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 Bo...

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 fi...

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...

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 discu...

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 spli...

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, sp...

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...

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 j...

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...

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 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,...

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 cul...

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...

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...

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 pl...

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 i...

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 indepe...

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,...

[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-fictio...

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 m...

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 (2...

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 trilo...

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 53r...

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 t...