This year, Docs in Orbit has partnered with the good people of Cannes Docs to publish a selection of filmmaker talks and panel discussions from the event to make the richness of the program even more accessible. To kick off the collaboration, we first sit with Pierre-Alexis Chevit and Babette Dieu from Cannes Docs to hear about the thoughtful planning of this year’s event. You can hear this conversation free across several platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcast. And stay tuned for more in the coming days!

Cannes Docs with Pierre-Alexis Chevit and Babette Dieu

  • A conversation with Pierre-Alexis Chevit, the head of Cannes Docs, and Babette Dieu, the coordinator for the event, 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 Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Docs provides the documentary film community with a dedicated forum and tailored program that includes daily workshops, talks, curated panel discussions, networking events, and an energizing showcase of docs-in-progress from around the world. This year’s event will take place from the 18th of May until the 23rd and concludes with the annual Doc Day, a highly anticipated daylong celebration of documentary cinema. Details on this year’s program of events are linked here.

  • The transcription of this episode is linked here.

Pierre-Alexis Chevit runs Cannes Docs, the tailored industry program & networking platform for all creative documentary film professionals at the Marché du Film - Festival de Cannes, including Doc Day, an all-day-long celebration and exploration of documentary cinema, in all its creative aspects & industry ramifications. With a predominant focus on documentaries, Pierre-Alexis has also freelanced for – and still collaborates with – a variety of film festivals, markets, and organizations, both on the coordination and programming sides, including Ji.hlava, EURODOC, Visions du Réel, Cinéma du Réel, DOK Leipzig, and more. Formerly, he has worked in the VOD/DVD field, dealing mainly with docs and short films. Pierre-Alexis regularly serves as jury, moderator, tutor, and consultant/expert on various international events.

Babette Dieu

Babette Dieu holds a master's degree in anthropology and has been working in the film festivals and film markets industry since 2016. She has had the opportunity to be part of the teams at Doclisboa (Portugal), FIFF (Belgium), DOK Leipzig (Germany), Marché du Film – Cannes Docs (France), and the EFM Toolbox programmes at the European Film Market – EFM (Germany). Additionally, she has worked as a programmer at various film festivals such as FIDÉ (France), Festival du Film Féministe de Montréal (Canada), and Festival En Ville (Belgium).