Participatory Storytelling: Collaborative Approaches

29 May, 2026, 12.30 PM @ Festival Centre: Lounge 19

Event language: English

What does it mean to tell stories with others, rather than about them? This practice-driven session explores collaborative approaches to documentary filmmaking, addressing key questions of authorship, power, and responsibility. Building deep, trusting relationships with protagonists often requires long-term engagement and a continuous negotiation of roles and expectations. Through case studies and group discussions, the session examines the ethical challenges of representing lived experiences, particularly when working with vulnerable individuals, children, and communities whose knowledge systems and perspectives have been historically marginalized or misrepresented. It also explores how documentary practice can evolve beyond extractive models, moving toward more reciprocal and participatory forms of storytelling.

Following an opening conversation, we invite participants to join breakout sessions to exchange insights on working methods, decision-making processes, and the ethical dilemmas inherent in collaborative filmmaking. The focus will be on fostering long-term relationships, responsibility, and representation.

Tickets

Program Info

Participatory Storytelling

Guests

Lieselotte Viaene

Lieselotte Viaene is a Belgian-Flemish legal and environmental anthropologist (PhD in Law, 2011) and 2026 Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellow at RIFS Potsdam. For two decades, she has collaborated with Indigenous peoples in Latin America and Nepal, from genocide survivors to networks of Indigenous lawyers. She has produced two short documentaries in Colombia and Nepal with Indigenous and non-Indigenous filmmakers, advancing a bold, ethical, and transdisciplinary approach to more-than-human-worlds

Bipuljit Basu

Bipuljit Basu is a Sundance DFP and IDFA grantee, emerging from India’s documentary scene with a focus on marginalized South Asian narratives. A postgraduate in Social Development, he brings socially significant, culturally resonant stories to global audiences. From 2016-19, he also worked as an overseas distributor for Bengali cinema, promoting socially conscious films to Indian diasporas worldwide.

Juan Francisco Donoso

Juan Donoso is the co-director and producer of the documentary All We Have Is Us (2026). Producing via Cometa House Films (Germany) and Formando Rutas (Chile), he focuses on environmental justice and lithium mining in Latin America and the Balkans. His work bridges cinema and land defense, utilizing rare access to frontline communities and corporations to influence critical political dialogue.

Moderation

Jessica Valdez

Jessica Valdez is a project manager, cultural programmer, educator, and audiovisual producer who takes a feminist and anti-colonial perspective in her work on climate justice and reproductive rights issues. In Germany, she has been an organizer in the immigrant rights movement, especially in relation to access to education and freedom of movement.