DOK Industry Podcast

In this conversation, host Aisha Jamal and her guests Sameer Farooq and Marley McDonald talk about how documentary filmmakers are using the medium of film in unique ways to investigate and lay bare the museum’s history of trade, theft and violence.

Length: 46:30

Moderator and Host: Aisha Jamal

You can find out more about our collaborators here.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion are the buzzwords that litter program initiatives in the entertainment industry as of late. Still, platitudes ring hollow and action is needed. Today’s podcast will discuss ongoing efforts by change makers to challenge the systemic access gap for programmers of color by instituting Film Programming Fellowship/Mentorship programs within organizational infrastructures.

Guest speakers, Faridah Gbadamosi (Tribeca FF) & Lucy Jane Mukerjee (Programmers of Colour Collective), will discuss the wins & challenges in shaping & implementing such programs. Finally, there will also be visionary dialoguing about what a cutting-edge film programming fellowship/mentorship programs could look like & preliminary ideas on how film festivals can institute similar change-focused initiatives using a new set of values that go beyond the “diversity” model within their organizations.

Language: English

Recorded on 4 October 2022

You can find out more about our collaborators here.

The nonprofit model needs a rehaul. In this podcast, we discuss how this outdated model harms the practice of independent documentary storytelling and the people who tell these stories. We talk about the history of the mission statement and the ways organisations weaponise it to create difficult working conditions for their workers, eventually creating a very lopsided industry. While claiming to do just the opposite.

What does, then, accountability look like? Within a larger movement towards unionising all over the country, why are culture workers feeling the need for greater structure and transparency within this mission driven system that ticks all the woke boxes and yet fails its workers?

Language: English

Recorded on 2 October 2022.

You can find out more about our collaborators here.

Filmmaker and archivist Jihan El-Tahri and creator, host of The What’s Up with Docs podcast, and archival researcher Toni Bell chat once more one year into Jihan’s multi-disciplinary project, “People’s Stories – Past & Present: Bridging the Silenced and Liminal Spaces of African Imagery”.

Together they discuss the methodology of the project and ideas around the archive that have emerged about how we use and access archives, how we use these images of past eras in narratives, and what are the alternative forms of archive and remembering besides the celluloid frame, while also questioning who owns the archive. They also discuss the complex restitution of dealing with archives that we are unable to contextualize and the consequences of leaving behind the image.

Language: English

Recorded on 5 October 2022

You can find out more about our collaborators here.

This special episode of the audio series Kinesthesia presents a discussion between film curators operating across continents about the unique cultural practices that they bring to their work. The discussion will focus on collaborating with various types of film institutions while giving priority to work from the Global South and its diasporas. This episode will explore practical matters of curating, including organisational mechanics and career prospects; also ethical concerns, including matters of representation and decolonisation. “The culture of film curating” shines a light on outstanding curators and the exciting projects that are essential for celebrating a plurality of international film cultures.

Kinesthesia is a recurring, itinerant audio series that presents in-depth conversations with the curators, archivists, writers, organisers and others who are the engines of international film cultures.

More info on kinopravdainstitute.t.me.

Language: English

Recorded on 5 October 2022

You can find out more about our collaborators here.

Recently, the Oscar Academy opened its membership to filmmakers from other countries increasing the numbers of women (46%), underrepresented ethnic / racial communities (39%) and internationals (53%) from 49 countries outside of the United States. Amongst them, few filmmakers from the African continent who will contribute to change the gaze by looking Oscar-entry documentaries with their own perspective. This podcast will give voice to three of them in order to remind to film professionals from the North that the South has also something to say.

Claire Diao in conversation with Jihan El-Tahri, Jean-Marie Téno and Femi Odugbemi.

Recorded on 7 October 2021 as part of DOK Industry Podcast Season 2.

You can find out more about our collaborators here.

A comedic look at recent pop-culture documentaries exposing abuse practices wrapped in positivity culture. While analyzing documentaries featured in this conversation we will attempt to answer the following question: Why is it that when white people seek to find a purpose or a sense of community or "something greater than themselves" it always tends to get very cult-y very fast.

Shakira Refos in conversation with Cate Stuart and Jawara Gordon.

Recorded on 7 October 2021 as part of DOK Industry Podcast Season 2

You can find out more about our collaborators here.

The Caribbean has traditionally been dominated by Hollywood, and the kinds of films made by the region’s filmmakers often tends to reflect that dominance. Might there be room for other, more experimental approaches to filmmaking? In this conversation, filmmakers Miryam Charles (Haiti) and Amir Aether Valen (Trinidad and Tobago) and film programmer Jonathan Ali (Director of Programming, Third Horizon Film Festival) discuss the possibilities of a Caribbean avant-garde cinema.

Jonathan Ali in conversation with Miryam Charles and Amir Aether Valen Ali.

Recorded on 8 October 2021 as part of DOK Industry Podcast Season 2.

You can find out more about our collaborators here.

In the larger mainstream cinematic space, or even film festival space, there is an acute shortage of both narrative and documentary films made and exhibited with brown LGBTQ+ stories at its center. Is it lack of production of such stories, lack of quality of production, lack of resources to produce such stories, or is it that most of the brown people, living in developing countries, are still locked inside the closets - marginalized due to social, legal or religious challenges. The panel will put brown LGBTQ+ filmmakers & curators at the center of this discussion to unearth the reasons, and also to find a way ahead for these stories to be told and to reach larger audiences.

A conversation with Sonal Giani, Kalki Subramaniam and Arshad Wasi Khan.

Recorded on 9 October 2021 as part of DOK Industry Podcast Season 2

You can find out more about our collaborators here.

We recognize that war, conflict, and occupation often bring destruction not only to physical bodies but to the histories, archives and cultural identities of the people impacted. During this conversation, the creator and host of the What’s Up with Docs Podcast and archival researcher Toni Bell will speak with artist, writer, filmmaker, and teacher Mariam Ghani about her latest project “What We Left Unfinished” which is executive produced by Alysa Nahamis. They will delve into the necessity and importance of rediscovering history that was previously thought to be lost as well as the unique ways those subjected to occupation and conflict whether that be through war or political structures can hold on to their stories.

Moderator: Toni Bell

Recorded on 14 October 2021, Part of DOK Industry Podcast Season 2

You can find out more about our collaborators here.