DokuTalks
DokuTalks brings together filmmakers, thinkers and audiences for urgent conversations about film and society.
Short Film Forum
A DokuFest platform supporting young filmmakers to develop, present and advance short film projects.
Forum Guest Country: Italy
DokuFest's partnership with the Italian Short Film Center welcomes Italy as the Forum's 2026 Guest Country, connecting Italian projects, filmmakers and archival cinema with Balkan producers, funds and decision-makers. This partnership is supported by Italian Embassy in Prishtina and Istituto Italiano di Cultura - Tirana.
Saturday, August 8
17:00
Shkolla e Muzikes 'Lorenc Antoni'
DokuTalks
Hybrid Cinema as Political Language
When the past, cultural legacies, and material heritage are forcibly erased or destroyed, how do filmmakers respond? This panel asks whether hybrid cinema can forge a new political language, one capable of challenging official narratives and reimagining what has been lost.
Panelists
Sanaz Sohrabi (director: An Incomplete Calendar)
Sabine Groenewegen (director: The Clearing)
Michael Barwise (director: That sanity be kept)
Aurélia Martin (production designer: The Beauty of the Donkey)
Moderated by Dea Gjinovci - DokuTalks co-curator
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An Incomplete Calendar is a film that uses music and archival material to revisit the political history of oil. It traces connections between Venezuela, Iran, Palestinian liberation and Pan-Arab solidarity during the 1960s and 1970s.
It screens in the International Feature Dox competition on Tuesday, 11 August, at 19:30 at DokuKino, and on Wednesday, 12 August, at 17:00 at Kino Abi Çarshia.
The Clearing combines archival research, contemporary footage and speculative storytelling to uncover the overlooked history of women exploited during the colonial rubber trade in Sumatra. It also considers how this violence continues to shape the present.
It screens in the Human Rights Dox competition on Sunday, 9 August, at 17:30 at Teatri Bekim Fehmiu – Salla e Madhe, and on Monday, 10 August, at 22:00 at Kino Art Theatre.
That sanity be kept uses archival video and photography to follow a night out in Derry during the ceasefire of the 1990s. It captures young people searching for release while remaining under the constant presence of British security forces.
It screens as part of Focus Ireland on Saturday, 8 August, at 22:30 at Teatri Bekim Fehmiu – Salla e Madhe, and on Sunday, 9 August, at 13:30 at Teatri Bekim Fehmiu – Salla e Vogël.
The Beauty of the Donkey follows a filmmaker and her father as they return to the Kosovar village he left almost sixty years ago. Working with local residents, they reconstruct a childhood world erased by war, moving between memory, performance and reality.
It screens as part of Special Screenings on Saturday, 8 August, at 20:30 at DokuKino Pllato.
Admission to DokuTalks is free. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
More in DokuTalks
After Silence: Film, Testimony and Justice after Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
Moving from testimony and the visible and hidden traces of war in Ukraine, through the lasting consequences of wartime sexual violence in Kosovo, to an intimate story of femicide, family absence and fear in Mexico, this DokuTalk explores how filmmakers use memory, digital traces and performance to create spaces for recognition, solidarity and justice.
Inherited Memory
How do filmmakers create a relationship with home when home is remembered, inherited, lost, or politically unreachable? Is home a place, a language, a family story or a filmic reconstruction? Kosovar diaspora filmmakers, alongside voices from other displaced contexts, explore what distance reveals, what it distorts, and how it changes a filmmaker's responsibility.
Who Helps a Short Film Travel?
A short film rarely travels on the strength of the film alone. It also needs a team that can communicate its vision, partners who understand what the project needs, and networks that can connect it to the right opportunities. This DokuTalk looks at the practical decisions behind a film’s journey. How should directors and producers communicate? When does a co-production bring real value? What do festivals, markets and sales agents look for, and how can filmmakers build relationships that continue beyond the first pitch?
Images of Resistance: When Documentation Becomes Activism
Images recorded during moments of resistance can do more than document what happened. They can carry a local struggle across borders, preserve memories that those in power may prefer forgotten, and turn witnessing into a form of participation.
