July 3, 2025

I find that when you hold and carry a question in your mind, the world will start sending you answers almost right away.
–Brett Story  

Filmmaker, professor, and geographer Brett Story is such a lovely, open, and intelligent presence to be around. We can see that in the ways the people in front of her camera lens feel free to share their stories in such honest and engaging ways in response to her direct questions. Why? How? Please tell me. Being Canadian, her approach is always utterly polite, of course. But there is also a fierce resolute quality to learn from the people she encounters for they help her to navigate the questions she’s investigating around the state of their/our lives in all their painful confusion and dysfunctionality. She’s keen to keep troubling the larger question as to why those dysfunctions tend to impact certain populations more than others, cruelly holding individuals, families, neighborhoods, towns, and sometimes whole entire cities, siege to corrupt and corrosive socio-political systems, both large and small.

In this year’s special spotlight programme, we’ll be showcasing two of her early feature films: The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016), and The Hottest August (2019), both classics of the genre. As well, there will be a programme curated by Pamela Cohn that spans Brett’s short documentary work from 2009 to the present, including a sneak peak of her new archival feature work-in-progress called The Production of the World featuring the brilliant British art critic, novelist, painter, and poet, John Berger (1926-2017), best known for his BBC series and companion book “Ways of Seeing”, which revolutionized the way art is viewed and discussed, a seemingly ideal subject for curious and expansive minds. And some CIA action thrown in there as well for good measure.  

Brett Story will join us in person at the festival this year to share her views, passions, and illuminations, greeting audiences at her screenings, as well as in a public conversation with Cohn. We’re so happy to welcome Brett back to Prizren for this year’s edition of DokuFest!

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Shorts program: Grace, 2009, 3'; Car Wash, 2008, 6'; Camperforce, 2017, 16'; Debtor's Prison, 2017, 15', co-directed with Todd Chandler; Sanctuary, 2020, 14'; an extract from The Production of the World, 2025, from the feature-length John Berger work-in-progress.  

Features: The Prison in Twelve Landscapes, 2016, 90'; The Hottest August, 2019, 94'.