In addition to a slate of remarkable films, DocLands provides interactive forums to explore creative aspects of documentary filmmaking and help invigorate the business and art of nonfiction filmmaking toward building an active and fully supportive community around documentary film. Join us. Be part of the story.
DOCTALK: SUPPORTING THE VISION
HOW BAY AREA FUNDERS AND FILMMAKERS COLLABORATE TO BRING NEW DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS TO LIFE
THURSDAY, APRIL 30 • 5:00 PM
Opening Night at DocLands begins with a look at how nonfiction films move from idea to screen.
In this DocTalk conversation, CAFILM Education, Berkeley Film Foundation (BFF), and Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) bring together filmmakers and funders to discuss how documentary projects gain support and momentum. The program features filmmakers LUCA CAPPONI, THANH TRAN and ALEX J. BLEDSOE whose recent projects received major support from BFF grants and BAVC’s MediaMaker Fellowship.
Through conversations and excerpts from works in progress, the filmmakers will share how their projects developed and the role these Bay Area funding and mentorship programs played in advancing their films.
Representatives from BFF and BAVC will also discuss what makes a strong submission, the materials needed for successful applications, and how fellowships, grants, and mentorship programs help advance projects.
More than just a showcase, SUPPORTING THE VISION provides a practical look at the regional infrastructure that supports independent nonfiction filmmaking and the organizations helping bring new documentary voices to the screen.
PRESENTED BY CAFILM EDUCATION AND DOCLANDS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
CO-PRESENTED BY BERKELEY FILM FOUNDATION AND BAY AREA VIDEO COALITION
PANELISTS:
LUCA CAPPONI • WHAT LIES OVER THE MOUNTAIN (Early Production/Development)
What Lies Over the Mountain is a personal documentary about an Ecuadorian woman who migrated to a small village in northern Italy in the 1980s. Decades later, her sons return with her to the remote Andean village where their parents met, carrying their father’s ashes and confronting family secrets, migration, and the search for belonging across generations.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT: “With this film, I turn the camera toward my own family for the first time. The heart of the story is a return with my mother and brother to the remote tropical village where my parents first met. Through this journey, I will use the camera as a healing tool, exploring silence, memory, and migration across generations, with the intent of creating a space where cinema becomes reflection, confrontation, and care.”
LUCA CAPPONI is an Italian-Ecuadorian observational filmmaker based in Berkeley. His work explores migration, identity, and marginalized communities. He is a BAVC MediaMaker Fellow developing his first personal documentary, What Lies Over the Mountain.
THANH TRAN • FINDING MÁ (Post Production)
Separated for over 20 years by foster care and prison, an Amerasian Vietnamese and Black family reunite to heal old wounds, starting with finding their houseless mom.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT: “I became a filmmaker as an organizer in prison, where storytelling was both resistance and survival. I began this journey to share stories that could liberate my people from cages and support the healing of our hurting communities. Finding Má is my most intimate offering toward that vision, rooted in love, pain, and dignity.”
THANH TRAN is an Amerasian Vietnamese and Black filmmaker, music artist, and community organizer. He co-founded Uncuffed, an award winning podcast, and ForwardThis Productions. He leads New Krma Media, supporting system-impacted artists. A Film Independent Amplifier Fellow, he directs Finding Má and is Board member of the Andrus Family Foundation.
ALEX J. BLEDSOE • OAKLEAD (Fundraising/Post-Production)
In Oakland, California, we fight to protect one another from lead poisoning in our own homes and schools – and uncover over a century of environmental racism.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT: “I began filming when I realized my community in Oakland is one of 3,000 communities across the U.S. experiencing lead poisoning at an even higher rate than Flint, Michigan. Worldwide, 1 in 3 children is lead poisoned. OAKLEAD centers our community members who are most affected by the lead poisoning epidemic, both behind the scenes and in front of the camera. OAKLEAD is a documented rehearsal in how our solidarity, in life and film production, can change our material realities and build healthy communities.”
ALEX J. BLEDSOE is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist working to dismantle exploitative systems and uplift everyday rehearsals of freedom. Her debut feature documentary, OAKLEAD, is a grantee of the Sundance Documentary Film Program, Berkeley Film Foundation, Redford Center, Fund for Investigative Journalism, and winner of the Jonathan Logan Elevate Award for Investigative Journalism. Alex is a 2025 BAVC MediaMaker and a California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellow. She is the co-founder of Breaktide, an all women-of-color film production company based in the Bay Area. She has been a guest columnist for the Washington Post, and a live featured guest on KQED Forum for her filmmaking and activism.
THURSDAY, APRIL 30 • 5:00 PM
RAFAEL 2
THIS EVENT IS FREE • TICKET REQUIRED
DOCTALK: FUNDING THE VISION
NEW PATHWAYS FOR DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS
SATURDAY, MAY 2 • 10:30 AM
Independent documentary filmmakers are increasingly turning to creative and community-driven strategies to finance their work. In this DocTalk conversation, CAFILM Education and Video Consortium Bay Area bring together filmmakers and industry leaders to discuss emerging funding models that are reshaping how nonfiction stories are made.
Panelists will explore alternative funding pathways, including crowdfunding, subscriber-supported platforms such as Patreon, brand collaborations, and opportunities emerging through conferences and streaming platforms.
Open to filmmakers and film lovers alike, this conversation offers a rare look inside the earliest stages of documentary filmmaking when ideas begin to take shape and filmmakers begin the search for support.
PRESENTED BY CAFILM EDUCATION AND DOCLANDS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
CO-PRESENTED BY VIDEO CONSORTIUM BAY AREA
PANELISTS:
ROSE KUO
Rose Kuo is the Artistic Director of the California Film Institute (CAFILM) and the Mill Valley Film Festival. A veteran film executive, producer, and curator, she previously served as Artistic Director of AFI FEST where she pioneered the festival’s widely adopted free-admission model and as Executive Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, overseeing the $41 million Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center and the 50th New York Film Festival. Her producing credits include the Sundance, Cannes, and Venice-premiering documentary Sembene! (2015). Through her consultancy Festworks, she has advised film festivals and studios worldwide on programming and strategy.
VAISHALI SINHA
Vaishali Sinha is the director/producer of award-winning feature documentaries Made in India and Ask the Sexpert. Her films have shown on PBS, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Kanopy. Her latest film Give It A Shot (DocLands 2026) is supported by ITVS and Sandbox Films and currently in the festival circuit. Sinha is an alumna of Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center. And co-founder of the Color Congress supported Bitchitra Collective: Indian Women in Documentary Film.
MISCHA HEDGES
Founder & Executive Producer, TrimTab Media (Santa Rosa, CA) Mischa has crowdfunded four documentaries on Kickstarter and Seed&Spark, from a $13K first campaign to a $133K raise for his current music doc. He’s open about what worked and what didn’t, including specific numbers, donor outreach schedules, and campaign failures. He’s also structured nonprofit partnerships for distribution and partial funding. His most recent film, Ellavut Cimirtuq, premiered at DocLands in 2024.
NADIA GILL
Producer, Encompass Films, Nadia is a former attorney who produces environmental and conservation docs. She just put together a $900K feature budget mostly through charitable donations from family offices, plus small media company investments and a Peak Design tie-in. On the branded side, she works with agencies on documentary projects at $200K and up. She knows what it actually looks like to pitch family offices and cultivate private donors, and she’s willing to talk specifics as long as the panel isn’t recorded.
SATURDAY, MAY 2 • 10:30 AM
RAFAEL 2
THIS EVENT IS FREE • TICKET REQUIRED
DOCTALK: HAS THE NEW NORMAL ARRIVED?
SUNDAY, MAY 3 • 10:30 AM
Join us for an informal conversation between local and this year’s DocLands’ filmmakers. Steered by their most recent experiences and personal thoughts and beliefs, we’ll discuss practical options to the traditional distribution model that seemingly has already collapsed.
With YouTube having just surpassed Disney to become the world’s largest media company, will a platform built almost entirely on creators lead filmmakers to find success on their own terms? What practical conclusions have these content creators come to, and what might they already have put to work in order to continue their filmmaking passion, while gaining an audience and making a living? What role do today’s independent, community-driven art houses play in this new normal?
PANELISTS TBA
SUNDAY, MAY 3 • 10:30 AM
MARK FISHKIN ROOM
THIS EVENT IS FREE • TICKET REQUIRED