DOK Industry Podcasts

DOK Industry Podcasts

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Turn your screens off and enjoy our portable discussion, now available on almost all major podcast platforms. We joyfully present the sixth season of our DOK Industry Podcasts from 2025.
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About

We acknowledge that the cultural establishment of which we are part still needs to undergo a fundamental transformation of true inclusivity.

The DOK Industry Podcast offers a space for dialogue and debate. From its start, the podcast was a platform for conversation around the creation, curation and criticism of creative documentary and animated films, story ownership, decolonising archives, interrogations of positions of power, pathways into the industry for underrepresented and marginalised professionals and the construction of an inclusive industry. 

The DOK Industry Podcast reflects the opinions and viewpoints of its participants. We do not engage in censorship. Consequently, the statements made here do not necessarily reflect the position of DOK Leipzig.

The DOK Industry Podcast episodes are produced in collaboration with our dear friends, the Programmers of Colour Collective (POC2), The What’s Up With Docs Podcast and new in Talking Shorts. We have conceived together a string of discussions that challenge the status quo of the industry. We strive to embrace the nuances and contradictions of a complex reality. In personal and truthful conversations between sparring partners, the creators, moderators and guests amplify diverse, overlooked and alternative perspectives for listeners to engage and empathise with. 

Read more about the podcast episodes, tune in on Podigee, Apple Podcast or Spotify or download them here on our website

Tune in to Season 6!
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Curators Season 6
DOK Leipzig Logo

Lucy Mujerkee
(they/them)
Documentary Lab Director
Firelight Media

 

Lucy Mukerjee is a queer, non-binary British-Indian community builder and cultural worker dedicated to elevating the careers of underestimated storytellers. Currently the Director of the Documentary Lab fellowship at Firelight Media, Lucy is responsible for connecting a dozen documentaries in progress with the resources they need to get to the finish line. 

With 20+ years of experience producing films, programming festivals, and curating artist development programmes, highlights include being Director of Programming at Outfest and NewFest LGBTQ+ Film Festivals and Senior Programmer at the Tribeca Festival, as well as Co-Curator of the immersive cinematic experience “You Are Here” at the Museum of the City of New York. 

As a co-founder of the Programmers Of Colour Collective, Lucy is a vocal advocate for ethics, transparency and accountability across the film industry ecosystem and believes in the power of storytelling to expand perspectives and change cultural narratives.

Toni is pictured indoors with neatly styled Sisterlocks, parted at the top and cascading gracefully over her shoulders.
Toni is pictured indoors with neatly styled Sisterlocks, parted at the top and cascading gracefully over her shoulders.
Toni Achebe Bell
(she/her)
Impact Producer, Professor, Podcaster
Black Cat Impact Media (Founder), Saybrook University, What's Up With Docs

 

Toni Achebe Bell is the creator and host of the “What’s Up with Docs” Podcast and a documentary impact strategist. She has created impact campaigns for many films, including “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales”, “Fruits of Labor”, and “A Woman on the Outside”. She has also served as an Impact Strategist for Represent Justice and Odyssey Impact Partners. She teaches media and impact at Saybrook University. A speaker, mentor, and juror at major festivals, she has reviewed grants for Firelight Media, California Humanities, and more. Formerly at IDA, she managed fiscal sponsorship and global filmmaker initiatives. Toni holds degrees from USC, Naropa University, and UCLA and is entering the Ph.D. programme in Anthropology and Social Change at CIIS.

Website

An Asian brown woman sits on a burgundy sofa, wearing a white pullover, medium brown-rimmed glasses, and gold hoop earrings. Her fringe grazes the top of her glasses, and her hands rest on the table. Behind her, a pink lower wall is adorned with mirrors and film posters.
An Asian brown woman sits on a burgundy sofa, wearing a white pullover, medium brown-rimmed glasses, and gold hoop earrings. Her fringe grazes the top of her glasses, and her hands rest on the table. Behind her, a pink lower wall is adorned with mirrors and film posters.
Qila Gill
Film Programmer

 

Qila Gill is a film programmer. Currently Associate Programmer at London Short Film Festival and serves on the selection committees for the London Film Festival (Experimenta), Berlinale Generation, and Berlinale Shorts and is a programmer for Singapore International Film Festival. Previously, she served on the selection committees for Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg and Sheffield Doc/Fest, was a SXSW documentary screener (2024), and programmed for Aesthetica Film Festival. She also had a stint as Distribution Director at LUX, London, and has produced artists’ films and documentaries.

Sanne Jehoul
(she/her)
Commissioning Editor
Talking Shorts

 

Sanne Jehoul is an arts and film worker across programming and curation, facilitation and support, festival strategy, and talent development. She currently leads on the talent development programme at the BFI Doc Society Fund, and is commissioning editor at Talking Shorts. Before this she was programme director at Glasgow Short Film Festival as well as managing the short film slate of sales and festival distribution agency Square Eyes. She has worked with multiple international festivals across programming, selection, and production (including Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur and Vienna Shorts), and sat on international festival juries and panels as well as moderating conversations and masterclasses. She sits on the board of Kortfilm.be.

Website

Portrait of Weronika Lewandowska
Portrait of Weronika Lewandowska
Weronika Maja Lewandowska
(she/her)
Doctor of Culture Studies
DOK Exchange XR Curator & Coordinator at DOK Leipzig

 

XR creator, immersive narratives curator, and coordinator of the DOK Exchange XR Programme at DOK Leipzig. Co-curator of Embodied Realms, a festival dedicated to performance art and XR in Poland. Mentors XR projects including Climate Challenge XR for the European Space Agency, and writes XR climate games for the Guest XR research project (University of Warsaw), exploring AI agents and social XR harmony. Conducts research on AI in performance art involving XR. In 2021, served as expert for the Committee for Innovative Film Projects at the National Film Institute.
 
Co-directed and co-wrote the award-winning VR erotic poem “Noccc (Nightsss)”, premiered at Sundance. As a poet, performer, and cultural studies PhD, experiments with interdisciplinary poetry blending artistic practice and technology. Poems published in Romania, Estonia, South Africa, Brazil, and Poland. Sound poem featured in The Liberated Voice – Sound Poetry exhibition at Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Leads workshops in immersive storytelling and creative writing focused on bodily engagement and expanded narrative experience.

Portait picture of Niels Putman
Portait picture of Niels Putman
Niels Putman
(he/him)
Artistic Director, Curator/Programmer, Editor
Coordinator & Co-editor at Talking Shorts

 

Niels Putman (Belgium, 1992) is the artistic director of Kortfilm.be, an online mag celebrating the art of short films. He is also one of the founders and editors of the short film magazine Talking Shorts.

As freelance film programmer and curator, Niels is currently affiliated with Antwerp’s local repertory cinema De Cinema (BE), Filmfest Dresden (DE), Fantoche Int’l Animation Film Festival (CH), Film Fest Gent (BE), and the video-on-demand platform Avila (BE). In the past, he has contributed as a guest curator to festivals in Quebec City, Dresden, and Poznan, and as a pre-selector to Busan Int’l Short Film Festival (KR). Niels holds a master’s in Audiovisual Arts (RITCS, Brussels) and Film Studies & Visual Culture (University of Antwerp). His writing has been published in Belgian outlets such as De Standaard, Etcetera, and Fantômas. He is also a member of VAF’s short film commission (2024-2026), the board of European Short Pitch, the Belgian Film Press Union, and FIPRESCI.

Website

DOK Industry Podcast 2025 is realised in partnership with POC2 Programmers of Colour Collective, What’s Up With Docs Podcast, and Talking Shorts, supported by film.macht.kritisch - The podcast about the *other* cinema.

Season 5

The fifth season of the DOK Industry Podcast was realised in partnership with POC2 Programmers of Colour Collective and What’s Up With Docs Podcast, and supported by Docs-in-Orbit and film.macht.kritisch - The podcast about the *other* cinema.

The six episodes were released at DOK Industry in 2024. You can catch all episodes on Apple PodcastPodigee or Spotify.

Power of the Pipeline

Moderator: Shakira Refos
Guests: Lanaa Dantzler, Contessa Gayles
Length: 52'

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India Spotlight

Moderator: Sunil Sadarangani
Guests: Apoorva Bakshi, Selvamani Selvaraj, Srishti Bakshi
Length: 53'

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Against the Stream

Moderator: Meena Nanji
Guests: Inney Prakash, Jean Marie Teno, Pratibha Parmar
Length: 76'

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DOCTalk: BIPOC Representation in Front of & Behind the Camera

Moderator: Erika Dilday
Guests: Chloe Abrahams, Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, Dawne Langford, Erricka Bridgeford
Length: 48'

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Shaping the Soundscape – The Role of Spatial Audio in XR, Film, Art

Moderators: Oliver Kadel, Weronika M Lewandowska 
Guest: Aili Niimura, Ana Monte
Length: 53'

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Preserving Legacy: The Quest for Peru’s Film Pioneer, Nora de Izcue

Moderator: Toni Acbebe Bell
Guest: Claudia Chávez Lévano, Christine Mladic Janney
Length: 72'

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Season 4

The fourth season of the DOK Industry Podcast was realised in partnership with What’s Up With Docs Podcast and POC2 Programmers of Colour Collective, and supported by Docs-in-Orbit and MUBI. The six episodes were released at DOK Industry in 2023. You can catch all episodes on Apple PodcastPodigee or Spotify.

The Ghost of Time: A Conversation about Making Films about Museums

Curator & Moderator: Aisha Jamal
Guests: Sameer Farooq, Marley McDonald
Length: 46'

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On an Adventure to Cross the Mountain

Moderator: Karen Cheung
Guests: Tze Woon CHAN, Kanas LIU, Anson Hoi-Shan MAK
Length: 53'

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What’s Up with Docs feat. Jennifer Crystal Chien – Keep on Keeping on

Curator & Moderator: Toni Bell
Curator: Brianna Jovahn
Guest: Jennifer Crystal Chien
Length: 82'

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Animated Docs: True, False & Floating!

Moderator: Maria-Christina Villaseñor
Guests: Carlos Hagerman, Camrus Johnson, Pedro Piccinini, Jorge Villalobos de la Torre
Length: 77'

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Creativity Through the Lens of AI

Moderator: Weronika M Lewandowska 
Guest: Mads Damsbo
Length: 46'

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Burning Bridges, Building Constellations

Moderator: Rama Thiaw
Guest: Niels Pagh Andersen, Naziha Arebi
Length: 46'

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Season 3

Our third podcast season was produced in 2022, in partnership with Kinopravda Institute, POC2 Programmers of Colour Collective and What’s Up With Docs Podcast. The four episodes were released at DOK Industry in October 2022. You can catch all episodes on Podigee or Spotify.

Missionwashing Docs

Curator & Moderator: Bedatri Datta Choudhury
Guests: Shakira Refos, Hansen Bursic
Length: 50'

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The Culture of Film Curating

Curator & Moderator: Greg de Cuir
Guests: Alia Ayman, Matthew Barrington
Length: 73'

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Igniting Strategies: Changing the Face(s) of Film Festival Programming

Curator & Moderator: Irene Soriano
Guests: Lucy Jane Mukerjee, Faridah Gbadamosi
Length: 54'

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Jihan & Toni Talk Archives Part 2

Curator: Ranell Shubert 
Curator & Moderator: Toni Bell
Guest: Jihan El-Tahri
Length: 63'

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Season 2

Our second podcast season was produced in 2021, in partnership with POC2 Programmers of Colour Collective and What’s Up With Docs Podcast. The six episodes were released at DOK Industry in October 2021. You can catch all episodes on Podigee or Spotify.

Looking from the South

Moderator: Claire Diao
Guests: Jihan El-Tahri, Jean-Marie Téno and Femi Odugbemi 
Length: 60’

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Wellness & Whiteness Gone Wild or “If Everything is Possible Nothing is True”

Moderator: Shakira Refos
Guests: Cate Stuart and Jawara Gordon
Length: 77’

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The Poetry of the Little Things: Towards a Caribbean Avant-garde Cinema

Moderator: Jonathan Ali
Guests: Miryam Charles and Amir Aether Valen Ali
Length: 62’

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Preserving History During Times of Conflict 

Moderator: Toni Bell
Guests: Mariam Ghani
Length: 71'

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Brown Lives to the Fore – Lack of Representation of Brown LGBTQ+ Stories

Moderator: Sridhar Rangayan
Guests: Sonal Giani, Kalki Subramaniam and Arshad Wasi Khan
Length: 56'

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Jihan & Toni Talk Archives

Moderator: Toni Bell
Guests: Jihan El-Tahri
Length: 64'

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Season 1

With DOK Industry taking place completely online in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we launched the first season of our podcast series. Nine episodes were curated by and realised in partnership with POC2 Programmers of Colour Collective and What’s Up With Docs Podcast. You can read more about all episode and download them via the links below.

Afro-Indigenous: Allyship & Solidarity Onscreen

Host: Amalia Córdova 
Guests: David Hernández Palmar, Loreto Bustos Hernando, Fanny Huc
Curated by: Themba Bhebhe
Length: 93’

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Female Gazes: Euzhan Palcy x Alice Diop

Host: Claire Diao
Guests: Euzhan Palcy, Alice Diop
Curated by: Themba Bhebhe
Length: 68’

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Who is Missing From the Coming-of-Age Narrative

Host: Shakira Refos
Guests: Celeste Truffaut Wong, Nathan Murthy
Curated by: Lucy Mukerjee 
Length: 77’

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Africa is a Continent Goddammit

Host: Chioma Onyenwe
Guest: Theresa Hill
Curated by: Lucy Mukerjee
Length: 67’

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Stepping into New Streams

Host: Abby Sun
Guests: Mahen Bonetti, Rosine Mbakam
Curated by: Lucy Mukerjee
Length: 62’

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Little Things Say So Much – Making a Short in COVID Times

Guests: Lindsay Poulton, Sara Khaki and Mohammad Reza Eyni
Curated by: Ulrike Schmidt
Length: 49’

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What’s Up With Docs Podcast feat. Geeta Gandbhir and Jessica Devaney – “Fight the Power”

Host: Toni Bell
Guests: Jessica Devaney, Geeta Gandbhir
Curated by: Toni Bell, Ranell Shubert
Length: 91’

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What’s Up With Docs Podcast feat. Quentin VerCetty – “Dela Move”

Host: Toni Bell
Guests: Quentin VerCetty
Curated by: Toni Bell, Ranell Shubert 
Length: 94’

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Mapping the Infinite Heart of Documentary with BIPOC Storytellers

Host: Martine Joelle McDonald
Guests: Jheanelle Brown, Maria-Christina Villasénor
Curated by: Lucy Mukerjee
Length: 77’

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DOK Industry is realised with the support of Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media upon a Decision of the German Bundestag.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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