Explore every episode of the podcast Docs in Orbit

Hi everyone, Aylin Gökmen here, with a new episode featuring a conversation with Pablo Álvarez-Mesa about his film, The Soldier’s Lagoon (2024), which received the Docs in Orbit Invitation Award at Cannes Doc-Marché du Film last year.The Soldier’s Lagoon is a strikingly beautiful and multi-layered piece centered on the Colombian páramo region. The film explores the land’s history, encompassing Bolívar's political legacy, colonialism, and the presence of armed groups, shedding light on h...

Hello everyone. This is Hosein Jalilvand in Geneva with a new episode for Docs in Orbit featuring a conversation with Matthew Lancit about his latest film, Play Dead! (2023). Play Dead! is a funny, tender video diary on living with diabetes, where Lancit playfully transforms his personal experience and fear of dying into a body horror film, where an invisible disease crawls inside his body. The film premiered in the Camera Lucida sidebar of Dok Leipzig in October 2023 and available to s...

We are releasing a conversation recorded on Tuesday, November 14th, 2023, at IDFA, where I met with Julian Ross and Farah Hasanbegović to recap Corresponding Cinemas. Corresponding Cinemas was a new series at IDFA this year, and in many ways, it was an experiment to see what invisible connections surface when an institution decides to transfer over its curatorial control to filmmakers. The idea is simple and compelling. It would be a series of films and conversations with filmmakers who have ...

Today is the first day of the 36th edition of IDFA, the world's largest documentary film festival - a twelve-day event in Amsterdam featuring more than 250 titles in 22 sections. Earlier this week, I sat with Orwa Nyrabia, the Artistic Director of the festival, to speak with him about the role, responsibility and relevancy of film festivals and how IDFA is meeting the current moment. We also discuss some of the new sections in the program, including SPECIAL SCREENINGS, SIGNED,...

An abandoned house opens the door to revisit the past by bringing to life a unique, nearly destroyed image archive from the unrecognized territory on the border of the Black Sea: Abkhazia. A place normally inaccessible for Georgians because of the ethnic conflict that happened between Georgia and Abkhazia back in 1993. Combining voice, archive, and recent footage, the film examines a lost and split identity stuck between the margins. The audio-visual fragments of this archive are intricately ...

It's been a few days since Dok Leipzig wrapped up, but we are still reminiscing about the films we encountered and the people we met. So, we made a little souvenir of our time there, featuring a collection of voice memos from a cross-section of festival attendees sharing their favorite film discoveries from this year's event.FEATURING: Juliette Menthonnex, director of Tale of the Three Flames, speaks about Man In Black by Bing WangEka Tsotsoria, editor of Self-Portrait Along the Borderli...

Twenty-six years ago, for the 35th New York Film Festival, curators Gavin Smith and Mark McElhatten introduced the festival's experimental sidebar, Views from the Avant-Garde.While their inaugural program featured names like Stan Brakhage, Gregory Markopoulos, and Nathaniel Dorsky, it also opened a space where voices experimenting with cinema's language might meet new audiences. In the festival's intervening years, the vocabulary around this type of cinema evolved and Views from the Avant-Gar...

As we prepared for the festival, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Franka Sachse, a director and animator who is also the curator for the Animation Night at DOK Leipzig. Aylin Gökmen moderates the conversation.The Animation Night is scheduled for Friday, October 13th, featuring Tess Martin showcasing several of her short films that provide a fascinating insight into the artist's creative journey. The event will be divided into two parts: the first part will focus on her accomplish...

The 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland has come to a close, but we are still thinking about many of the films we encountered there. For our recap, we invited a cross-section of attendees to share their favorite film discoveries. Included in this episode are films from nearly every section of the festival - the Concorso Internazionale (International Competition), the Concorso Cineasti del presente section (Filmmakers of the Present), the Pardi di domani (Leopards of ...

This year was a special year for the Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan. It celebrated its 20th anniversary and also the 100-year anniversary of Armenian cinema. To recap the event, we invited filmmakers, film critics, and other guests to share their impressions about a favorite film they encountered at the festival. We hope you enjoy listening to this mosaic of impressions from a cross-section of participants!Jude Chehab, Director of Q , speaks about Silent House by F...

A conversation with Karen Avetisyan, the Artistic Director and CEO of the Golden Apricot Film Festival in Yerevan, Armenia, which took place from the 9 - 16th of July.This year it marked a double milestone for the festival, celebrating both its 20th anniversary as well as the 100th anniversary of Armenian Cinema. Eka Tsotsoria traveled to Yerevan for the occasion, and before making her way there, she sat with Karen to learn more about the programming. In this conversation, Karen shares the or...

An impenetrable Field of Optimism: Intersections of the Personal and Political in Documentary Filmmaking - Filmmakers Zeynep Güzel, Mina Keshavarz and Sahra Mani (Bread and Roses, Special Screenings, Festival de Cannes 2023), will come together to discuss their work, dreams, aspirations, and hopes for the future, both professional and personal.This discussion was organized by Cannes Docs - Marché du Film with the support of Doc Alliance, Participant, LaScam in association with L'oeil d'or, An...

Director & DOP Kirsten Johnson, President of the 2023 Œil d’or Jury, and writer, director, and producer Guetty Felin in conversation about the many ways filmmaking creates possibilities to search for the invisible, to bring life to the dead and to time travel in our own lives.This discussion was organized by Cannes Docs - Marché du Film with the support of Doc Alliance, Participant, LaScam in association with L'oeul d'or, Année du Documentaire, DAE, CNC, & ACID. Distributed by Do...

Moving beyond Empathy and Equity in Global Stories - A panel discussion presented at this year's Cannes Docs - Doc Day with producer, writer, and director Mehret Mandefro. Mehret Mandefro is an Emmy-nominated producer, writer, entrepreneur, physician and thought leader who champions the creative arts as a path to developing a more just society. Her track record in both using narrative to shift culture and scaling media businesses secured her a spot on Variety’s list of most impactful women in...

Panel discussion presented at Cannes Docs 2023 at the Marché du Film, Festival de Cannes and curated in partnership with the DAE - Documentary Association of Europe The documentary industry, like the rest of the audiovisual chain, has been in a radical period of transformation in the last 10 years. We hear more and more often about content and format, rather than film and language. Where is the place for the creative documentary in this value chain? This panel discussion explores this topic w...

Panel discussion presented at Cannes Docs 2023 at the Marché du Film, Festival de Cannes on May 20, 2023 and curated in partnership with the DAE - Documentary Association of Europe Parts of the independent film industry are currently engaged in a crucial discussion about the need for more equitable and accountable curation in film programming and selection processes. More and more filmmakers and industry stakeholders alike are openly questioning the traditional power structures that have...

To kick off our collaboration with Cannes Docs this year, we sat with Pierre-Alexis Chevit, the head of Cannes Docs, and Babette Dieu, the coordinator for the event, to hear about this year’s thoughtfully designed program. They also share their personal experiences that shaped their interest in documentaries and the importance of creating physical and symbolic spaces in the industry for the independent filmmaking community to feel supported. Each year, during the Marché du Film at the Ca...

The festival may have come to a close, but many of the films have continued to stir something inside us. This episode features a collection of voice memos gathered from a cross-section of attendees at Visions du Réel, sharing their responses to a film they encountered at the festival.-----FEATURING:Nicole Chi, Director of Guián, about This Woman by Alan Zhang Ghada Fikri, Director of How Are You, Baba? about Locus Cordis by Alhasan YousefAlhasan Yousef, Director of Locus Cordis, ab...

[April 20, 2023] Docs in Orbit Podcast - Episode #55 - Visions du Réel 2023 with Emilie Bujès (moderated by Christina Zachariades)In preparation for the 54th Edition of Visions du Réel, we sat (virtually) with Emilie Bujès, the festival's artistic director, to hear about how this year’s program came together. Visions du Réel has a strong reputation for championing creative, contemporary non-fiction cinema and has played a vital role for independent documentary filmmakers for decades. The...

In this episode, we turn our attention to First Look, an annual showcase of new and innovative international cinema at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York. This year’s event will mark the 12th edition of the festival, which will take place March 15 - 19th. Over the course of those five days, more than 30 works from all over the world will be exhibited for the first time in New York at the museum - this includes features, short films, fiction, and non-fiction, as well as forms that...

Featuring a conversation with Alexander Abaturov about his film Paradise (2022), which premiered at IDFA in the International Competition section.The film is set in the small village of Shologon in Northern Siberia, documenting the local inhabitants battling severe and extreme wildfires during the summer months.Alexander Abaturov is a filmmaker based in Paris. He was born in Siberia. Paradise (2022) is his second feature documentary film. His first film, The Son (2018), premiered at the Berli...

Notes from Eremocene (Berlinale Forum, 2023) by Viera Čákanyová is an experimental documentary that delves into the future possibilities of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. Through a captivating blend of analog footage and 3D scanner images, Čákanyová captures the clash between traditional and digital elements of contemporary society.This is her third feature, concluding a trilogy that began with her debut work, FREM (2019), followed by the documentary White on White (2020)....

We are joined by Cristina Nord, the Artistic Director of the Berlinale Forum, an independently curated section of the Berlinale with a focus on diverse cinematic forms and narrative approaches. I invited Cristina to speak about the rich history of the Forum and what has shaped her curatorial eye. We also discuss some of the non-fiction films included in this years collection, which will be the 53rd edition of the program. Moderated by Christina ZachariadesFor show notes, visit docsinorbi...

As we put the final touches on our first batch of episodes, we wanted to just pop on to say hi, we appreciate you tuning in, and we are excited to discover new films together! - Christina ZachariadesFor show notes, visit docsinorbit.com and be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit

Nnenna Onuoha speaks with Alain Gomis about his latest film REWIND & PLAY (2022), which she encountered last month at the New York Film Festival. REWIND & PLAY follows American jazz pianist Thelonius Monk on a 1969 trip to Paris. Monk is in town to perform at the Salle Pleyel, and along the way becomes the subject of a French television program. Rewind & Play unfolds exclusively from the recovered rushes of this recording. And from this single event the film unravels complex ...

Last week brought the close of the 35th edition of IDFA and this year’s edition felt monumental. Not only for the sheer number of films on display (277) but also for the necessary and thought provoking panel discussions that were platformed - including an examination of the growing prosecution and incarceration of filmmakers around the world, the emergence of co-creation as a practice grounded in equity and justice, and a bold, critical examination of the power dynamics inherent in film festi...

With such an overwhelming number of films on offer at IDFA, we invited Wouter Jansen to help curate a watch list of films that will be on display. Wouter is the founder of Square Eyes, a sales and distribution company based in Vienna specializing in bold, author driven features and shorts. This year, he will be at IDFA with two titles, ANHEIL 69 by Theo Montoya and EUROPE by Philip Scheffner. In this episode, we go through each section of the program at IDFA and take turns selecting tit...

It is night in America. A young anteater is found dead by the side of a road in Brasilia, a boa constrictor wanders into the suburbs, and a maned wolf is found on a farm. The question is: are animals invading our cities, or rather are we occupying their habitat?IT IS NIGHT IN AMERICA (2022) by Ana Vaz is a spellbinding film that comes to the Camden International Film Festival wielding a strong energetic power that, no doubt, will transfix spectators and provoke reflection on the visible and s...

Fall is upon us, and what better way to begin this new season than in the cozy atmosphere at the Camden International Film Festival in mid-coast Maine - a major documentary event in the United States. In anticipation for this year's festival, I caught up with Milton Guillén, Senior Programmer at CIFF to provide texture around this year's stellar line-up and how the program came together. We also discuss some of the talks and panels that will be on offer.The festival will take place from ...

Our first episode of a series covering the 28th Sarajevo Film Festival. We are joined by Rada Šešić, who leads the selection of films in the Documentary Competition. Rada SESIC (Croatia) is a critic, film maker, lecturer and a programmer. She is specialized in South Asian and Eastern European cinema. She also organizes the DocuRough Cut Boutique which we discuss in our conversation as well as the origins of the Sarajevo Film Festival which is rooted in cultural protest during the Siege of Sar...

This year, the Locarno Film Festival is celebrating its 75th anniversary from August 3 - 13th in the beautiful Swiss Canton of Ticino.It’s a festival that is known for supporting independent, arthouse and avant-garde cinema, often showcasing darling films that break and blur the boundaries between cinematic genres. That is why I’ve always enjoyed and admired their program. It has introduced me to many directors and works throughout the years that have moved me and influenced my creative ...

In this episode, we are pleased to share a special conversation with Jumana Manna about her recent film, FORAGERS, which we discovered at Vision Du Reel this past April. Jumana is a Berlin based visual artist and filmmaker. Her work explores how power is articulated, focusing on the body, land and materiality in relation to colonial inheritances and histories of place. Her new film, Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israe...

The day after his World Premiere at Sundance, we sat with Shaunak Sen, the director of ALL THAT BREATHES to discuss the many resonances of his work. In this heart felt conversation Sen shares with us his creative process in making this film and the ecological philosophies underpinning ALL THAT BREATHES. Moderated by Christina Zachariades, Docs in OrbitFor show notes, visit docsinorbit.com and be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit

Geographies of Solitude with Jacquelyn Mills moderated by Sean Van Wert in Toronto.Featuring a conversation with Jacquelyn Mills about her most recent film GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE.In GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE, Mills offers us an immersion into the rich ecosystem of Sable Island and the life of Zoe Lucas, an environmentalist who has lived over 40 years on this remote, sliver of land off the coast of Canada where she spends her life collecting, cleaning, and documenting marine litter that washes ...

In this episode, I am joined by two film critics whose work I adore, Inge Coolsaet and Jordan Cronk - both of whom I had the great pleasure to meet at this year's swiss festival, Visions du Réel. Inge Coolsaet is a film critic based in Brussels. She writes for several international publications, including Point of View magazine, Filmmagie, Photogenie, and Cineuropa. She is co-editor-in-chief of the new Dutch-language, Belgian-based film quarterly Fantômas. This year, Inge was invited to ...

In this episode, we feature a conversation with Diem Ha Le about her debut feature film, CHILDREN OF THE MIST, which premiered at IDFA and had its Swiss premiere in the Grand Angle section of Visions du Réel. The film follows Dzi, a 12-year-old girl from the Hmong ethnic group in Northern Vietnam. During the Lunar new year, girls as young as Dzi become part of the customary practice of "bride kidnapping," where young girls are abducted by a boy who wishes to marry them and held for rans...

An episode focused on Visions du Réel, the international documentary film festival held in April in Nyon, Switzerland. Visions du Réel has a strong reputation for championing creative, contemporary non-fiction cinema and has played a vital role for independent documentary filmmakers for decades. And it has also been a significant source of inspiration for this podcast, as we have made several film discoveries, including El Father Plays HImself, Looking For Horses, My Mexican Bretzel...

This episode pulls focus on CPH:DOX - one of the biggest documentary film festivals in Europe today. Situated in Copenhagen, the festival began on March 23, and we just wrapped up a full week of screenings!This year, the festival is hosting many exciting in-person events in Copenhagen and online offers for both the industry and the public, with a selection of films streaming online in Denmark for the first ten days of April. Eka Tsotsoria from Tbilisi joins Nico Centrone in Italy and Dan...

Edo Choi, a curator at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York and film critic extraordinaire joins the podcast to discuss several standout films we encountered at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival. Films discussed include Avec amour et acharnement / Both Sides of the Blade / Fire, Rimini, Dry Ground Burning, Europe, Rewind and Play, See You Friday Robinson, and A Little Love Package. We also spend the last 15 minutes discussing First Look which is an annual festival ...

Greetings from Berlin. In this episode, we are joined with Anna Henckel Donnersmarck, the curator and head of Berlinale Shorts. Berlinale Shorts is the section dedicated to daring works of the short form. This year’s line up does not disappoint, with a selection of 30 international and world premieres from new and established filmmakers like Radu Jude, Atsushi Wada, Sky Hopinka, and many more as well as new filmmakers with equally strong and aesthetically interesting perspectives.&...

In this episode, we recap some of the films we encountered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival with special guest Milton Guillén - an award-winning filmmaker, faculty member at CalArts, and a programmer at the Camden International Film Festival.Films we discussed include:4:58 FIRE OF LOVE by Sara Dosa 9:12 ALL THAT BREATHES by Shaunak Sen15:53 WE MET IN VIRTUAL REALITY by Joe Hunting25:38 DOS ESTACIONES by Juan Pablo Gonzalez29:58 I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE by Reid DavenportFor show no...

In this episode, I am joined with filmmaker and dear friend, Venice Atienza ahead of her traveling to IDFA where we review the program. IDFA is one of the largest documentary film events, and their extensive programming is energizing for the international documentary film community but it’s also very overwhelming with over 260 titles and only ten days. So before boarding her flight, we went through each section of the program and co-curated a watch list to help guide our festival ex...

In this episode, we recap films from the Camden International Film Festival which just wrapped up over the past weekend. I sat with a dear friend of the podcast, Bronte Stahl, a filmmaker and producer from Westerly RI who is a frequent attendee at CIFF and also part of the festival's screening committee. Bronte and I studied documentary in film school many moons ago at the European master's program, DocNomads. Since then has participated in a few fellowships and re...

Featuring a conversation with Payal Kapadia about her remarkably brave and powerful film A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING which took home awards at Cannes, TIFF, and CIFF. Here, she discusses with us her artistic approach, sources of inspiration, and the freedom she finds in documentary filmmaking.Moderated by Aylin GökmenFor show notes, visit docsinorbit.com and be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit

The Fall Film Festival season has begun! And to kick things off, we invited Milton Guillén, a programmer from the Camden International Film Festival, to take us through the 17th edition of the festival lineup, featuring over 70 documentary films (features and shorts). In this episode, Milton provides a peek into how the program came together and adds texture to some of the films in the different sections. This year, the festival will take place both physically (September 16 - 19th) ...

For our third episode dedicated to the 27th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival, we feature a conversation with Stefan Pavlović whose film, LOOKING FOR HORSES, took home the Special Jury Prize in the documentary competition.Looking for Horses is Stefan’s first feature-length film and the result of his graduate studies at the Netherlands Film Academy in Artistic Research in and through Cinema titled, From Filming Intimacy to Filming Intimately, where he investigates how the cinema apparatus ...

The festival just wrapped but our coverage continues! In this episode, Christina Zachariades is joined by Macha Tsarencov and Steve Rickinson to discuss their travels to Sarajevo, the atmosphere of the festival, and several documentary films that screened as part of the competition. Films discussed include FACTORY TO THE WORKERS by Srđan Kovačević, THE SAME DREAM by Vlad Petri, DISTURBED EARTH by Kumjana Novakova and Guillermo Carreras-Candi , RECONCILIATION by Marija Zidar, and LOOKING ...

Our first episode of a series covering the 27th Sarajevo Film Festival. We are joined by Rada Šešić, who leads the selection of films in the Documentary Competition. We discuss her work as a filmmaker, critic, mentor, and film programmer. We also talk about the origins of the Sarajevo Film Festival and how it's rooted in cultural protest, review some of the films included in this year’s Documentary Competition including LOOKING FOR HORSES by Stefan Pavlović, LANDSCAPES OF RESISTANCE by M...

A conversation with Basma Alsharif about four of her short films: FARTHER THAN THE EYE CAN SEE, HOME MOVIE GAZA, WE BEGAN BY MEASURING DISTANCE, and OH PERSECUTED, which were programmed in 2021 on Another Screen, FOR A FREE PALESTINE: Films by Palestinian Women, curated by Daniella Shreir. Basma al-Sharif is a visual artist and filmmaker raised as something of a nomad between Kuwait, France, the US, and the Gaza Strip. Her work straddles that line between cinema and installation, center...

A roundtable conversation featuring three filmmakers presenting work at Hot Docs International Film Festival in Toronto, in the shorts section and were made within the framework of DocNomads, a European Master degree program in Documentary film, Directing.Anna Artemyeva’s film, DON'T HESITATE TO COME FOR A VISIT, MOM (2020) is a powerful and timely film chronicling Anna’s separation from her young daughter as she was unable to obtain a visa for her family to join her in Europe from Russia. Th...