but to actively produce aesthetic experience. It contains elements of both the personal and political, speaking from a personal perspective to the consequences of unhindered industrial expansion.

Mieke Vanmechelen

Mieke Vanmechelen was born in 1974 in Antwerp, Belgium. She lived in the polders of Zeeland-Flanders, where her father was a shepherd until 1981, when her family moved to a farm on the Beara Peninsula. In 1996 she graduated with a BA in Philosophy and Classical Civilisation from Trinity College Dublin. Following this, she returned to Kerry, near Kenmare, and started a family. Despite embarking on a BSc in Herbal Medicine, she became preoccupied with art, drawing and painting consistently for many years. In 2001 she moved back to the Beara Peninsula, close to the Cork/Kerry border, and took over her father’s hill farm. An encounter with the work Cheese by Mika Rottenberg in 2006, ignited a fascination with experimental film, and in 2014 she completed an MA at Crawford College of Art and Design. Since then she has worked almost exclusively in film and moving image. In parallel with her practice, she is heavily involved in education and works in various capacities as a children and youth facilitator, mentor and consultant. She was awarded a digital media bursary and a residency at Fire Station Artists’ Studios in 2020, which she completed in 2021. This afforded the opportunity of making durational work in an urban, as opposed to the usual rural setting. Since then Vanmechelen has maintained a studio in Dublin. Her company Fierce Quiet Films recently produced an experimental documentary called Hungry Hill, supported by an Arts Council Film Project Award. She has held the position of Kerry County Council Filmmaker in Residence (2017-2023)and has been awarded a Fire Station Artists’ Studio Residency (2023-2025) which will commence this September. Her work has been exhibited in Ireland and internationally in both gallery and cinema contexts.

Micheal Holly

Michael Holly is an artist, nonfiction filmmaker, researcher and lecturer based in Cork, Ireland. His work involves parafictional and nonfiction investigations into how identities are formed, and into the relationships that people have with culture, landscape, history and ecology.

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Invited by a mysterious friend, a film team sets out on a journey into a hidden Yenish Europe that stretches from dusty banlieus in France to the forests of Carinthia. Told by the voices of young and old Travellers, a kaleidoscopic panorama of their lives unfolds: Diverse people relate to each other, bound together by their love of freedom but also by deep wounds from the past.Their otherness is mirrored and reflected not least in the exchange between the filmmakers and the Yenish.

Andreas Müller

Born in Winterthur in 1975. In 2002 he graduated with distinction in directing at the ZHdK. His diploma film «Joshua» (2002) won numerous international awards and was nominated for the Swiss Film Award as well as the European Short Mélies d’Or. In 2004 he began to deal intensively with the historical case of Klara Wendel and with the history and present-day reality of the Yenish. This resulted in, among other things, «Ruäch» (2023). In 2012 he founded the Cine-Club Perla-Mode in a collective with 5 artists, which invited the director of the legendary film «Reisender Krieger» (1981) in March 2014. From the conversation Müller had with him at the Cine-Club, the documentary portrait «Christian Schocher, Filmmaker» (2015) was created, co-directed with Marcel Bächtiger. In the works are the feature film project «Die Wahrheit der Klara Wendel», produced by Amka Films, as well as the Fast Track winning project «Doppelgänger» (Doc./Fic.), which he is realizing in a collective with Silvan Hillmann and Emanuel Signer.

Simon Guy Fässler

Simon Guy Fässler works as a freelance cinematographer for fiction and documentaries in Europe and worldwide. As a founding member of the film development and production collective 8horses in Zurich, he directs and produces his own and other people’s film projects. He has traveled to all continents for documentaries, gaining insight into many cultures. Feature film projects have taken him to European countries such as Italy, Germany, France, England and Austria. Since graduating from the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, where he studied Visual Communication in the classes of Wim Wenders and Fatih Akin, his base has been in Zurich. His camera work for the feature film «Aloys» by Tobias Nölle earned him a nomination in the competition for Best Debut Camera at the Camerimage Festival – and won him the Swiss Film Award for Best Cinematography in 2017. Simon Guy Fässler is a member of the European and Swiss Film Academies and the Swiss Cinematographers Society. For a complete list of Simon Guy Fässler’s work, please visit the corresponding pages on IMDB or Crew United.

Marcel Bächtiger

Born in 1976 in St.Gallen, Switzerland. 2002 Diploma in Architecture at the ETH Zurich. 2017 Dissertation at the Institute for History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich. Works, researches and publishes where film and architecture meet. Author, director and editor of various documentaries. Since 2014 lecturer of «Spatial Concepts in Film and Architecture», ETH Zurich, since 2019 lecturer at HSLU. Since 2015 editor of the magazine Hochparterre. 2018 Curator of the «Salon Suisse» at the Venice Architecture Biennale. 

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Thirteen-year-old Bo lives in a peaceful neighbourhood, has a loving family, lots of friends and is doing well at school – a pretty perfect young teenage life. Like young people around the world, Bo is curious, questions everything and has a rebellious streak. As she follows the news, she can’t help but become increasingly aware of the perilous state of our planet – not just in far-away places, but also closer to home, in Belgium. She decides to take up the fight against climate change and joins Extinction Rebellion, along with her close friend Luca. 

They occupy factory sites and highways, and soon grapple with the forces ranged against them. They are ignored, criticised and arrested, even spending time in police cells. As Luca proposes increasingly radical action, the more thoughtful Bo looks for her own way through the moral, ethical and practical dilemmas of our age. PLANET B is the coming-of-age story of two young people trying to grow up in a world that is destroying itself. 

W

Pieter Van Eecke

Born in Belgium in 1975, Pieter Van Eecke has studied Philosophy (Ghent State University) and Sculpture (Sint-Lucas Brussels). He worked and lived in South America for several years and became a filmmaker. His first documentary GOUDOUGOUDOU (2011, 55 min, co-directed with Fabrizio Scapin) is about the earthquake in Haiti and was featured in several film festivals worldwide. SAMUEL IN THE CLOUDS is his first feature-length documentary.

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Every night nameless bodies land in Dr. Cristina Cattaneo’s autopsy room. She calls them the Pure Unknown. They are people from the fringes of society. They are homeless people, sex workers, runaway teenagers. Lately, they have mostly been migrants, rejected by the Mediterranean Sea onto the shores of Italy. If all rights belong to the living, nothing is left to the dead. So what happens when the dead have lost their identity? In the face of this growing multitude, no one seems concerned about their right to dignity. No one but Cristina.

VALENTINA CICOGNA, 1984, Milan, Italy

Valentina Cicogna, 1984, is editor and screenwriter of several observational documentaries produced and distributed by the main italian broadcasters and often premiered at important festivals such as Cinéma du Réel (VOGLIO DORMIRE CON TE by Mattia Colombo) or Visions du Réel (IL PASSO by Mattia Colombo). The latest film she wrote and edited, THE CALL by Enrico Maisto, premiered at IDFA 2017 and won the Midlength Award at HotDocs 2018. The last film she edited, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MY MOTHER, by Beniamino Barrese has been selected at Sundance 2019. PURE UNKNOWN is her debut film as director.

MATTIA COLOMBO

Born in 1982 in Italy. His directing debut film, co-written with Valentina Cicogna and edited by her, I Wanna Sleep With You (2015), was selected at Cinema du Réel. The Pass (2016) was selected at Visions du Réel. His subsequent films have always been distributed in cinemas and on DVD, preceded by premieres at renowned festivals. Pure Unknown is his first film codirected with Valentina Cicogna.

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In TO SEE OURSELVES we watch the referendum unfold in the small, east coast town of Musselburgh as irrepressible local campaigner, Fraser McAllister, strives for his dream of social reform.Free-flowing discussions filmed on streets, in community halls and homes, with those seeking Scottish independence and those wishing to remain part of the United Kingdom (showing clear support for remaining a part of the European Union on both sides) are typical of the conversations which were held in passion, hope, and fear across the country.

As Fraser works hard towards the re-birth of a nation, his pregnant daughter, Jane, carries both the camera and a new addition to the family... her baby was born the day after filming stopped. The NO vote in 2014 was devastating for many, but this film ends with hope, not despair, for the McAllisters as new life brings a revived determination for the future. This moving documentary is not only an important record of a significant event in Scotland’s history, it also gives a rare glimpse into the lives of ordinary Scots in the 21st Century. For a generation surrounded by social media, we don’t often see ourselves or our communities as they really are in film.

Jane McAllister

Jane is a maker of creative, observational documentary films for cinema and television. She has worked in collaboration with the Scottish Documentary Institute, Creative Scotland and been commissioned by the BBC.

Jane films, directs and edits her own work producing a distinct blend of compassionate, humorous and poetic stories. She graduated with an MFA, with distinction, from Edinburgh College of Art.

Her films to date have won critical acclaim and awards including the Full Frames President’s Award and Chicago Film Festivals’ Silver Hugo for best short documentary.

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Most people dream of a better future. Pedro, an aspiring social worker, is no different. But as a blind, undocumented immigrant, Pedro faces political restrictions to obtain his college degree, secure a job as a healthcare provider, and support his family. As he finally graduates, uncertainty looms over Pedro. What starts as a journey to provide mental health for his community ultimately transforms into Pedro’s path towards his own healing.

Through experimental cinematography and sound, unseen re-imagines a cinema accessible for blind/low vision audiences, while exploring the intersections of immigration, disability, and mental health.

Set Hernandez

Set Hernandez is a filmmaker and community organizer whose roots come from Bicol, Philippines. As a queer, undocumented immigrant, they dedicate their filmmaking to expand the portrayal of their communities on screen. Set’s past documentary work includes the award-winning short “COVER/AGE” (2019) and impact producing for “Call Her Ganda” (Tribeca, 2018). An alumnus of the Disruptors Fellowship, Set is also developing a TV comedy pilot and a feature-length screenplay. Since 2010, Set has been organizing around migrant justice issues, from deportation defense to healthcare access.They co-founded the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective which promotes equity for undocumented immigrants in the film industry. Set’s work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, NBCUniversal, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, among others. In their past life, Set was a published linguistics researcher, focusing in the area of bilingualism. Above all, Set is the fruit of their family’s love and their

community’s generosity.

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 Joe Piscatella 

Joe Piscatella was born on June 16, 1972 in Gig Harbor, Washington, USA. Joe is a writer and director, known for #chicagoGirl: The Social Network Takes on a Dictator (2013), Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower (2017) and Underdog (2007).

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Two decades after the tragic death of his brother, the director Christian Einshøj's family is falling apart. But when his overworked CEO dad is unexpectedly let off and decides to sell the family home, Christian goes back home in a final desperate attempt to assemble the family and recover what is lost. Armed with 30 years of home-video, 75,000 family photos and three tightly fit superhero costumes, he ventures into landscapes of long-lost time, in an attempt to confront a 25-year old tragedy, and the hidden wounds left in its wake. It's a story of fathers and sons, of vast collections of stamps and amateur videography, of long-distance business-class flights and all the other ways in which we flee, instead of talking about that which hurts – and of the redemption that can follow when the silence is eventually breached.

Christian EInshøj

Director / Editor / Writer / Cinematographer Christian EInshøj is a self-taught director and film editor born in Denmark in 1985 but raised in a Norwegian suburb. His editing credits include Bodil award winning Q’s Barbershop (2019). In 2018 his short doc Haunted was awarded Best International Short at HotDocs and went on to play at festivals around the world. The Mountains is his first feature film. His selected filmography includes: Haunted (2018), 30 min. Awarded best international short documentary at HotDocs in 2018. Nominated best short documentary at the Danish Film Academy. Selected festivals. How I live, as you wanted to know, 15 ́ (2014)

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Soňa G. Lutherová is a visual anthropologist, documentary filmmaker, and author. She started working in the field of visual anthropology during her MA studies at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at Comenius University in Bratislava. She has also attended a Summer University course in documentary filmmaking at the CEU in Budapest under the tutorship of Michael Yorke. Today, she works as a researcher and visual anthropologist at the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Sona has authored a number of academic papers, written a children’s book and made her directorial debut with the mid-length doc FLOODED in 2017. FLOODED is an anthropological documentary film about the fates of people connected to one house. The mansion in Parizovce was a family residence, home, property, center of a farmstead, and eventually a historical monument. Some parts of the building have been preserved and have endured through centuries, others have been flooded by the waters of the Liptovska Mara waterworks. For the descendants of the Stein family, its last owners, the mansion is a memory of the lost past. For museum curators, it’s a gem, a phoenix risen from the muddy waters, the pride of the Liptov region. The unusual story of the mansion from Parizovce and its last owners is also a reflection of the social changes in 20th century Slovakia.

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Praying for Armageddon is a political thriller that reveals the power and influence of U.S. fundamentalist Evangelicals, as they aim to fulfill the Armageddon prophecy. With close-quarters journalism, this feature documentary embeds with American believers who prepare for The Holy War and exposes how powerful megachurch pastors call for the 'final battle' that they believe will trigger the Second Coming of Christ. A deep dive into power and policy, this film unveils how politicians driven by faith embrace Israel as the key to their prophetic vision for the end of days. At any cost. Praying for Armageddon investigates the dangerous consequences of the fusion between Evangelical Christianity and American politics. Stark and gripping in approach, this film not only reveals how structures of fundamentalism weaken the very fabric of American democracy but also highlights the devastating impact religion wields on U.S. foreign policy. Praying for Armageddon uncovers how the Evangelicals fuel the volatile situation in Israel and Palestine - ultimately escalating the spirals of violence in the Middle East. From the grassroots to megachurch empires and the dark backrooms in Washington D.C., this film goes inside a movement that ultimately aims to destroy our civilization.

Micheal Rowley

Michael Rowley is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and editor living in Dallas, Texas.  Rowley’s work has been characterized as defiant, visceral, and deeply human. Often touting a one-camera approach, themes of justice, human connectivity and harrowing circumstance emerge throughout his films. From tear-gas filled streets of refugee camps to the open prairies of the American West, Rowley’s voice has earned him the Austin Film Society’s North Texas Pioneer Film Grant twice and four festival jury awards for exceptional work. Rowley’s feature directorial debut, Hurdle (2019), screened across the international film festival circuit and earned praise from audiences and critics alike. Touting press features in publications like The New York Times and Variety, Hurdle, was acquired by SundanceNOW and is distributed by TVF International and New Day Films. Rowley was the director, cinematographer, editor and a producer on the film.

Tonje Hessen Schei

Tonje Hessen Schei is a Norwegian film director, producer and screenwriter. She has directed the documentary film DRONE and Play Again, and has directed and produced the films Independent Intervention and iHuman. She produced Privacy of Wounds in 2018. Her film DRONE won the Norwegian Gullruten award, the Amanda award and the Golden Nymph Award. Hessen Schei studied social anthropology at NTNU before taking a bachelor's degree in film production at the University of Texas, in Austin, USA. She later majored in film production at NTNU (now: Master in Film and Video Production) at the Department of Arts and Media Studies. (en)

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The Dalkurd Football Club in Sweden represents one of the greatest underdog success stories in European sports. For this team made up mainly of Kurdish refugees, playing soccer is about more than just competitive sports. The members of Dalkurd play the game with pride and an awareness of their unique role in representing a stateless people. Since the founding of the club in 2004, the players have come to defy the odds, rising up Sweden’s soccer divisions step by step. Now, the club is vying to join Allsvenskan, the country's top professional soccer division and Sweden’s premier league. Allihopa (Swedish for "all together") charts the team’s efforts to win the last game they need to clinch the deal. Can the team members overcome xenophobia, limited resources, and their own tragic pasts in order to make European sports history? An inspiring and energetic story of a remarkable group of athletes. 

Kordo Doski

Kordo Doski is a Kurdish-Canadian filmmaker, writer, and actor whose work explores themes of identity, migration, and community. He is the director of "Allihopa: The Dalkurd Story," a documentary that follows the Dalkurd football team, which was founded as a social project to keep Kurdish kids off the streets and has since become a symbol of Kurdish identity and resilience. Doski's unique perspective as a Kurdish refugee and former footballer brings a deeply personal touch to his portrayal of the team's struggles and triumphs. "Allihopa" is set to have its world premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in April 2023.

Doski is also the writer, director, and star of a narrative feature currently in post-production. Through his storytelling and advocacy work, Doski seeks to promote empathy and understanding across cultures and borders, highlighting the shared experiences and struggles of all humanity.

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Mila Turajlić (director/producer) is an award-winning director born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Her films have screened at numerous festivals and been released theatrically in Europe and North America. Her film THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING (2017), HBO Europe’s first co-production with Serbia, won 32 awards including the IDFA Award for Best Documentary Film, Mila’s debut feature doc, CINEMA KOMUNISTO (2011) played at over 100 festivals and won 16 awards including the FOCAL Award for Creative Use of Archival Footage. In her work with archives, Mila delves into questions of representations of history at the intersection of personal memories and political narratives, seeking to reactivate forgotten histories. Her research-based artistic practice ranges from video installations commissioned by MoMA New York to live documentary performances. In 2020 Mila was invited to join the AMPAS (Oscars) Documentary Branch. Her most recent project, the documentary diptych CINÉ-GUERRILLAS and NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIC REELS, an archival road trip through the cinematic birth of the Third Word, premiered in the autumn 2022.

Non-Aligned & Ciné-Guerrillas is a documentary diptych of two feature-length films that take us on an archival road trip through the birth of the Third World project, based on unseen 35mm materials filmed by Stevan Labudović, the cameraman of Yugoslav President Tito. 

Non-Aligned re-traces the birth of the Non-Aligned movement, examining how a global project of political emancipation was constituted by the cinematic image.

Ciné-Guerrillas plunges us into the media battle that played out during the Algerian war for independence where cinema was mobilized as a weapon of political struggle against colonialism.

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Agniia Galdanova is a Sundance and IDFA-supported documentary film director. Her first feature-length documentary One Step Forward, One Step Back about a family’s dream to live far from civilization in the Altai Mountains premiered at Message to Man International Film Festival. 

Queendom

21-year-old queer artist Gena looks like a visitor from another planet in her hometown in the far reaches of Russia, where she challenges everyone with her extravagant, homemade costumes – but her lone rebellion comes at a high price.Like a young David Bowie from another planet, the whole world is one giant catwalk for intrepid 21-year-old queer artist Gena. She grew up in the far reaches of Russia, in a town built on top of an old gulag camp. Today, she stages her radical performances in supermarkets, metro stations and in the middle of Moscow streets in an alternative protest against the way LGBTQ+ people are treated in Putin’s extremely conservative Russia. People shout at her, and Gena calmly responds. With never-failing support from her grandmother, she acts out all the creatures that live inside her through her spectacular costumes, which she often makes out of tape and junk. Agniia Galdanova’s beautiful and atmospheric film is not so much a portrait as it is a direct cinematic extension of Gena’s inner universe. In other words, a film in the field between art and activism, between documentary and science fiction, and between an old and a young Russia.

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Luke McManus is a filmmaker based in Grangegorman, just off the North Circular Road. Luke has produced and directed award-winning documentary projects for NBC, Netflix, RTÉ, Virgin Media Television, TG4, NDR/ARD, Al Jazeera and Channel 4, winning four IFTAs, one Celtic Media Award and the Radharc Award in the process. His debut feature as producer was The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid, which premiered in the Main Competition at IDFA in 2018, won the George Morrison Award for Best Feature Documentary at the Irish Film & Television Awards and the Best Irish Film Award at the Dublin International Film Festival. 

North Circular

North Circular is a documentary musical that travels the length of Dublin’s North Circular Road, from the Phoenix Park to Dublin Port, exploring the history, music and streetscapes of a street that links some of the country’s most beloved and infamous places.  Told in black and white 4:3 Academy ratio, the film evokes many narratives from the history of the city and nation, from colonialism, to mental health, to the struggle for women’s liberation while also engaging with urgent issues of today, including the battle to save the legendary Cobblestone Pub, centre of Dublin’s recent folk revival, from destruction at the hands of cynical property developers. The film also includes musical performances from artists local to the North Circular, including John Francis Flynn, Séan Ó Túama, Eoghan O’Ceannabháin, Ian Lynch & Gemma Dunleavy.

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Eat Bitter is a character-driven verite documentary set in the Central African Republic. In the backdrop of a looming civil war, a Chinese construction manager and local African laborer work on opposite ends of the spectrum to construct a sparkling new bank. As deadlines loom, unexpected twists threaten their jobs, relationships, and plans for a better life. An eye-opening drama about these two men in their pursuit of wealth and happiness.

The film is on its festival run at the Visions du Reel, Atlanta Film Festival, Hot Docs, and Doc Edge.

PASCALE APPORA-GNEKINDY

Director / Co-Producer / Co-Writer

Pascale Appora-Gnekindy hails from the Central African Republic (CAR). She is the owner of Kea-Kwis Production, a video production company in Bangui, CAR. She co-directed her first feature documentary Eat Bitter in 2020.

In 2017, she directed “My Eyes To Hear”, a documentary short about a boy overcoming his disability in a land where the disabled are marginalized. The film was an official selection of The International Film Festival of Kinsaha and Film Festival Africlap. In 2019, she directed “Two Sisters”, the journey of two sisters who struggle to find the right balance between their studies, their life at home and their femininity.

Pascale came to film production from the IT world. She started studying films when she was selected to participate in 2016 in documentary filmmaking workshops organized by the French Alliance of Bangui and the Ateliers Varan.

NINGYI SUN

Director / Co-Producer / Co-Writer / Second Camera

A Chinese national, Ningyi is a film director, writer, and producer. She has lived and worked on three continents and speaks English, French, and Portuguese. She co-directed her first feature documentary Eat Bitter in 2020.

Currently based in New York, she is directing/producing her short documentary Act Before You Think about the Meisner acting technique and is co-writing a feature screenplay based on real events in the life of an immigrant sex worker in Queens, New York.

She produced, wrote, and acted in her first narrative short film Intimate which won Best Romantic Short with the Independent Shorts Awards in 2022. Before diving into the filmmaking world, she earned a master’s degree from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and worked for the United Nations peace operation in the Central African Republic.

MATHIEU FAURE

Executive Producer / Producer / Co-Writer / Co-Editor

Mathieu Faure is a producer, editor and an independent filmmaker who won the 2018 Student Academy Awards in the Domestic Documentary category for his personal film called An Edited Life. In 2018 he graduated from the News and Documentary Masters program at the L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU. Since then, Mathieu worked for the CNN Documentary unit, before joining Don Lemon’s team on his show CNN Tonight. After that, Mathieu was a field producer and worked on a series of documentaries for CNN + and Fareed Zakaria.

Prior to the US, Mathieu was a reporter inside a breaking newsroom in Paris, France. He worked for four years and produced articles and video reports for M6 television.

Mathieu graduated Magna Cum Laude from La Sorbonne University in Paris where he obtained his Master’s degree in Political Science.

Mathieu Faure is currently a field producer at Apple.

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A long-bearded Finnish hermit sweats out demons in his sauna, when he isn’t crawling around the forest floor at night with hidden cameras to document the shy and endangered lynx. Trippy and cinematic excursion into one man’s inner universe. A Finnish equivalent of Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man, Hannu has a love and connection to nature that surpasses most. It is the rare lynx in particular that has bitten into Hannu’s heart – so much so that he actually claims to be able to speak its language. So when a dead lynx turns up in his forest, he dons an animal mask, crawls down on all fours and sniffs out the mystery through the mire and thicket. With hauntingly beautiful footage captured by hidden cameras throughout the forest, ‘Lynx Man’ paints a colourful and vivid twilight picture of the natural world around us – and of man’s impact on it. For no matter what Hannu does to live in harmony with the animals, he cannot hide from belonging himself to the species that is the lynx’s worst enemy. It makes sense that most of Juha Suonpää’s atmospheric film takes place in the twilight between dream and reality. Here, the vast forests come alive in Hannu’s hypnotic Night Vision footage of the nocturnal life of the lynx.

Juha Suonpää

Juha Suonpää is known for Lynx Man (2023), Vuores (2000) and Wolfman (2013).

juha Suonpää is an Adjunct professor in Art, Environmental and Nature Photography (Lapland University), Doctor of Arts (Aalto University/UIAH) and a Master of Education (Tampere University). Suonpää works as the principal lecturer of visual culture in the international Degree programme in Media and Arts at Tampere University of Applied Sciences, School of Art, Music and Media (TAMK). As a full timer, he has worked among others as a Head of Fine Art department (deputy, 2004-2005), Head of the Fine Art Degree Programme (2007-2017) and as a Academy Research Fellow (Finnish Academy 2007-08). At the moment he is Senior Academy researcher and project manager in Finnish Academy CICAT2025 project, and Virtual Medicine ESR EU-project. 

Suonpää has exhibited internationally and published documentary films, numerous academic monographs and articles and researched, for example, topics related to photography, visualizing science and the construction of the identity of a place. 

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FANTASTIC MACHINE is a thought-provoking examination of humanity’s infatuation with itself, and with framing the world through the camera’s lens.

Filmmakers Axel Danielson & Maximilien Van Aertryck (Ten Meter Tower, Jobs For All!) once again turn their cameras directly on society, this time to explore, explain and expose how our unchecked obsession with image has grown to change our human behavior. In the process, the filmmakers also raise the question of societal consequences stemming from the image output of 45 billion* cameras on the planet (*total expected in 2022) and how humanity went from the image of a backyard to a multi-billion-euro content industry in just 200 years without a road map.

Axel Danielson & Maximilien Van Aertryck , Filmmakers

“The person who portrays their world with the camera, shapes the image of our society to their own mirror -- FANTASTIC MACHINE is an attempt to sharpen our gaze and to shift our perspectives of the images we consume.”

Axel Danielson & Maximilien Van Aertryck, FANTASTIC MACHINE

Filmmakers Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck have collaborated since 2013 under the banner of the Swedish production company, Plattform Produktion. The two filmmakers work both as directors and producers of their own films, under the umbrella of Plattform Produktion, home to two Palme d’Ors winners (Ruben Östlund’s The Square and Triangle of Sadness). Plattform Produktion is a small company that works like a collective: colleagues nurture each other with conversation and ideas, and see to it that their films come out the best possible way.

As in their previous work, Axel and Maximilien’s feature film debut, FANTASTIC MACHINE, also studies human behavior, but this time from the perspective of our modern media landscape: When image overtakes all other forms of communication, does it shift our fundamental human behaviors? FANTASTIC MACHINE uses nearly 100% archive images to create a fun, intense, breathtaking ride—with human beings at the center. The duo’s award-winning short films have premiered at Berlinale, Cannes, Toronto, Hot Docs, Aspen, Palm Springs and Sundance. In their most well-known short film, Ten Meter Tower, the two filmmakers asked people to climb up to the top of a diving tower and decide whether to jump...or climb back down. They wanted to see how humans look and behave when faced

with such a dilemma. Ten Meter Tower (2016), premiered at the Berlinale before moving on to compete in over 100 festivals including Sundance and Palm Springs, winning both the Jury and Audience Awards in Clermont-Ferrand. Millions saw the film online as it went viral through the New York Times’

website. It has been acquired by the Finnish Museum of Modern Art and exhibited at the Venice Biennale; won over 30 international prizes, was shortlisted for a 2017 Academy Award, and nominated for an Emmy Award. Ten Meter Tower, along with their most recent short, Jobs for All!, can be seen on The New

York Times' Op-Docs website.

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CYBORG: A DOCUMENTARY,

The film follows colour-blind artist Neil Harbisson, the world’s first officially recognised cyborg. With an antenna implanted in his head that allows him to hear colour, Neil is on a mission to convince the world to follow him and adopt his credo: Design Yourself. Directed by Carey Born and shot by Director of Photography Matthew Akers, the filmmakers were granted exclusive access to travel with Harbisson and have use of his personal archive of photographs and filmed and recorded material.

Carey Born

Carey Born is an award-winning filmmaker based in London. She studied languages at university and was a painter and actress before she started making films. Carey is interested in education and in connections between science and the arts. Carey Born is also known for L'Assenza (2013), Compartment and The Curious Brain in the Museum (2011).

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This is Ben’s second feature length documentary and 6th year coming back to Chengdu. He speaks Chinese. His first feature DON'T BE A DICK ABOUT IT won the 2018 Audience Award at IDFA and is being distributed by Oscilloscope. He now works directing commercials and music videos. His works include Cannes Silver Lion Advertising award, Vimeo Staff Picks, NYT Op-Docs, and some of his films have millions of views. His previous short films have gotten into 50+ festivals around the world including Tribeca (GNARLY IN PINK) and Slamdance (WHAT HATE ABOUT MYSELF).

THE LAST YEAR OF DARKNESS

THE LAST YEAR OF DARKNESS revolves around a small club called Funky Town, the go-to party space for a group of twenty-year-old DJ’s, drag performers, lovers, ravers and skaters in China. In this unassuming corner bar hidden by Chengdu’s construction cranes, five locals escape their stress, even if it’s only for the night. But as the sun rises and the cranes begin to move again, our protagonists are forced to face what brought them to the party in the first place.

Wavelength and Kindred Spirit bring funding to the project alongside Florence. CAA Media Finance will be handling U.S. sales.

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Life has become lonely for the human species in the Eremocene. The age of loneliness is characterised by natural destruction, a global loss of biodiversity and the dominance of the technosphere over the biosphere. This is where this playfully dystopian sci-fi essay starts out: digital technologies have conquered the world; the realm of data, from blockchain, to Bitcoin to DAO democracy, is huge and uncontrollable. Two accounts can be heard in voiceover – one generated by AI (artificial intelligence) and one belonging to a post-human virtual being searching for its earlier self, that of the filmmaker herself. Diary-like images of yesteryear appear on the planetary grid, beach scenes, people wearing masks in public places, Christmas lights and climate activists. The Super-8 and 16mm footage competes with raster graphics, coloured pixels and spectacular clouds of points in 3D, which are overlaid with keyword matrices in turn. There is interference. And questions regarding non-human actors and mortality are posed. Back in time, Nick Cave sings a blues song. Who cares what the future brings? The Eremocene is the present.

Viera Čákanyová

Viera Čákanyová (1980) was born in Bratislava, Slovakia. She graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava in screenwriting and received a BA from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in documentary film.

Her school films repeatedly won at the Famufest School Film Festival. Piranha (2007) – Best Film of Famufest 2007, Alda (2009) – Award for Best Director and Editor. Her films were also presented at several international festivals and won a number of awards. Under Underground (2006) – Honorary Diploma and Students Jury Award of the 14th International Film Festival Etiuda & Anima 2007, Krakow, Poland; 100 Days (2009) – The Grand Prix of Early Melons Film Festival 2010, Bratislava, Slovakia; The Grand Prix (Golden Dinosaur) of the 17th International Film Festival Etiuda & Anima 2010, Krakow, Poland; Best Camera, national competition of the 2nd Ostrava Kamera Oko International Cinematographers‘ Film Festival 2010, Ostrava, Czech Republic; Alda (2009) – Regard Neuf (Prize of the canton Vaud) for a first or second film by a filmmaker of the 16th Visions du Réel International Film Festival 2010, Nyon, Switzerland; The Golden Key Award for the best documentary work of a director under the age of 35 of the 27th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival 2010, Kassel, Germany. Besides working on her own films, she also works as script editor and editor of independent film projects and makes documentary films for non-profit organizations and television.

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Au cimetière de la pellicule (The Cemetery of Cinema) traces the director's journey through the defunct cinemas and archives of Guinea to France in search of the 1953 lost film Mouramani (dir. Mamadou Touré), likely the first film made by a Guinean and one of the first films from sub-Saharan Africa

Thierno Souleymane Diallo - Director

Thierno Souleymane Diallo was born in 1983 in Pita, Guinea. Thierno Souleymane is a director and cinematographer, known for The Cemetery of Cinema (2023), Nô Mëtî Sîfâdhe (2019) and Voyage vers l'espoir (2014).

Maud Martin - Producer

Maud Martin is known for The Cemetery of Cinema (2023), Ordinary Landscape (2019) and Six faces d'une brique (2011).

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Vlad Petri is a filmmaker interested in political and social subjects, often mixing personal images with official archives. His films, at the border between documentary and fiction, have been shown and won awards at international festivals (Berlinale, Rotterdam, CPH Dox, Sarajevo). He is active as a director, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor.

Between Revolutions

Zahra and Maria meet at university in Bucharest in the 1970's. When the hope of political change draws Zahra home to Iran they are forced apart. For the next decade their only way to communicate is through letters. Divided by two revolutions, their words describe women struggling to be heard, countries moving in different directions, and two souls united in their longing for each other.

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In the summer of 2007, an older man approaches Reyhaneh Jabbari and asks the architecture student who has a side job as an interior decorator for her help in the design of offices. During the site inspection, he tries to rape her. Reyhaneh stabs him in self-defence. She is arrested for murder and sentenced to death. Reyhaneh was to spend the next seven years in prison while her family hired lawyers and made the public aware of the case. However, in spite of the efforts of national and international politicians and human rights organisations, the Iranian judiciary continued to cite the “right of blood-revenge”. This meant that, as long as Reyhaneh did not withdraw her accusations against the man, his family could demand her death. Reyhaneh stuck to her testimony and was hanged at the age of 26.

In her moving and shockingly topical documentary debut, director Steffi Niederzoll uses among other things original audio and visual material that was smuggled out of Iran. This film, in which Holy Spider actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi lends Reyhaneh her voice, makes visible the injustice in Iranian society and portrays an involuntary heroine who gave her life in the fight for women’s rights.

Steffi Niederzoll

Steffi Niederzoll was born in 1981 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. She is a director and writer, known for Seven Winters in Tehran (2023), Lea (2008) and One Long Summer (2006).

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Alisa Kovalenko (1987) is a Ukrainian director, born in Zaporizhia, Eastern Ukraine, and living in Kyiv. She graduated the Karpenko-Kary University of Cinema of Kyiv and the Andrzej-Wajda cinema school of Warsaw. Her first feature documentary "Alisa in Warland" premiered at IDFA Amsterdam in 2015 in the First appearance competition. Alisa’s second documentary, "Home Games" was again an IDFA selection, selected in more than 120 festivals and being the first Ukrainian creative film acquired by Netflix. Alisa has become a member of The European Film Academy (EFA) in 2019. She's the programmer of the Molodist Kyiv FF documentary competition. In March 2022, she went to fight for her country in the Ukrainian Armed Forces

We Will Not Fade Away

Having grown up among the ruins, minefields, bomb shelters and coal mines of the Donbas, Andriy, Illia, Lera, Liza and Ruslan live in a world where, ever since 2014, shelling and gunfire have been as commonplace as the ever-present yearning for a better life. An expedition to the Himalayas gives the five Ukrainian teenagers the chance to fulfil this dream for a brief moment, before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February of 2022 ends up destroying the last remnants of hope. With its sensitive, unobtrusively perceptive gaze, the film paints a moving portrait of a generation of young people surrounded by darkness, who are nonetheless – or perhaps all the more – able to recognise and celebrate the fragile beauty of life.

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Bradford Movie Makers is one of the oldest amateur filmmaking clubs in the world. Once a thriving community, these days the membership is dwindling and the group struggle to keep the wolf from the door.

Kim Hopkins

Kim is a graduate of the UK, National Film & Television School. Kim has directing/shooting/producing credits for: BBC, Channel 4, Discovery, National Geographic and Al Jazeera amongst others. Feature documentaries include: 'Man In The Sand' (BBC2 prime-time), a music documentary featuring Woody Guthrie, Natalie Merchant, Wilco, Billy Bragg, Corey Harris etc. 'Wanted', a film about Native American reservation cops. Wanted received funding from WDR, A&E Television Network, UK Film Council, The Soros Documentary Fund and the Yorkshire Media Production Agency. It premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival, London Film Festival and Viennale amongst others. 'Hotel Folly' (IDFA, BBC Storyville), a film that explores the human cost of the banking crisis. AWARDS!!! Kim teaches documentary film production: NFTS/LFS/St Johns University. Kim was instrumental in setting up the documentary department at Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television de San Antonio, Cuba.

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Marketing and business strategist, film producer. For the last 15 years involved in marketing, TV and media industry. She has

co‑authored many marketing and communication strategies for the largest business entities in Poland. She is the author and executive producer of several documentary projects realized for business customers. Held the positions of production manager and film set manager in projects carried in the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing.

The Pawnshop

Pawnbroker Wiesiek moved out of the center of an unnamed Polish city to a big warehouse in a poor, working-class district, and now no one is buying his wares. Wiesiek, his equally charismatic partner Jola and their staff are doing their best to boost interest, but the fact is sales are very slow. They spend most of their time having discussions, smoking and fighting the cold in the wintry pawnshop.

Local people may not be coming in to buy anything, but plenty of them are dragging in their own junk, and their problems. The kindly women in the recycling area are always ready to offer a listening ear, a cup of soup or a free winter coat. All the while, though, things are constantly breaking down and it’s getting difficult to pay the rent—let alone the staff’s wages.

In his sympathetic portrait, director Łukasz Kowalski shows how money problems threaten to drive apart this enterprising couple—to tragic, heartwarming and sometimes highly amusing effect. Visually appealing static shots capture the protagonists in this deprived neighborhood at their most vulnerable, surrounded by every imaginable kind of treasure and trash.

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Zsófia Paczolay

I am a freelance art worker based in Europe with a background in architecture and filmmaking. I am working on documentary films in different corners of the world - now mainly with a small Hungarian collective - with the intention of showing them in cinemas, community houses, and other, inappropriate locations. As a space/idea/filmmaker I am collaborating with the Moha performance group in diverse projects which are engaging with different groups of people, neighborhoods on the peripheries, and public spaces mainly in the Netherlands, and in Germany. I am interested in boundaries, how to connect to people, and reduce harm.

Budapest Silo

József works at the largest still-operational grain silo in Budapest. He’s been doing this work for more than 30 years, and lives in a container home next to the structure, where trucks and trains rumble past his window. When he is lowered into the ten-story-deep silos to clean them, he looks like a scuba diver at work. These scenes are captured with stunning, contrast-rich camerawork, and ably edited with a strong sound design.

It’s dangerous work for József, not least because he has been exposed to crop dust for many years now. The growing threat to his health could even lead to his death. But he can’t escape it. In fact he seems to have become an integral part of his environment. In the sublime closing scene, he performs a dazzling, dizzying dance in the silo—strapped to safety cables, but flying nonetheless.

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Neema is a documentary photographer and filmmaker focused on the mundane. She believes in the magic of the mechanical nature of the every day, she weaves this with an experimental and feminist lens. Neema’s films have screened at numerous festivals International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, IDFA, The New York African Film Festival among others.

Country in a Corner

Homesickness drives Neema Ngelime to the district of Matonge in Brussels, which is home to a large African community. The busy shopping streets evoke memories of her life in Tanzania. She wants to record the similarities with her native land for her grandmother, but that is easier said than done. As in Tanzania, most people on the street prefer not to be filmed. Yet, Ngelime gradually gets closer to the shopkeepers and customers of Chaussée de Wavre, and shares her observations with the viewer.

Ngelime sees that the stifling morality she recognizes from Africa has also been transported to Belgium. She explains that respect for women in Tanzania is measured by the length of their skirts. The hairstyle you choose also shows how you want to be respected. At her every stop, from the hairdresser and nail salon to the grocer’s, Ngelime is obliged to make choices: will she follow tradition or take her own path? She wants to be part of the community, but at what cost? “I wish, as with a skirt, we could alter parts of our country we don’t like.” Without passing judgement, A Country in the Corner shows the dilemmas migrants face worldwide.

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Elena Avdija

Elena Avdija has a degree in Sociology from the EHESS (The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) in Paris. She worked for several years as assistant director in documentaries, notably for Point du Jour in Paris where she developed screenplays for historical documentary series for ARTE.

Stuntwomen

Being thrown down a flight of stairs, hit by a car or beaten up is everyday life for stuntwomen Virginie, Petra and Estelle. They talk about their extraordinary work, while we follow them during training sessions and on film sets in France and the US, as well as on family visits or at the gym. What does this all this pretend-violence do to their bodies and minds?

The women have to be all-rounders, so they practice fights in the park in high heels or falls with minimal protection. There is always a trade-off between the desire to perform as realistically as possible and their own boundaries. The scenes with burning cars or collisions are spectacular, but the roles in which they are beaten up are much harder to watch.

Usually they play the role of the victim, because few action movies have female heroes. It’s a shocking and fascinating realization: stuntwomen are hired to endure violence, while the task of their male colleagues is to inflict it.

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The tenth edition of Polish Pride parades a colorful trail of rainbow flags through the streets of Warsaw. Along the route, Antek and his friends line up to warn of the “pink threat” in prayer and edifying hymns. As traditional Catholics, he and his Brotherhood hold deeply conservative views: sex before marriage is out of the question, homosexuality can be cured, abortion is a great evil and Poland is for the Poles. His sister thinks his homophobic ranting is pointless because in a few years the planet will be destroyed anyway as nobody is doing anything about climate change.

For a long time, as this observational portrait follows him in measured chapters from church visits to demonstrations, festivities, and Brotherhood meetings, Antek seems completely in his element in his right-wing Catholic world. Around him, couples get married young to start procreating. But when Antek himself falls in love, doubts begin to set in—first about the prohibition of premarital sex, and ultimately about the existence of God.

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Can a tree be racist? A few years ago, debate on this issue reached as far as Fox News. The focus was a row of tamarisk trees along a huge golf course in Palm Springs, which screened off the neighborhood of Crossley Tract. This is a historically Black neighborhood, named after its founder Lawrence Crossley, who was one of the first Black residents to settle in the largely white tourist paradise, established on indigenous land over a century ago.

According to the residents of Crossley Tract, the trees were instrumental in a policy of segregation. Requests to remove the trees were repeatedly rejected by the city government, until the neighborhood found a white spokesperson in the person of Trae Daniel.

In five chapters, the equally bizarre and complex history of the tree dispute is peeled away like the layers of an onion. Sitting in their backyards, representatives of both sides of the argument give their viewpoints. As to the assertion that there is no institutional racism in liberal Palm Springs, flipping through a few dark chapters of local history is enough to refute that claim.

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The news is full of images of overcrowded boats and vast tent camps. But how much do we really know about what refugees are going through? Notes on Displacement takes a deep dive by following a single family on a grueling journey, destination Germany. Their fear, disorientation, and solidarity is palpable.

Nadira, an elderly Palestinian, has been a refugee since the age of 12. And now she has to leave Damascus, too. She and her daughter Mona feared for their lives there, but the idea of a safe existence elsewhere is a distant dream. Filmmaker Khaled Jarrar receives unsettling videos and voice messages as they cross to the Greek island of Lesbos. He joins them there, on the long road to a better life.

Jarrar has his personal reasons for going through this experience in order to eliminate, in his own images, the distance so dominant in Western media coverage. He worms his way through the thronging crowds, gets lost in the night with his group, discovers how dangerous language barriers can be, and wanders around in the dehumanizing camps. And in a sense he—along with the viewer— becomes a true member of this family.

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When Danish filmmaker Lea Glob first portrayed Apolonia Sokol in 2009, she appeared to be leading a storybook life. The talented Apolonia was born in an underground theater in Paris and grew up in an artists’ community—the ultimate bohemian existence. In her 20s, she studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, one of the most prestigious art academies in Europe. Over the years, Lea Glob kept returning to film the charismatic Apolonia and a special bond developed between the two young women.

The result is a fascinating portrait, spanning 13 years, of a young woman trying to find her place in the art world. Apolonia is confident in her talent, but her path is not always an easy one. Life is not a storybook; one of the lessons Apolonia learns is that women painters have to make more sacrifices and overcome greater obstacles than their male counterparts do. This also applied to the friend she lived with for a long time, Oksana Shachko, one of the founders of the feminist action group Femen. Apolonia’s resilience is put to the test.

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Today we are joined by Anneke de Lind van Wijngaarden. Anneke works as a documentary filmmaker in Amsterdam. In her work, she mainly focuses on youth documentaries. This time though she made an intimate film about her old Auntie Ria. Annekes website is below

http://www.delindvanwijngaarden.com/

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Reece is a producer and founder of Bombito productions, a Glasgow based production company specialising in films that discuss, provoke and reflect current society – with a focus on stories from the queer community.

Reece has produced award winning short form work and also works freelance in production on high end film, TV and commercials. Reece has produced a few Documentarys such as "Everyman", "Clean" and "Prosopagnosia"

​

Reece was selected by Screen International as a 'Rising Star Scotland' in August 2022

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