Friends,

 

This month we're handing the page to our dear friend and comrade Jad Abi-Khalil, the executive director of AFLAMUNA based in Beirut. His new thought piece, 'What They Cannot Erase', is a meditation on ecocide: on the kinds of ruin a camera cannot frame, and on the stubborn afterlife of land, water and memory once the shooting stops. His words have stayed with us.

 

AFLAMUNA's roots reach back to 1999. For more than two and a half decades, the organisation has been helping build + strengthen the practice of cinema across the Arab speaking region. Wars have come and gone and come again and yet AFLAMUNA remains an essential part of the cultural infrastructure for filmmakers and keeps turning precisely when the wider industry averts its eyes. 

 

Over to you friend:

 

War is loud.

 

What it leaves behind is less so. Much less. And for much longer.

 

When the noise stops, when the cameras leave, and the world turns its face away, something else persists. It seeps. It flows. It endures. Something we don't film, because we don't know how to film it.

 

Some forms of destruction the camera knows. A collapsed building. A charred olive tree. Other forms leave no image behind. They fold into their own shadow, then sink into the soil.

 

The olive trees burned by phosphorus will take years to recover. If they can. Some were three hundred years old. They held generations of memory inside them, passed down by hands, not words.

 

And yet. An olive tree knows how to wait. It will recognize the hands that return to it.

 

Last autumn, migrating white storks passed over the hills of Ayta ash-Shab. They did not land where they always land. No one filmed their absence. No one ever films what no longer comes.

 

And yet. Absence is only temporary. When the people return, the storks will know where to land.

 

Water, birds, trees. None of this is collateral damage. It is ecocide. And it is not only here. In Palestine, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Libya. The same logic everywhere: kill the land so its people cannot return.

 

This is where we stand. Between what burns and what disappears without a flame. Between the image that screams and the silence that lasts. And this is exactly where cinema begins.

 

Please do read Jad’s full piece. It has left us sitting with so much. On the nature of cinema, its purpose and power in these hard days. Noting the precious stories coming from the region and wondering what is missing, what we have not yet seen or understood. Reflecting on how duress can pull us inward, toward the smaller, more defensive, more parochial version of ourselves. And what would it take to lean the other way, practicing solidarity as a daily habit, a regular muscle rather than a crisis response. 

 

Yet the crisis is real. AFLAMUNA are now raising a Solidarity Fund for Lebanese film workers. If you can, please back the fund and share it with other partners who might lean in.  You can get in contact for more information at hello@aflamuna.org.

 

Jad has chosen a heart stopper of a track to accompany the rest of the newsletter - this is The Day Before Yesterday by Rima Khcheich and Rabih Mroué.  

 

With love and rockets

Team Doc Society

Friends, this one's been a long time coming and it's now live. Five films. One collective impact strategy. An approach that puts Indigenous filmmaking knowledge, community-led decision-making, and collaboration between projects at the centre, rather than the siloed campaigns filmmakers usually navigate.

 

Massive love to the teams behind Bring Them Home, Remaining Native, Singing Back the Buffalo, Sugarcane, and Yintah, and big shout out to Marianna Olinger and Megha Agrawal Sood who held this work together. This work is proudly supported by our Climate Story Unit. Watch the full case study, read the report, and see what collective impact looks like in practice here. 

The BFI Doc Society Features Development and RAD funds are now open for applications through 5 August 2026, 1 PM BST. They can support the early research or shooting development of feature-length non-fiction cinema by UK-based and British-citizen directors, prioritising plurality of voice and form, and backing creative risk at the earliest stages. Made possible with National Lottery funding. Find out more and enter your application via the website guidelines.

GIPA is hosting a Virtual Open Breakout Session, Impact, Reconsidered, on Tuesday 21 July, 11:45 AM - 1 PM PST. "What impact do you hope to make with your film?" is now a standard question on grant applications, and an increasingly anxious one. GIPA members Prince O. Nyambok II (Kenya), Farah Fayed (Lebanon), and Marianna Olinger (Brazil) will pose a provocation designed to expand, complicate, or reframe how we approach audience engagement, followed by small breakout groups and a group reconvening. Access is through the Getting Real Virtual Pass, more details here.

 

Also taking part in Getting Real '26 are Doc Society's Nikki Heyman and Luke W. Moody, joining the virtual ‘Lights, Coffee, Action’ funder roundtables. The programme intends to examine the gap between our current industrial reality and an expanding world of documentary practice. Find out more about the programme and passes here.

Douglas Gordon by Douglas Gordon, dir. & prod. Finlay Pretsell, prod. Sonja Henrici, has its UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival this August. An immersive portrait of Scottish artist Douglas Gordon that blurs the line between documentary and artistic experiment, weaving archival footage, disorientating imagery, and candid exchanges filled with humour and honesty. The film was supported in development by the BFI Doc Society Fund, made possible with National Lottery funding. Four screenings across 17-19 August, view the screening times and tickets here.

Friends, wherever you’re reading this from - heat wave, monsoon, winter cold snap, or just a rare quiet evening - while we don’t want to brag, there’s a lot of Doc Soc goodness on VOD to keep you company. Get stuck in! 

 

Nuestra Tierra (Landmarks) (2025)

Apocalypse in the Tropics (2024) 

Grand Theft Hamlet (2024)

While We Watched (2023)

The Battle for Laikipia (2024)

Queendom (2023)

Nothing Compares (2022) 

The Flats (2024)

Is There Anybody Out There? (2023) 

Unseen (2016) 

 

Dive into our full VOD catalog here.

Here is some writing we couldn't stop thinking about, and reckon you'll want to sit with too.

 

Thoughts and Actions: A Conversation With Mandy Chang on Being Appointed the First Chief Executive Officer of the Documentary Film Council, written by Doc Society’s Luke W. Moody, Documentary Magazine.

 

Greatest Docs of the 21st Century, Documentary Magazine

 

The State of the Documentary Field 2026, Center for Media & Social Impact

Queer Now is more than convenings; it's a strategic intervention: against rising anti-gender movements, we're moving the story away from "survival" and towards collective power, narrative sovereignty and unapologetic joy. 

 

"We play a pivotal role in the most important counter-strategy of our lifetimes." - 

Bob Alotta.

 

Our latest Queer Now reel is live on Instagram. What happens when you bring together the world's most visionary queer storytellers, movement builders, and culture makers? You get a roadmap for the future. Watch, share, and if you need a bit more queer storytelling magic in your day, dip into our LGBTQIA+ film playlist.

Across India, Kenya, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico, our Climate Storytelling Collaboratives are building the cultural infrastructure climate action needs. Storytellers, movement organisers and community distributors, working together across languages, borders and time zones to make sure stories move beyond screens into the rooms and streets where change actually happens. Read more about the Climate Storytelling Collaboratives programme and dive into the incredible work our partners are doing all over the world.

 

Frontliners - Climate Narratives Circuit. In Brazil's Baixada Santista, a coastal region hit hard by flooding, pollution and climate injustice, a Circuit co-designed with youth, women, LGBTQIAPN+ communities and peripheral neighbourhoods, is grounding climate stories in housing, care work, memory and cultural expression. Led by Instituto Querô, Instituto Procomum and Instituto KondZilla.

 

The Woman Farmer Project. Across India's mountain, coastal, dryland and forest landscapes, centering the women who sustain India's food systems, from cultivation and fishing to processing and seed keeping. Documentary and Journalism fellows are documenting how climate change intensifies women labour, training a cohort of young women storytellers, timed with the UN's 2026 International Year of the Woman Farmer. Led by The Locavore with regionally embedded grassroots and distribution partners.

 

Impact Frames - Leadership Through African Storytelling. In eight regions across Kenya, a film slate is deployed working with high school students, university learners, emerging filmmakers and youth organisers to translate film dialogues into concrete advocacy on food security, leadership, resource conflict and mental health. Led by Tunga Media Afrika, Youth for SDGs Kenya and Filmmakers Hangout.

 

El Sur de Proyecta (South-South Climate Narratives).With more than 39 exhibitors  actively screening films across the three countries, A regional circulation infrastructure across Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador, is deploying a curated catalog of Indigenous and Afro-descendant climate narratives through community exhibitors, focused on water access, food sovereignty, migration, and the defence of life and land. Led by Nodo Sur (Colombia), Mullu TV (Ecuador) and Ambulante A.C. (Mexico).

The Impact Field Guide is our living toolkit for filmmakers pushing for change. Crowdfunder's new practical guide to crowdfunding documentaries, shorts and other films is now live on the Guide, written by BAFTA and Emmy-winning commissioning editor and producer Adam Gee. It walks you through the essentials, from planning a campaign and designing rewards to optimising your communications, coordinating the launch, and turning your backers into a long-term audience for your next project. Explore the Crowdfunder guide, dive into the guide, and suggest a resource.

There are some brilliant opportunities circulating across the field at the moment. Dive in and explore what might be a fit for your projects.

 

British Council Travel Grant Fund open

The British Council's Travel Grant Fund is back for another three years, backing UK filmmakers with work selected for international festivals, labs and co-production forums. Five grant strands cover short films, features, XR, labs, and co-production markets. Eligible festivals include San Sebastian, Locarno, Busan, Sarajevo, Tokyo, and 35 more. Made possible with BFI International Fund and BFI Network National Lottery funding. Full details, eligibility, and rolling applications here.

 

Film London Micro Lab: The Documentary Sessions

A two-day online lab for emerging filmmakers and producers working on their first feature or long-form doc. Four one-hour sessions with guest speakers and a host, mapping the documentary landscape today. Full details and sign-up here.

 

BFI Discovery Fund open for applications

The BFI National Lottery Discovery Fund is open, backing emerging filmmakers with bold voices to broaden the range of stories on UK screens. For teams applying with a live-action or animated fiction directorial debut with a fully developed script and a production and financing plan ready to go. Deadline: 13 August 2026, 5 PM BST. Apply here.

 

Bloomberg Green Docs 2026 open for submissions

Bloomberg Green Docs is accepting entries for their 2026 short climate documentary competition, with a $25,000 prize for the winning film. Open to all filmmakers, films under 10 minutes. Winner announced at the Bloomberg Green Docs Film Festival in New York on 22 September 2026. Deadline: 14 August 2026. Full rules and submissions here.

 

The Fondazione Prada Film Fund Open

The fund is an annual initiative that supports independent cinema. Each year, they will support up to 14 projects without restrictions regarding geography, theme, genre, or language through a total budget of €1.5 million. Projects in Production Submission deadline: 6 August 2026 Projects in Development and Post-Production Submission deadline: 10 September 2026. More information here

 

Guardian X Arte Short Documentary Fund Open

Democracy at Stake in Europe is a new initiative from Guardian Documentaries and arte.tv. They will be supporting one short documentary on the theme of democracy in Europe today. Deadline: 14 September 2026. Full criteria and entries here.

 

Palestine Cinema Days Around the World 2026

Filmlab: Palestine is bringing back Palestine Cinema Days Around the World for its fourth edition, launching on 2 November 2026. It's a global platform that carries Palestinian stories across borders. If you'd like to take part by hosting screenings this year, you can register and find out more here.