AI generated image / prompt 'create an image of a documentary maker wading through a surreal swamp bubbling with lies'

 

Morning, afternoon or evening dear friends

 

The top of this month's newsletter comes from our very own Luke W. Moody, Head of BFI Doc Society Fund and it was penned during this year's London Film Festival. It's hard to count all of Luke’s hats but in addition to managing a film fund, Luke is a cultural worker, a curator, a producer and an author. His latest book Hybrid Documentary and Non-Binary Cinema offers an exploration of the contemporary documentary cinema form, aesthetics, and ethics. Over to you Luke.   

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It’s often said to be easier to begin new things than carry them through, or change what is already there. 

 

Personally I struggle with the multitude of possible beginnings, and this newsletter was no different so I asked an LLM for some direction of the Doc Society newsletter vibes. The response was ‘A warm yet activist tone that's both inspiring and grounded’, so here goes. 

 

After a couple days down South attending BFI London Film Festival I encountered 3 works of a 247 film programme, the proximity of viewing inevitably sent my mind into a spin of connecting thoughts and feelings. A slice, a constellation; a slice can be nice but please resist ICE. This collection of moving images didn’t have any surface relation: an ode to the disappearing art of asking tough questions in Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’ biographical portrayal of journalist Seymour M. Hersh, a VR work embracing the aesthetic of surrealist AI slop in a rendered world of Algis Kriščiūnas’ paintings, and Kevin B. Lee’s desktop essay film ‘After Lives’ which attempted to reflect on the production of propaganda and the violence of images. 

 

If anything this little triad perhaps shared a question of how we trust images or how we believe images. The two notions are often dangerously conflated. We are living in a moment where our relationship with images is fundamentally shifting, an age in which maniacal politicians share AI resort renderings of genocidal landscapes, where belief can be rapidly captured and triggered by the make believe, by the charismatic falsehood, by ideological desires and coded control. We are living in an age where we need to first assume that an image is a fabrication, a generated fiction, something we cannot trust. As Hito Steyerl stated in her article ‘Too Much World: Is the Internet Dead?’ - ‘The world is imbued with the shrapnel of former images, as well as images edited, photoshopped, cobbled together from spam and scrap. Reality itself is postproduced and scripted, affect rendered as after-effect.’ 

 

Throughout its century of definition, ‘documentary’ cinema has been nominally positioned in opposition to fiction: non-fiction, documenting real people and real events. But how will documentarians adapt to navigate making meaning in new conditions of the real, the swamp of convincing fabrication, where trust is subsumed by belief, where fiction is a coded prerequisite of lived experience: AI, Fake News, Social Media, AR, the embodied web, Apple vision and computer game environments? This entanglement dissolves binaries of fake and real, scripted and factual. We are now looking at media that is looking at us: making predictions based on the sum of our habits, hallucinations, and modification of patterns upon patterns of factual images, or algorithmically processed and unchecked reporting. Non-fiction cinema needs to know how to look back, to be as literate in the techniques of untruth as we are in the art of truths.

 

How might we rethink documentary’s relation to fiction? What if we begin to consider documentary film not as ‘non-fiction’ in a ‘post-truth’ age but as a tactical mode of making sense of and within fictional, constructed worlds - as ‘post-fiction’ cinema? Perhaps the art of documentary cinema can deconstruct the fictions we are beginning to inhabit, forensically reverse the false composite, break misinformation narratives down into their factual parts; the source material, the code, the coder, the agent, the ideology, the corporation, the government, the president, the despot. In the onslaught of fictional slop perhaps our trust weapon is verification, the long-form ‘trust mark’. 

 

I’d love to carry on these conversations with you all over a bevvy, I’ll be at IDFA in November in search of some realism. Here’s a backing track for the rest of your reading ‘Wake Up’ from the 1988 sci-fi fiction horror film They Live directed by John Carpenter. Enjoy the newsletter. 

 

Cheers, 

 

Luke W. Moody

 

After Eight (BFI), directed by Mos Hannan and Usayd Younis is having its UK premiere at Rich Mix on Monday 3rd November! After Eight uncovers the darker side of Britain’s post-pub curry culture. Telling the story of Satpal Ram, the film unveils a major miscarriage of justice in British history and sparks reflection on the ongoing struggle for racial equality. Grab your tickets here.

Kim Hopkins’ Sheffield Doc/Fest Opening night film Still Pushing Pineapples will host UK preview screenings in November before theatrical release on November 28th. Keep up to date as listings are confirmed here beginning with Bradford’s National Science and Media Museum on November 14th.

After premiering to sold out screenings at Sheffield Doc Fest and Folkestone Documentary festival Jessi Gutch’s Blue Has No Borders will be touring UK cinemas this month. The film portrays a filmmaker's journey to question the socio-political divides of post-Brexit Britain. Find a screening near you.

Our Land (BFI) by Rebecca Wolff, Charlie Phillips, Orban Wallace, and Leo Smith is having its international premiere at DOC NYC in November. 

 

Through organised 'mass trespass' events, the Right to Roam movement sets out to increase public access to nature, but finds itself in conflict with England's landowners.

 

Our Land seamlessly juxtaposes the two sides of the debate around our access to nature, giving voice to the different perspectives: those fighting for greater access to the countryside and the landowners who claim to be stewards of the land. Blending history with an eye on the future, Our Land charts the conflict, exploring the complex issues of access, custodianship and conservation. 

 

Other Doc Soc favourites will be showing in NYC. If you haven’t been able to see them, be sure to snag tickets for:  

 

Apocalypse in the Tropics

The Librarians 

Steal this Story, Please!

Seeds

IDFA is back November 13-23! We’re thrilled that three amazing Doc Soc films will be at the festival. If you’re in Amsterdam, be sure to catch them. 

How to Build a Library 

Seeds

Steal This Story, Please!

The brilliant and innovative Milisuthando is now streaming on the Criterion Channel. Dive into this profound personal reflection on South Africa’s apartheid and the lasting effects of colonialism by Milisuthando Bongela. A deeply intimate portrait of past, present, and future South Africa, blending poetry, film, and photography into a striking cinematic essay. 

If you’re in NYC, get ready to head to DCTV for your chance to see the beautiful River of Grass on the big screen. The film, directed by Sasha Wortzel and produced by Danielle Varga, will have it’s theatrical release in NYC October 24 - 30, featuring loads of special Q&As after every screening. Head over to DCTV to get tickets. 

Over at the Climate Story Unit, it has been a season of gatherings. Each lab, representing a local ecosystems where storytellers, scientists, impact producers, funders, distributors, and community leaders come together to facilitate climate storytelling projects with meaningful reach and impact. 💚🌿 

 

🇧🇷Climate Story Lab Amazonia, was hosted by MATAPI and held at the Experimental Center of the Forest (CEFA) within a natural Reserve where eight cultural organizations came together to map the Pan-Amazonian audiovisual network, identifying events, methodologies, challenges, and shared experiences that can be replicated across territories. A collective document will be presented at COP30, amplifying local and plural Amazonian voices in the global conversation on climate.

 

🇰🇪 East Africa, Kenya: Our partners at Tunga Media Afrika launched a high school Climate Storytelling Program to build climate literacy among Gen-Z - the influential generation shaping Kenya’s political future — using storytelling as a fundamental tool to advance narratives of opportunity and agency within climate justice.

 

🇮🇩 Southeast Asia, Indonesia: In-Docs created the Climate Justice Lab, pairing storytellers with changemakers to build networks powered by empathic stories and drive urgent narrative shifts around democracy and climate.

 

🇦🇺 Sydney, Australia: In partnership with Documentary Australia, 100 storytellers, climate experts, First Nations leaders, organisers, and philanthropists strengthened seven current storytelling projects and imagined the next five years of strategic climate narratives - on First Nations justice, democracy, and courageous visions of the future.

 

🇫🇯 Suva, Fiji: Thanks to Pasifika Film Fest, youth-led climate movements, storytellers, community leaders, and Pacific political strategists explored which stories the Pacific needs now, focusing on replacing vulnerability narratives with ones of resilience.

 

🌎 Latin America: The Audio Climate Story Lab, in collaboration with Radio Savia Podcast, brought together audio storytellers experimenting collaboratively to amplify voices, sounds, and relationships beyond anthropocentrism - proving that personal, intimate stories can resonate on collective scales.

 

It’s nearly closing time for applications for immersive non-fiction projects through the BFI Doc Society Fund. The fund is seeking applications for bold, independent immersive projects that will reach audiences in the UK and beyond. 

 

Eligible teams can apply for up to £150,000 per project, if they have a lead UK production company which is experienced in producing using a range of technologies such as VR, AR, MR and 360-degree experiences. The call is closing December 5th.

Represent Justice’s annual Impact Campaign Open Call is Live! Represent Justice is inviting filmmakers to apply for their 2026 Impact Campaign Open Call — an opportunity to bring your film to life beyond the screen! If you have a film or series set to be publicly distributed in 2026 that is meaningfully led by currently, or formerly, incarcerated people, visit their webpage to learn more about how to apply. 

The deadline to submit is November 16, 2025 so get those applications in

As part of Norwich Film Festival's Industry Day on Friday 14th November, we’re pleased to present a screening of Made of Truth-supported short film Adura Baba Mi, followed by a case study conversation with director Juliana Kasumu to unpack the journey from funding to production. Then head over to the ‘Funding Your Doc’ talk with our Film & Production Executive Hannah Bush Bailey, which will deep dive into funding and talent development opportunities available. More info and tickets here:
Adura Baba Mi Screening and Case Study, 13:45
Funding Your Doc, 18:00

 

Our friends at DocsBarcelona just opened submissions for its 29th edition, running May 7-17, 2026—ten days celebrating the power of non-fiction storytelling. The festival seeks feature-length documentaries produced from January 2025 onwards. Early bird submissions run September 15 - October 31, followed by the regular deadline November 1-15. 

 

Meanwhile DocsBarcelona Pro opens December 9 for projects in development. This is your chance to join a festival renowned for championing bold documentary voices and fostering meaningful connections between filmmakers and audiences. More info here: DocsBarcelona Submissions.

To support the production and impact of outstanding short films on the theme of nature connection, The Redford Center and DC/DOX are co-presenting a pitch event at the 2026 DC/DOX Festival in Washington, D.C. Awarded film teams will receive up to $30,000 in funding, impact and professional development training, as well as travel, accommodation, and passes to attend DC/DOX Festival. 

More info // application deadline by December 3rd 

 

Launched by the Palestine Film Institute in May 2025, the Palestine Film Fund provides essential financial and professional support for Palestinian filmmakers worldwide, regardless of where they live or what passport they carry. It was established to ensure that Palestinians have the right to tell their own stories, shape their own narratives and control their own images of experiences, struggles, and hopes. Deadline is 31 October, 23:59 Palestine time. Apply here.

From runners and writers to marketeers and animators - wherever you work in the UK screen industry, the Money Matters survey is the most in-depth research uncovering the financial realities of life in film, TV, and cinema. Now, the survey is back to find out what’s changed - and what still urgently needs fixing. From savings, sensions, debt, income, financial confidence - lets see what's going on in our community. Share your experience right here.

Nordisk Panorama is organizing a two part workshop in end January/early February and May 2026. Doc Forward is focused on project development for the international market, establishing contacts with Nordic colleagues, and networking between the participants and the Nordic financiers from film institutes and TV stations. The deadline for submitting a project to the 2026 workshop is 7 November 2025. Submit your application here

“The Henry Awards honor documentaries that advance public understanding of the critical issues of our time and reflect high standards of journalistic ethics and integrity. The awards prioritize films and series that embody the documentary form’s power to inform discourse, foster trust, strengthen civic health, and serve the public good.” Submissions are now open and close November 21st. Learn more and submit work here! 

Congratulations to Lucrecia Martel and team on winning the Best Film award at London Film Festival! The Official Competition jury said: “Our jury has chosen Landmarks as the BFI London Film Festival’s Best Film for 2025. With deep empathy and extraordinary journalistic and cinematic rigor, the director Lucrecia Martel dives deep into the events surrounding the 2009 murder of the Chuschagasta leader Javier Chocobar, in Argentina’s Tucumán Province. In foregrounding present-day voices and neglected histories, Martel emerges with a portrait of — and for — an Indigenous community, and grants them a measure of the justice the courts have long denied them. Within a remarkably strong competition, our jury is proud to honor this singular achievement.” 

High fives to ALL the BFI Doc Society Supported projects announced in multiple longlists for BIFA Awards. These include A Want In Her, Shadow Scholars, How Deep Is Your Love, Holloway, Still Pushing Pineapples - all helmed by inspiring female directors.  

 

© 2025 Doc Society

 

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