Docs in Orbit

In this episode, we feature a conversation with Venice Atienza about her film LAST DAYS AT SEA, which premiered at the Berlinale earlier this year. LAST DAYS AT SEA is a tender portrait of a young boy, Reyboy, living in an isolated fishing village in the Philippines where he grew up. Reyboy loves his village and the sea, but by the end of summer, he will have to leave to study in the city. At the...

Special coverage of the 52nd edition of Visions du Réel that begins 15 April - 25th April. In this episode, we are joined by Steve Rickinson in Bucharest from The European Documentary Magazine, Modern Times Review. The print publication has been a staple at many European documentary festivals and they offer expansive coverage of film reviews and industry news online. Steve Rickinson heads up the i...

In this episode Aylin Gökmen, filmmaker and contributor / co-curator of Docs in Orbit invites Jessica Beshir for a conversation about her film FAYA DAYI which premiered at Sundance and will be having its international premiere at Visions du Reél this month. The film is an immersion into Harar, Beshir's hometown in Ethiopia, where many people’s lives revolve around the harvest, the trade, and the c...

On the occasion of its screening at Essay Film Festival, we are re-releasing our conversation with Nuria Giménez about her film, My Mexican Bretzel. The film will be available to screen on their online screening room from 25 March - 3 April for free to anyone in the UK. My Mexican Bretzel is Nuria’s debut feature film made entirely out of her grandfather's home footage, 16 mm film from the 1950’s...

In this episode, we feature a conversation with Georgian filmmaker, Salomé Jashi about her film TAMING THE GARDEN which premiered at Sundance. An ode to the rivalry between men and nature, Taming the Garden is the story of how a powerful man indulges in an unusual hobby by having century-old trees uprooted in communities along the Georgian coast and transplanted to his private garden. Kopal Joshy,...

Season 2: Films entering our 2021 Orbit ✨New episodes are coming this week! But before we release our first episode of season two, we wanted to extend our heartfelt gratitude to our listeners and supporters. And for those who may be just discovering this podcast, offer a little about who we are and what you can expect in episodes to come. Welcome to a new season! We are grateful to be in your orb...

On the occasion of her upcoming retrospective at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, we revisit our conversation with the remarkable and highly acclaimed feminist, experimental filmmaker, and poet, Lynne Sachs. In this episode, we discuss ideas present in Sachs' work, including feminist film theory, experimental filmmaking, and her collaborative approach. We also discuss her previous films...

In this episode, we feature a conversation with the legendary filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky about his recent film GUNDA.I have been a fan of Kossakovsky’s work since one of his first films, THE BELOVS (1993), which is a portrait of simple village life, sometimes tender and sometimes harsh, captured mostly in a steady observational gaze until the last scene where we are shaken by the filmmaker’s cam...

In this episode, we feature a conversation with filmmaker Hannah Jayanti about her speculative documentary film, TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES.Set in the small desert town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, the film takes place in the shadow of the world's first commercial Spaceport. Subtly set in a near future when space travel has begun, the film follows five residents in the town. Combining document...

In this episode, we feature a conversation with the esteemed Director Arami Ullón about her latest film Apenas El Sol (Nothing but the Sun) which was selected as the opening film at IDFA this year. NOTHING BUT THE SUN is set in the Paraguayan Chaco region, a semi arid region in Paraguay with very low population density that is being rapidly deforested. It is also the home of the Ayoreo, an indigen...

In this episode, we feature a conversation with Director Jerry Rothwell and Producer Jeremy Dear about the film THE REASON I JUMP (2020). Based on the best-selling book by Naoki Higashida, the film is an immersive cinematic exploration of neurodiversity through the experiences of nonspeaking autistic people. The film blends Higashida’s revelatory insights into autism, written when he was 13, with...

In this episode, we feature a conversation with Allison Chhorn about her film THE PLASTIC HOUSE (2020). THE PLASTIC HOUSE is a highly immersive film that occurs almost entirely inside and around her Cambodian family’s dilapidated greenhouse in South Australia. Economical yet expansive, Chhorn filters and displaces her fears about her parents’ deaths and a precarious future onto an intensely moving...

SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS is the remarkable untold story of electronic music’s female pioneers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to transform how music is produced and listened to today. These visionary women embarked on radical experimentation, creating the sounds of the future with tape reels, scissors, and sticky tape as their primary means. But unfortunately, when electron...

We continue the conversation with the highly acclaimed feminist, experimental filmmaker, and poet, Lynne Sachs about her latest feature-length documentary film, FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO.FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO is perhaps one of Lynne’s most personal works and the longest of her collaborations. Filmed over a period of 35 years, Lynne Sachs collected interviews with her father, her siblings, and othe...

In this episode, we feature a two-part conversation with the remarkable and highly acclaimed feminist, experimental filmmaker and poet Lynne Sachs. Lynne Sachs is a Memphis-born, Brooklyn-based artist who has made over 35 films. Her work explores the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences by weaving together text, collage, painting, politics, and la...

In this episode, we feature the distinguished Hungarian documentary filmmaker and multimedia artist Peter Forgacs/Peter Forgács has a long-standing reputation as Hungary’s most innovative documentary filmmaker. He was recently granted the Dragon of Dragons award during the 60th anniversary of the Krakow Film Festival for his exceptional contribution to the development of international cinema. The...

We continue to highlight films from the Krakow International Film Festival, featuring a conversation with Francesca Mazzoleni about her documentary film, PUNTA SACRA (2020), a sensitive documentary that focuses on a tight community living in illegal houses on the last triangle of habitable space at the mouth of the Tiber. Its inhabitants call it Punta Sacra, which translates to Sacred Point. Here,...

In this episode, we feature a conversation with Radu Ciorniciuc about his award-winning feature-length documentary, ACASA MY HOME (2020). The film is set in the wilderness of the Bucharest Delta, an abandoned water reservoir just outside the bustling metropolis. Here we meet the Enache family consisting of nine children and their parents living in perfect harmony with nature: sleeping in a hut on...

Featuring a conversation with Asia Der and Sari Haragonics on their debut feature documentary, Her Mothers (2020), which had its world premiere at Hot Docs. The film is an intimate tale of love and freedom. With a sensitive lens, directors Asia Dér and Sári Haragonics follow Virág and her partner, Nóra, through the long process of adoption. However, as the rising tides of hate and homophobia in Hu...

IA conversation with director Alyx Ayn Arumpac about her remarkably powerful and brave film, ASWANG. ASWANG tells the story of the national war on drugs in the Philippines. Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016 and announced his campaign to rid the Philippines of drug addicts and dealers, as many as 20,000 Filipinos have been murdered — usually at night and always at the hands of vig...

In this episode, we feature a conversation with Italian - American Filmmaker, Mo Scarpelli about her most recent feature documentary, El Father Plays Himself. El Father Plays Himself is a dual character study of a father and son relationship. The film follows Venezuelan director, Jorge Armand, as he returns to Venezuela to make a fiction film about the troubled past of his father in the illegal go...

In this episode, we feature a conversation with Nuria Giménez, the director of My Mexican Bretzel (2020). My Mexican Bretzel is Nuria’s debut feature-length film made entirely from her grandfather's home footage; Super 8 and 16mm films from the 1950s and 1960s are juxtaposed with excerpts from a diary to reveal the inner thoughts of Vivian Barrett. The film is a personal reflection where love, des...

A conversation with the director and producer of Off the Road (2020), which is set to premiere at Visions du Réel. Off the Road is a genre-blending documentary film set in a remote town in Baja, California, Mexico, following locals preparing for the Baja 1000 - the world's biggest off-road motorsport race that passes through their small village. José Permar, the director, was born in South Baja Ca...

A conversation with Director / Producer Afsaneh Salari from Iran about her feature film, The Silhouettes (2020). The Silhouettes, tells the intimate story of an Afghan refugee family living in Iran for over 35 years as their youngest son makes the difficult decision to return to Afghanistan because of the limited opportunities for immigrants in Iran. Afsaneh has an impressive eye that is immediate...

A conversation with three filmmakers, Isabella Rinaldi from Italy, Cristina Hanes from Romania, and Arya Rothe from India, who make up the NoCut Film Collective on their transnational, collaborative approach to documentary filmmaking. Their debut feature-length documentary, A Rifle and a Bag (2020), premiered earlier this year at the International Rotterdam Film Festival (IFFR) in the Bright Futur...