DOK Industry Podcasts
We acknowledge that the cultural establishment, of which we are a part, still needs to undergo a fundamental transformation to create 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, as well as 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 Talking Shorts. Together, we have conceived a series of discussions that challenge the industry status quo. 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 Apple Podcast, Castbox, Podigee or Spotify or download episodes here on our website.
Tune in to Season 7!
Curators Season 7
Lu 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, Lu 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, Lu 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 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.
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.
Savina Petkova (PhD) is a Bulgarian film critic, programmer, and academic based in London. She is a commissioning editor at Talking Shorts and her writing bylines include Sight and Sound, Cineuropa, Little White Lies, Reverse Shot, and Variety.
DOK Industry Podcast 2026 is realised in partnership with POC2 Programmers of Colour Collective, What’s Up With Docs Podcast, and Talking Shorts.
The sixth 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 film.macht.kritisch - The podcast about the *other* cinema.
The six episodes were released at DOK Industry in 2025. You can catch all episodes on Apple Podcast, Podigee or Spotify.
Intercultural Exchange in a Polarised Era
Moderator: Qila Gill
Guests: Puiyee Leong, Nihan Sivridag
Length: 37'
What’s Up with Docs feat. Ranell Shubert (DMA) – “Star Baby”
Moderator: Toni Achebe Bell
Guests: Ranell Shubert
Lengths: 64'
Between Co-Option and Solidarity
Moderator: Sanne Jehoul
Guests: Saleh Kashefi, Heitor Augusto
Length: 62'
Next Gen XR Rising
Moderator: Weronika Lewandowska
Guests: Dana Melaver, Prodromos Tsiavos
Length: 56'
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 Podcast, Podigee or Spotify.
Power of the Pipeline
Moderator: Shakira Refos
Guests: Lanaa Dantzler, Contessa Gayles
Length: 52'
India Spotlights Part I & II
Moderator: Sunil Sadarangani
Guests: Apoorva Bakshi, Selvamani Selvaraj, Srishti Bakshi
Lengths: 53' and 40'
Against the Stream
Moderator: Meena Nanji
Guests: Inney Prakash, Jean Marie Teno, Pratibha Parmar
Length: 76'
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'
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'
Docubox: How to Build a Film Community
Moderator: Judy Kibinge
Guest: Maia Lekow, Toni Kamau, Zippy Kimundu
Length: 53'
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'
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 Podcast, Podigee or Spotify.
The Ghost of Time: A Conversation about Making Films about Museums
Curator & Moderator: Aisha Jamal
Guests: Sameer Farooq, Marley McDonald
Length: 46'
On an Adventure to Cross the Mountain
Moderator: Karen Cheung
Guests: Tze Woon CHAN, Kanas LIU, Anson Hoi-Shan MAK
Length: 53'
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'
Animated Docs: True, False & Floating!
Moderator: Maria-Christina Villaseñor
Guests: Carlos Hagerman, Camrus Johnson, Pedro Piccinini, Jorge Villalobos de la Torre
Length: 77'
Creativity Through the Lens of AI
Moderator: Weronika M Lewandowska
Guest: Mads Damsbo
Length: 46'
Burning Bridges, Building Constellations
Moderator: Rama Thiaw
Guest: Niels Pagh Andersen, Naziha Arebi
Length: 46'
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'
The Culture of Film Curating
Curator & Moderator: Greg de Cuir
Guests: Alia Ayman, Matthew Barrington
Length: 73'
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’
Wellness & Whiteness Gone Wild or “If Everything is Possible Nothing is True”
Moderator: Shakira Refos
Guests: Cate Stuart and Jawara Gordon
Length: 77’
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’
Preserving History During Times of Conflict
Moderator: Toni Bell
Guests: Mariam Ghani
Length: 71'
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'
Jihan & Toni Talk Archives
Moderator: Toni Bell
Guests: Jihan El-Tahri
Length: 64'
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’
Female Gazes: Euzhan Palcy x Alice Diop
Host: Claire Diao
Guests: Euzhan Palcy, Alice Diop
Curated by: Themba Bhebhe
Length: 68’
Who is Missing From the Coming-of-Age Narrative
Host: Shakira Refos
Guests: Celeste Truffaut Wong, Nathan Murthy
Curated by: Lu Mukerjee
Length: 77’
Africa is a Continent Goddammit
Host: Chioma Onyenwe
Guest: Theresa Hill
Curated by: Lucy Mukerjee
Length: 67’
Stepping into New Streams
Host: Abby Sun
Guests: Mahen Bonetti, Rosine Mbakam
Curated by: Lucy Mukerjee
Length: 62’
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’
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’
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’
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’
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.
