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Summer 2025

Our cover is dedicated to Heiny Srour, whose boundary-defying two feature films have been traveling the world after being restored in the last decade. Rintu Thomas goes long and personal on the filmmaking journey that led to her Oscar-nominated Writing With Fire (2023, co-directed with Sushmit Ghosh). Producer Tabs Breese profiles sound designers María Alejandra Rojas and Arturo Salazar. Rachel Pronger details how Katja Raganelli created over a dozen portraits of women filmmakers and artists through a mix of personal conviction and “rucksack” ingenuity. This issue carries three festival reports. Doc’s Kingdom, where writer Victor Guimarães found more questions than satisfying answers regarding how documentary should be listened to, as opposed to merely watched. Vladan Petković once again reports from CPH:DOX. And for the first time in Documentary, we cover Korea’s second-largest film festival, Jeonju. “Making a Production” profile focuses on a grassroots, activist, and membership-funded production company—PINKS. For “Legal FAQ,” we asked attorneys Dale Nelson and Victoria Rosales for tips for documentary filmmakers given the rapidly changing legal landscape for AI privacy and copyright in the U.S. And “Screen Time” continues with capsule-length reviews on notable new releases.

Articles featured in the print version will be published online between July and September 2025.

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Features

Luis González Zaffaroni is the executive director of DOCSP, an organization focused on the development of the documentary field in São Paulo, Brazil, since 2015. He was the founding director of DocMontevideo (Uruguay, 2009-2023), with a key role in the Latin American documentary community and its international promotion. Always connected with training and networking programs, he has been a consultant and adviser in more than ten countries for cinema agencies, funds, markets, and festivals.


Joel Simon is the founding director of the Journalism Protection Initiative at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, part of the City University of New York.

Nathalie Seaver has a long history in film and has held creative development and production executive positions for scripted film and television at Universal Pictures, MGM, Warner Brothers, and Showtime. This narrative background informs her approach to elevated storytelling in her current role, nurturing and supporting documentaries at all stages of production as Executive Vice President at Foothill Productions. Their films have premiered at Sundance, Telluride, TIFF, Tribeca, Hot Docs, and the Venice Biennale and include several Oscar and Emmy Nominees.


Inti Cordera is a documentary film director, producer, and founder of La Maroma Productions and the DocsMX festival & organization in Mexico City.

Toni Kamau is the 2024 Sundance Amazon MGM nonfiction producing prize winner, as well as a News Emmy and Peabody-nominated producer and founder of the Kenyan-based “We Are Not the Machine” - which tells stories of African outsiders, rebels, and changemakers for global audiences.

Paula Ossandón Cabrera is the director of Chiledoc, an organization that promotes Chilean talents, their films and series worldwide. She is also the director and founder of Miradoc, a distribution program for Chilean documentaries with 12 years of experience.

Bob Berney, CEO of Picturehouse, is a leading figure in the world of global content distribution. He is known for his strong relationships with filmmakers and industry executives along with having a keen eye for content and extraordinary marketing acumen.

An internationally renowned curator, educator, and veteran nonprofit executive, Dominic Asmall Willsdon (he/they) founded the film program at Tate Modern in London with the British Film Institute in his first curatorial role.

Paige Bethmann

Paige is a Haudenosaunee director/producer based in Reno, Nevada. Over the last 10 years, Paige has worked in non-fiction television for various digital and broadcast networks such as Vox Media, Facebook, Youtube Originals, USA and NBC. Her latest project, Emmy nominated series Glad You Asked centered around issues of racial injustice and premiered in July of 2021. Paige is currently a Logan Non-Fiction Fellow and 2022 PGA Create fellow. A graduate of Ithaca College, Paige has a bachelor's degree in Film, Television, and Radio from the Park School of Communications. Remaining Native will be her directorial debut.


Remaining Native

Ku Stevens, a high school senior, has the skill and drive to become an elite runner. But he struggles to find the balance between an exclusive sport that glorifies individual triumph and the values of interconnectedness and community he was raised with on the Paiute reservation in Nevada. Despite not having access to a coach, cross-country team, or recruiters, Ku is determined to get a running scholarship. When the remains of thousands of Native American children are discovered across North America, Ku's painful family history is unearthed, forcing him to reexamine his own identity. Ku’s own great-grandfather escaped an Indian boarding school by foot at age 8. In an act of remembrance and reconciliation, Ku sets out to run the same 50-mile escape route his great-grandfather took. Remaining Native is a coming-of-age story that asks if it’s possible to run from home without running away from who you are.

Paige Bethmann
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2022
2023