This year, Docs in Orbit partnered with Cannes Docs to publish a selection of panel discussions that were presented at Doc Day 2023. To kick off the partnership, we first sat with Pierre-Alexis Chevit, the head of Cannes Docs, and Babette Dieu to learn about this year’s thoughtfully designed program. All panel discussions at Cannes Docs were curated by the DAE - Documentary Association of Europe and include filmmakers Kirsten Johnson, Guetty Felin, Zeynep Güzel, Mina Keshavarz, Sahra Mani, and Mehret Mandefro.

In addition to these discussions, Docs in Orbit was invited to review the Cannes Docs - Docs in Progress showcase and present the inaugural Docs in Orbit Invitation Award. You can learn more about the upcoming project below, and stay tuned for the forthcoming episode of the selected film!

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.

    Pierre-Alexis Chevit: Pierre-Alexis 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 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).

  • 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.

Cannes Docs | Doc Day 2023 > Cinema and the Pleasures of the Impossible with Kirsten Johnson and Guetty Felin

This discussion was organized by Cannes Docs - Marché du Film with the support of Doc Alliance, Participant, LaScam in association with L'oeil d'or, Année du Documentaire, DAE, CNC, & ACID. Distributed by Docs in Orbit in partnership with Cannes Docs. 

  • 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.

  • Kirsten Johnson is a director and director of documentary photography. She was the first American to attend Femis, where she was part of the 5th promotion of the Department of Cinematography. Her latest film, Dick Johnson is Dead, won an Emmy Award for direction and the Sundance Jury Prize for Innovation in Nonfiction Storytelling. She was shortlisted for the Oscars and featured in the Criterion collection, like her previous film, Cameraperson. The film, a memoir composed from footage she has shot around the world, has been praised for its investigation into the ethics of documentaries. She has worked with directors such as Laura Poitras and Michael Moore. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is one of the female members (which make up 5%) of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).

  • GUETTY FELIN is an award-winning independent Writer/Director/Producer. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, raised in New York, and came of age cinematically in Paris, France, where she began her film career. In the last two decades, she has worked on over 90 hours of factual and narrative films for European and American television. Her own personal works explore haunting themes such as memory, exile, foreignness, and the unending search for home while interconnecting our common global humanities. Her filmography includes the award-winning documentaries, Hal Singer, Keep The Music Going, Obama, Closer To The Dream, and Broken Stones. Her feature Ayiti Mon Amour premiered in Toronto and won the Best Feature Narrative Award at the 2017 BlackStar Film Festival and was Haiti's first-ever entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Category for the 2018 Academy Awards. Through her US/Haiti-based company BelleMoon Productions, Guetty is currently in the pre-production phase of her long-brooded narrative A Rooster On The Fire Escape, while producing three documentaries: The Neon-backed hybrid doc Seeking Mavis Beacon by Jazmin Jones, Lights of Passage by Yeelen Cohen, Oceania, Journey To The Center, by Natalie Zimmerman- all to be released in 2024.

Cannes Docs | Doc Day 2023 > Intersections of the Personal and Political in Documentary Filmmaking

This discussion was organized by Cannes Docs - Marché du Film with the support of Doc Alliance, Participant, LaScam in association with L'oeil d'or, Année du Documentaire, DAE, CNC, & ACID. Distributed by Docs in Orbit in partnership with Cannes Docs. 

  • 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.

  • An awarded Iranian documentary filmmaker and producer Mina Keshavarz was born in 1984. Her films are about social issues with a personal narrative which have premiered in IDFA, Thessaloniki, Busan International Film Festival, Sheffield, Tribeca, and London Film Festival, including “Unwelcome in Tehran,” “Profession: Documentaries,” “Braving the Waves” and “The Art of Living in Danger”. Her films have been supported by IDFA Bertha Fund, Arte/ ZDF, NRW Cinema Fund, and HotDocs International CrossCurrent Theatrical Fund. She is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, HotDocs Emerging Docs Accelerator Lab, and Tribeca Film Institute; she is an invited fellow in Nipkow Film Residency in Berlin, Berlin Air Film Residency, Academy of Art Kunst Berlin and is currently a resident of “Camera Libre” supported by CNC and Cite International Des Arts. Her last feature-length documentary, “The Art of Living in Danger,” won the Best Documentary Film award at Busan International Film Festival 2020 and has qualified for Oscar feature-length documentary film competition in 2021. And has received 10 other International awards. Mina’s last film, “Phobos,” is a short documentary among a collective film supported by Wim Wenders Foundation and now is screening in festivals, such as CPH: Dox, Beldocs, Sheffield, etc. She was also a jury member at One World Media Awards 2021 and a lecturer at ESoDoc/ Zelig Film School in Italy and Griffith Film School in Brisbane, Australia.

  • Sahra Mani is a multiple Award-winning filmmaker. She received her master's degree in documentary film-making from the University of Arts London and her BA in Film and Cinema. Her work as a producer and director focused on human rights, equality, and justice. Mani’s films have been screened at film festivals around the world and aired on broadcast networks globally. Her work as an Impact Campaign producer raises awareness and promotes action for issues and causes that demand social changes. Sahra was a jury member for several film festivals and competitions, like the international photo competition on global health and gender at UCL, Movies that Matter, and Fribourg Film Festival.

  • Zeynep Güzel is a filmmaker, consultant and head of Doc Station at Berlinale Talents. Zeynep was the director of the Yeni Film Fund founded by Anadolu Kültür and the !f Istanbul Independent Film Festival. Zeynep directed and produced the documentary Come Rain or Shine (2019) and produced two other documentaries, Beginnings (2013) and Impressions of A Summer (2020). Zeynep works as a consultant in storytelling, international grant writing, pitching and co-financing strategies, including for the Doc Toolbox program at Berlinale EFM, DOK Leipzig Industry and East Doc Program. Zeynep was a 2021 Berlin Artistic Resident at the Nipkow Program with her first feature film, When the Sun Comes Out. Since its foundation, Zeynep has been a consultant to the European Documentary Association (DAE).

Cannes Docs | Doc Day 2023 > Moving Beyond Empathy and Equity in Global Stories

This discussion was organized by Cannes Docs - Marché du Film with the support of Doc Alliance, Participant, LaScam in association with L'oeil d'or, Année du Documentaire, DAE, CNC, & ACID. Distributed by Docs in Orbit in partnership with Cannes Docs. 

  • The distinction between the West and the rest has been replaced by a multipolar world where the cultural influence of “the rest” is rising. This presents the chance for the documentary industry to re-invent itself by moving beyond empathy and equity. But is the documentary industry ready for this? By producer, writer, and director Mehret Mandefro, cofounder of various organizations at the intersection of social impact and media in the US, Ethiopia, and across Africa at large.

  • 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 culture and scaling media businesses secured her a spot on Variety’s list of most impactful women in global entertainment. Drawing on her training at Harvard University in Medicine and Anthropology as the foundation for approaching social issues as a filmmaker, Mehret co-founded the independent production company Truth Aid Media in 2008 in the USA. She has since set up A51 Pictures as its sister company in Ethiopia as well as the Realness Institute in South Africa and was formerly Executive Producer of Kana Television in Ethiopia, which was subsequently acquired by Canal+.

    Her latest media venture, TBTM Studios, is headquartered in Dubai and has a slate of projects across documentary and scripted, featuring Africa’s leading voices.

    Mehret’s credits include the Sundance and Berlinale Audience Award winner Difret, the New York Times Critic’s Pick Little White Lie, and she was a showrunner for Ethiopia’s first-ever teen drama series Yegna. She executive produced the American Masters feature documentary film How It Feels To Be Free and the feature narrative film Sweetness in the Belly, both on Amazon Prime. Her latest documentary feature about reparations in America, directed by Yoruba Richen, is called The Inheritance and is in post-production.

    A member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Mehret is a sought-after speaker and has a widely watched TED talk about the impact of the creative industry on economic growth in Africa. Mehret has a BA in Anthropology from Harvard University, an MD from Harvard Medical School, an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as a Fulbright Scholar, and a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Temple University. She was a White House Fellow in the Obama Administration.

Cannes Docs | Doc Talk > Unpacking Sovereignty and Curatorial Justice

Curated by 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 industry stakeholders alike are openly questioning the traditional power structures that have historically influenced art and cultural institutions intending to achieve diversity, inclusion, and representation at all levels.

    This panel discussion explores the latest curatorial trends, sustainable career paths, and effective audience engagement strategies from the filmmaker's perspective. Panelists from diverse geographies and artistic backgrounds share their experiences with ethical representation, storytelling, and questions of their sovereignty that they have faced making and disseminating their documentary films. Together, they also delve into how filmmakers navigate the challenges posed by the persistence of selection processes lacking awareness and accountability mechanisms and how they can influence the freedom of the filmmaker's artistic vision of the maker.

  • Creative producer and executive with a 13-year career, Yolanda holds a BA in Anthropology, and has experience in various roles in the film industry, from development to distribution, with emphasis on strategic and business planning, partner relations, programming, curatorial process, and innovative leadership. Yolanda has collaborated, among others, with the development and production phases of projects for streaming, festivals such as Cabíria, Varilux de Cinema Francês, and Ópera na Tela, and the release of Brazilian and international feature films. She was selected for a one-year mentorship from Nicho 54 Institute, a Brazilian organization dedicated to supporting the career of Black people in positions of creative, intellectual, and economic leadership within the film industry. In the last years, she participated in markets and festivals such as EFM, Marché Du Film, Doc Montevideo, TIFF, AFM, and Rio de Janeiro Int'l Film Festival, among others. She is currently an executive development producer of impact entertainment films and series at Maria Farinha Films, a leading production company in Latin America, collaborating on projects from research and initial development to audience insights, sales, and marketing strategy phases.

  • Nada Riyadh is a film director/producer based in Cairo, Egypt. Her debut feature documentary film Happily Ever After, premiered at IDFA in 2016. Her short fiction film Fakh (The Trap) was an official selection at the Semaine de la Critique – CANNES 2019. Since 2011, Nada has also led filmmaking workshops to empower disadvantaged communities suffering from war, displacement, and difficult living conditions in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. She is currently in post-production of her second feature documentary, Land of Women, co-directed with Ayman El Amir.

  • Paul Sng is a bi-racial British Chinese filmmaker based in Edinburgh, Scotland, whose work focuses on people who challenge the status quo. His work has been broadcast on television and screened internationally, and his feature film credits include DISPOSSESSION and POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHE (winner of BIFA 2021 Best Documentary, BIFA 2021 Raindance Discovery Award). He is a BAFTA Breakthrough 2022/23 artist.

  • Rico Johnson-Sinclair is a filmmaker, programmer, and film professional with over 8 years of industry expertise. Currently Race Equality Lead for the British Film Institute, Rico works to bring critical perspectives into conversations about race in the film industry and working intersectionality to develop work around class, disability, and gender. Rico is also a steering group member for the Anti-Racist Taskforce for European Film, an organization that seeks to develop equitable processes across European exhibition and production, with successful events at Cannes, Berlinale, and London Film Festival in 2022 and 2023. He produced the BFI-backed film 'Sweet Mother' in 2019, written and directed by Zane Igbe, has worked as a consulting producer for many films in the regions and nations, and is currently on his first short film as Writer/Director named 'PREY' which was also funded by BFI and premiered in March. He's also worked as a pre-selector for Sheffield Doc Fest's MeetMarket 2023 Rico’s programming interests are specific to LGBTQIA+ & QTBIPOC stories that emotionally move and galvanize our communities. Using joy as resistance, Rico tries to focus on stories with levity to use as punctuation in heavier programs to offer relief for difficult realities and stories that are important to depict.

Cannes Docs | Doc Talk > The (market) Value of Creative Documentaries

Curated by 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 place for the creative documentary in this value chain? This panel discussion explores this topic with curators, distributors, and other players bringing such work to global audiences. What is the worth of a creative, author-driven documentary?

  • Emilie Bujès has been the artistic director of the festival Visions du Réel in Nyon since 2017. Among other activities, Emilie has served as a programming consultant at Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes, a deputy artistic director at the Festival International du Film de La Roche-sur-Yon, and a commission member at Centre National des arts plastiques (CNAP) in Paris. She was a curator at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève; an instructor at the universities HEAD–Geneva and HKB in Bern; has contributed to the program design of cultural institutions such as the Vilnius Contemporary Art Center and Transmediale, and has co-edited a book entitled “Encircling the Image of Trauma.” In 2014, she received the Swiss Art Award for Art and Architecture Mediation.

  • Edo Choi is the Associate Curator of Film at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City and one of the lead programmers of the Museum's annual film festival First Look. Choi is also a freelance film critic whose writing has appeared in online publications such as Reverse Shot and Film Comment.

  • Ryan Krivoshey is the Founder & President of Grasshopper Film, a distribution company dedicated to releasing acclaimed and award-winning independent cinema, and CEO of Projectr, a new streaming platform. Previously, Ryan led the Cinema Guild for thirteen years as its Director of Distribution. He has introduced audiences to new work from both emerging and celebrated filmmakers (at times representing their first form of distribution) such as Agnes Varda, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Tsai Ming-liang, Claire Denis, Jean-Marie Straub and Danielle Huillet, and Bela Tarr; and released groundbreaking documentaries like Academy Award nominee LAST MEN IN ALEPPO (2017), DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA (2022), REWIND & PLAY (2022), BLACK MOTHER (2018), MARWENCOL (2010), THE INTERRUPTERS (2011), BISBEE ’17 (2018) and LEVIATHAN (2012).

  • Co-Director at Documentary Association of Europe (DAE)

    As a consultant, I offer advice and network to help a project or documentary talent reach the international market, as well as curate and moderate discussions and programmes on non-fiction filmmaking around the world.

The Soldier’s Lagoon by Pablo Álvarez Mesa Awarded Docs in Orbit Invitation Award at Cannes Docs

This year, Docs in Orbit was invited to review the Docs-in-Progress showcase at Cannes Docs and present the inaugural Docs in Orbit Invitation Award.

Thirty-two projects from around the world were included in the showcase. The many exchanges that took place over the course of the event brought about a palpable feeling of community and support. Filmmakers listened to one another’s presentations with genuine interest alongside festival programmers, sales agents, and film distributors. The experience of being there left us with even more faith and belief in today’s documentary film community as a vibrant and vital cultural energy. 

The Docs in Orbit Invitation Award went to Pablo Álvarez Mesa for The Soldier’s Lagoon, a project from the Canada Showcase by Telefilm Canada in partnership with RIDM (Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal). 

The Soldier’s Lagoon is currently in post-production and retraces Simón Bolívar’s liberation campaign across the high-altitude marshlands of Colombia while searching for glimpses of his ghost still present in this contested territory. 

The project immediately captivated us with its atmospheric imagery and sound, conveying a deep reverence for the sacredness of land and indigenous futures. Intrigued by the filmmaker's artistic vision and independent process (working as director, cinematographer, editor, and producer), we look forward to the film's completion and the chance to further explore Mesa’s artistic approach when he is ready to share more. 

Daniela Silva Solórzano presented the award on the main stage at the Marché du Film - Festival de Cannes. Solórzano is a filmmaker whose short film The Things I Tell You (Las cosas que te digo) is being screened at the International Critics' Week section (La Semaine de la Critique) in Cannes. She was among the first filmmakers invited to the Docs in Orbit podcast in April 2020. “Having been previously invited onto the podcast, I’m delighted to be here today to pass along this invitation to a Cannes Docs in Progress project on behalf of the Docs in Orbit curation team,” Solórzano said.

  • 200 years after Simón Bolívar’s liberation campaign across Colombia, The Soldier’s Lagoon retraces The Liberator’s journey across the high-altitude marshlands while searching for glimpses of his ghost still present in this historically contested territory.

  • Pablo Alvarez-Mesa‘s films have played at international film festivals, including Berlinale, IFFR, MoMA, Visions du Reel, and RIDM. His most recent film looking into Simón Bolívar’s battles of Independence and titled “Bicentenario” played at the 2021 Berlinale, MoMA Doc Fortnight, and Viennale, amongst other festivals, and earned a Jury Mention at Festival Punto de Vista in the Main Competition. “The Soldier’s Lagoon” is the second in a trilogy of films tracing Bolivar’s path through Colombia. Pablo is an affiliate member of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University and is Artist in Residence at Fogo Island Arts. Pablo’s interest in documentary lies in the relationship between fact and fiction, between what is recalled and what is inevitably constructed. His films all touch, in one way or another, issues of displacement, history, and collective memory.

  • Country of production: Canada, Colombia

    Runtime: 75'

    Expected release: February 2024

    Production stage: Post-production

    Looking for: Festivals, Sales Agents, Distributors, Buyers

About Docs in Orbit 

Docs in Orbit is an artist-led, transnational podcast for independent, creative non-fiction filmmakers. We offer in-depth conversations centered around the creative process, paying close attention to diverse forms present in contemporary non-fiction cinema, the challenges filmmakers encounter as they work with the moving image, and modern approaches to film curation. 

We seek to provide a nourishing space for artists to explore new works that move them and facilitate meaningful exchanges and cross-cultural connections.

Since launching in April 2020, we have produced over 55 episodes and served as the premiere podcast to interview filmmakers debuting new works in international film festivals, including Jessica Beshir (Faya Dayi, Sundance 2021), Payal Kapadia (A Night of Knowing Nothing, Cannes 2021) and Shaunak Sen (All That Breathes, Sundance 2022).

We offer our content free across several platforms so that it is accessible to everyone. We are also deeply invested in remaining independent as we explore equitable ways of co-creation.