Docs in Orbit

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 intimate portraits of five remarkable young people. It opens a window for audiences into an inten...

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 narrative of ritual, physical labor, and isolation.Also referenced in this podcast is Chhorn’s C...

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 electronic music was finally recognized, they were almost forgotten. Lisa Rovner rectifies this...

We continue the conversation with the highly acclaimed feminist, experimental filmmaker, and poet, Lynne Sachs about her latest feature-length documentary film, FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO.FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO is perhaps one of Lynne’s most personal works and the longest of her collaborations. Filmed over a period of 35 years, Lynne Sachs collected interviews with her father, her siblings, and other family members in an attempt to understand the web that connects a child to their parent and a ...

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

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 Dragon of Dragons Award is the highest distinction granted by the Krakow Film Foundation Programm...

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, we are introduced to a strong, women-centered community resisting the forces of nature and the e...

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 the lakeshore, catching fish barehanded, and following the rhythm of the seasons. The...

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 Hungary simmer, their lives hit a boiling point, and they must face the difficult decision of ...

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 vigilantes, hired assassins, or police officers. In her unflinching debut feature d...