Episode 39 - Marion Schmidt - “Freedom”
Photo Credit: Dox Box
[Image Description: B&W photo. Marion is a white woman with curly shoulder-length hair. She is pictured from the chest up. She wears a necklace and a top with spaghetti straps. She smiles.]
In this episode, I speak with doc industry professional, Marion Schmidt. During our conversation, we chat about how she got into docs, her time in Egpyt during the Arab Spring, and her founding of Dox Box and the initiative, the International Documentary Convention. We also chat about the organization she co-founded with past guest Brigid O’Shea, the Documentary Association of Europe. Because the Documentary Association of Europe is about opening doors and breaking chains, this epsode’’s song is Freedom by Andreya Triana, Our conversation was recorded in January 2022.
Episode 35 - Laura van Halsema - “Chelas City”
Photo Credit: Caroline Westdijk
[Image Description: Laura, a white woman with short blond hair, is pictured from the torso up. She wears a dark-colored button-down shirt and hoop earrings. She has a slight smile on her face.]
In this episode, we continue our celebration of the 2021 edition of IDFA as I chat with the Senior Programmer of the festival, Laura van Halsema. We talk about how she got into docs, her nearly 20 years with IDFA, and take a deep dive into the unConscious Bias Focus program at the festival this year. The song for this episode is from the film Chelas Nha Kha which is part of the unConscious Bias strand and is entitled “Chelas City,” music by Bataclan 1950 and lyrics by Baguera, Islu, and Gohu. The film is a collaboration between Bagabaga Studios and Batalan 1950 is about the people and kids growing up in Chelas which is a neighborhood in Lisbon. During our conversation, we spoke about the anthropologist Clifford Geertz’s concept of the “webs of influence.” Laura thought of this film and about the filmmakers who live in that area as they learn to define for themselves their own realities. The first love of Bataclan 1950 is making music which is prominently featured in the film. Here is our conversation which was recorded in November 2021.