Discussion Panel: Against Despair - Short Documentaries as Acts of Resistance
Sunday, 10 May | 12:00 | State Ethnographic Museum
Turbulent times call for renewed courage and new ways of thinking. The filmmakers on this panel embody both through the form of short documentaries. Whether as directors, programmers, institutions, or critics, they face the challenges posed by shifting or even hostile political landscapes head on, and have devised strategies to either cope with, or contest, our challenging times. This conversation will explore how short documentary filmmaking can serve as a space for resistance, reflection, and reinvention - offering a vivid, contemporary picture of cinema that acts against despair.
Speakers: Alisa Kovalenko, Anne Gaschüt
Alisa Kovalenko
Alisa Kovalenko is a Ukrainian award-winning documentary director, based in Kyiv. She studied at the National University of Cinema in Kyiv and the Wajda School in Warsaw. Her films Alisa in Warland (IDFA 2015) and Home Games (Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018) won multiple awards. We Will Not Fade Away, a teenage adventure documentary set in war-torn Donbas, premiered at the Berlinale 2023, won 20 awards and was named Best Ukrainian Documentary 2023 by the Ukrainian Film Academy. After Russia’s invasion, she volunteered to fight on the front line before returning to filmmaking with a personal documentary My Dear Theo (CPH:DOX 2025). A former captive and survivor of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), Kovalenko is a member of SEMA Ukraine and an active human rights advocate. Her personal experience and human rights activism led her to work on the documentary film Traces. Selected filmography: MY DEAR THEO (2025), WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY (2023), HOME GAMES (2018), ALISA IN WARLAND (2015)
Anne Gaschüt
Director and programmer of the FILMFEST DRESDEN – International Short Film Festival. She has worked as a production assistant and production manager on numerous short film projects. In 2021 she became a member of the Pardi di domani Selection Committee at Locarno Film Festival. She is also one of the initiators of Talking Shorts, an online platform that focuses on short film criticism, and a member of the European Film Academy.
Moderator: Anas Sareen
Anas Sareen,
Born in 1992 in Dubai to an Iraqi-Turkish mother and an Indian father, Anas studied literature and film history at the universities of Lausanne and Oxford, before working as a screenwriter and director. He is a feature-film programmer for the Berlinale's Generation section. His short film, THE GODS, is playing in festivals worldwide after premiering in Locarno 2025, and he is now writing his first feature, titled THIS BLACK EARTH.
Partner: Institute of Documentary Film
Free admission
Event in English
