July 14, 2025
This year marks 13 years of Future is Here, DokuFest’s training program devoted to nurturing young voices. For over a decade, it has quietly shaped a space where Kosovo’s youth can explore what it means to tell a story, and what it means to tell their own struggles through creative and experiential documentary form. What began as a modest training program has become a vital part of Kosovo’s cinematic landscape, supporting voices that now define what is often called the New Wave of Kosovar cinema.
The camp this year brought together ten young participants from different corners of Kosovo, each arriving with their own sensibilities, questions, and untold stories. For seven days, they were engaged in an environment where experimentation was encouraged, mistakes were part of the process, and mentorship became a form of a dialogue. Some participants were stepping behind a camera for the first time, others had already begun to think visually, but found themselves challenged to dig deeper, to articulate stories rooted in their personal experience. The result is seven short documentaries, each a fragment of truth and vision, set to meet the screen for the very first time on Wednesday, August 6, within the DokuFest’s beloved Kino Lumi.
Throughout the camp, guidance flowed from a range of voices. From established cineasts like Dea Gjinovci, Samir Karahoda, Enis Saraçi, and Ilir Hasanaj, to filmmakers who began their journey through DokuFest’s own training programs. Alumni such as Leart Rama, Norika Sefa, Flutura Balaj, and Hana Ahmeti returned as mentors, embodying the spirit of continuity and shared growth that defines Future is Here, a program that nurtures not only emerging talent but lasting connections across generations.
Many spoke about what this space meant to them. Erlisa Buzhala, a high school student from Prishtina, described how telling her story about living with a disability became possible only because of the environment of trust and support. For 15 year old Djellza Musliu, the youngest participant, it was the precision of the training that stood out, the way mentors broke down complex ideas into something that felt possible, manageable, even playful.
But this is also about something larger. Thirteen years of this program means that Future is Here has helped shape what Kosovo’s cinema is becoming: urgent, personal, aware of its surroundings and unafraid to explore complexity. As Leart Rama, who first came through Future is Here as a participant in 2015 and returned this year as a mentor, puts it, this program is less a school and more a permanent home. A home where young filmmakers are encouraged to approach art, life, and visual narratives with seriousness and care.
Looking ahead to the premiere on August 6, Eroll Bilibani, the head of DokuLab reflects on this long journey: “It’s been 13 years we’ve been working on providing a creative platform for young people to tell their stories. We’re proud to have contributed to Kosovo’s film industry by nurturing young talents who today are recognized as Kosovo’s New Wave of filmmakers, and are the pillars of Kosovo’s cinema.”
A full list of the films can be found here.
