A podcast for independent, international, creative non-fiction filmmakers
03/07/2024
✨NEW EPISODE ✨ Hello everyone. This is Hosein Jalilvand with a new episode for Docs in Orbit featuring a conversation with Matthew Lancit about his latest film, Play Dead! (2023).
Play Dead! is a funny, tender video diary on living with diabetes, where Lancit playfully transforms his personal experience and fear of dying into a body horror film, where an invisible disease crawls inside his body.
The film premiered in the Camera Lucida sidebar of DOK Leipzig in October 2023 and is available on ARTE until 16 March.
I hope you enjoy our conversation and his film as much as I did. The podcast episode is up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all the rest.
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✨ NEW EPISODE ✨ Hi everyone, Aylin here, with a new episode featuring a conversation with Pablo Álvarez Mesa about his film, The Soldier’s Lagoon (2024), which received the Docs in Orbit Invitation Award at Cannes Docs last year.
The Soldier’s Lagoon is a strikingly beautiful and multi-layered piece centered on the Colombian páramo region. The film delves into the land’s history, encompassing Bolívar’s political legacy, colonialism, and the presence of armed groups, shedding light on how past conflicts persistently impact both the land and its people. Additionally, it addresses the urgent environmental issue of ecosystem preservation, which has become even more pressing this year due to an unprecedented wildfire season that has devastated the páramo. As a result, The Soldier’s Lagoon already feels like an archive—a part of the region’s historical fabric.
Blending evocative and mystical elements, Álvarez Mesa unveils the unseen, emotionally connecting us to the páramo’s past, present, and speculated future. In this conversation, we delve into these themes as well as the director’s artistic process.
La Laguna del Soldado is premiering at @cinemadureel and will soon be featured at @hotdocs_ , @opencitydocs , @ficcifestival , and many others, so stay tuned for updates on where you can catch it!
Special thanks to @palvarezmesa for this conversation, to @pranavanarp and @christina_agatha1 for co-producing this episode, and to @cannes.docs and @mdf_cannes for welcoming us 🤗
As art institutions and festivals face uncertainty due to COVID-19 many initiatives that support independent, non-fiction cinema have been canceled, with others still finding ways to adapt.
This was the case for a non-profit initiative from a beloved European Arts & Educational Institution. Unfortunately, they were unable to find ways to deliver these timely podcasts that feature conversations with international, independent, creative documentary filmmakers debuting films on online festivals. So we, a tight-knit transnational, and collaborative bunch took a moment, picked up the pieces, and got back to work motivated by a strong belief that this content will be valuable to our community.
After a tireless week, we are proud to launch Docs In Orbit, an initiative that spotlights creative forms of documentary expression that exists in the ether, and offers dialogue with their makers on their filmmaking process.
Docs in Orbit is currently self-funded and operating on a volunteer footing. The website design, the editing of the podcasts, the intro music, and outreach efforts are all being done pro-bono. Of course, this is not sustainable.
However, we are hopeful for these upcoming weeks. The last episode in this initial phase coincides with Hot Docs, after which, we will reassess and look for ways to keep this initiative alive.
Please continue to support independent, creative documentary. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or where ever else you subscribe to podcasts and follow us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook for developments, and spread the word to all your friends and family.
One last note. We can not ignore the seismic shifts happening globally in this moment of the COVID pandemic when economic structures and models of working are collapsing all around us. It could seem trivial to launch a podcast about independent filmmaking in the context of a global crisis, but as documentary filmmakers, reality is what inspires us to create and we believe that these films are worthwhile discussing.
It is in this spirit that we invite you to listen, share, and write to us with feedback.
