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.
Wednesday, August 12
17:00
Shkolla e Muzikes 'Lorenc Antoni'
DokuTalks
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.
Moving from Albania's Flamingo Revolution and Serbia's student protests to the aftermath of Hong Kong's unrest, this DokuTalk brings together artists and filmmakers working at different distances from political events. It asks when documentation becomes activism, what responsibilities come with recording people in moments of struggle, and who controls these images once they begin circulating. When democratic space is shrinking, can the citizen's camera still speak truth to power?
Panelists
Mei Seva - Albanian artist based in New York whose post-documentary practice spans photography, moving image and visual archives. Since May 2026, she has been documenting Albania's ongoing Flamingo Revolution.
Adem Tutić - Serbian filmmaker whose work explores identity, belonging and social realities. His feature documentary in development, Tour de Strasbourg, follows the students' 14-day protest bicycle journey against political repression in Serbia.
Rico Wong - London-based artist filmmaker from Hong Kong working across moving image and sound. His latest film, Compact Disc, explores friendship, memory and the experiences of a generation facing pressure to forget.
Moderated by
Brigid O'Shea - DokuFest Board Member, documentary consultant and co-founder of the Documentary Association of Europe. A former head of DOK Industry at DOK Leipzig, she curates and moderates international conversations around non-fiction cinema.
Compact Disc, directed by Rico Wong, returns to fragments of a youth shaped by imprisonment and political upheaval in Hong Kong. Through fading images, silence and shared memories, the film considers friendship as a way of holding onto experiences that might otherwise be erased.
It screens in the International Short Dox competition on Monday, 10 August, at 12:30 at Teatri Bekim Fehmiu – Salla e Madhe, and on Saturday, 15 August, at 15:30 at Teatri Bekim Fehmiu – Salla e Vogël.
Admission to DokuTalks is free. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
More in 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.
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?
