Short Films in Dark Times: The Subversive Power of Documentary Film

Panel discussion

A world that accelerates wars and genocides, insists on imperialism and colonialism, expands authoritarian politics, reawakens fascism, and abuses the planet’s ecosystem. A world in which an influential few with brutal force subdue the rest of humanity. These are the crises that the documentary film reflects best, and there are numerous renowned documentaries that shock local and global audiences and receive the greatest festival awards. How can a documentary influence change in society? How can one make use of this expressive form? What kind of obstacles does it face? All angles of these questions will be addressed by the filmmaker Gala Hernández López, producer Marina Gumzi, and director and curator Varja Močnik. The discussion will be moderated by the film critic Vanja Gajić.
free entry

Gala Hernández López is an artist, filmmaker, and producer. Her essay films are the result of research processes that combine materialist critique, documentary elements, and speculative fiction. They have been shown at Cannes, Berlinale, Rotterdam, IDFA, Cinéma du Réel, Berlinische Galerie, C/O Berlin, Open City Documentary Film Festival and the Palais de Tokyo, among others. Her film, La Mécanique des fluides, won the César Award for Best Documentary Short Film in 2024. 

Varja Močnik is a film writer and a lecturer. She worked as a TV director for national television for ten years and directed several films, including her last, the documentary Glasba je časovna umetnost: LP film Pljuni istini u oči (2017). She worked as an assistant to the programme manager at the Slovenian Cinematheque for four years before becoming a film programme curator for 10 more. Varja has worked at the international film festival Kino Otok – Isola Cinema since its very first edition and has served as the head film programmer since 2013. She is a co-worker with various film education programmes and, since 2020, a history and film theory lecturer at the Nova Gorica Academy of Arts.

Marina Gumzi studied dramaturgy and film production in Ljubljana, Berlin and Paris. She is an alumna of the postgraduate program at DFFB Berlin and has also pursued studies in Degrowth and Ecological Economics. Since 2012, she has led NOSOROGI where she has collaborated with some of the most distinctive young filmmakers from the region switching between the roles of a producer and scriptwriter. Her work on films such as Stories from the Chestnut Woods, Fiume o morte!, Little Trouble Girls, Playing Men, Common Pear, Granny’s Sexual Life has earned multiple awards, including two European Film Awards, César Award and the Berlinale FIPRESCI Prize.