HER Docs Forum 2026

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Day 01 | 01.10.2026

Centrum Kultury Filmowej im. Andrzeja Wajdy,
Aleje Ujazdowskie 20/4, Warsaw

10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Individual HER Development Consultations

Invited projects only.

1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
From Idea to Collaboration: Meeting with Producers

Finding the right producer is one of the key stages in developing a film, particularly a documentary, where roles and responsibilities often overlap, especially during the early stages of a project. This practical session will offer an opportunity to gain insight into producers’ perspectives and learn how to prepare yourself and your project for that first contact, as well as how to find people with whom it is worth building a collaboration.

Together, we will go through the different stages of the process – from the initial contact and discussing the project, through establishing the terms of collaboration and key contractual issues, to preparing an application and seeking funding. We will also discuss what directors and producers need from one another at different stages of development, and what challenges arise from the specific nature of working on a documentary film.

The session will draw on concrete examples and experiences from the invited producers, with plenty of space for participants’ questions and discussion of their own projects.

3:15 pm – 5:30 pm
From Idea to Collaboration: Meeting with Cinematographers, Sound Recordists and Editors

More than any other form, documentary filmmaking requires close collaboration between people working across different departments – both on set and in post-production. In documentary filmmaking, it is rarely possible to carry out exactly what was planned in advance. Changing circumstances, relationships with protagonists, and the need to respond to what is happening in front of the camera mean that the way a project is made often evolves throughout the process.

This session will focus on practical knowledge about working with cinematographers, sound recordists and editors. The invited professionals will discuss when and how it is useful to bring them onto a project, what they need at different stages of the process, and what helps – and what can get in the way of – a productive collaboration. They will also share concrete examples from their own work.

After a short group conversation, we will invite participants to continue networking over coffee and then move into smaller groups. This will be a space for direct questions, consultations on participants’ own ideas and projects, exchange of experiences, and making connections that could grow into future collaborations.

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Day 02 | 02.10.2026

Centrum Kultury Filmowej im. Andrzeja Wajdy,
Aleje Ujazdowskie 20/4, Warsaw

10:00 am – 11:15 am
Coffee with directors Faezeh Nikoozad and Jaśmina Wójcik

Jaśmina Wójcik and Faezeh Nikoozad, two directors working across film and visual art, come together to talk about practices rooted in personal experience. With light moderation and active participation from the audience, they will share thoughts on transforming the personal into the creative, the responsibilities of telling stories that involve ourselves and those close to us, and the challenges of showing ourselves honestly on screen. The conversation will also touch on vulnerability, working across different artistic forms, and the role of social and political engagement in their practices. An open exchange between two directors, with room for experiences, questions and ideas to flow freely.

Faezeh Nikoozad is an Iranian filmmaker and video artist based in Hamburg. Working across documentary, experimental film, and mixed media, she explores themes of home, childhood memory, and displacement. Her films have been screened and awarded at international festivals and exhibitions, including Festival dei Popoli, Kasseler Dokfest, Kino der Kunst, and the Berlin Biennale.

Jaśmina Wójcik She is a visual artist, director, educator and activist, creating participatory social and artistic projects. Her work gives visibility and agency to communities deprived of a voice. She directed the award-winning documentary Symphony of the Ursus Factory (2018). For years, she has focused on empathic education and working with children. Her latest film premiered at Hot Docs and was presented at Millennium Docs Against Gravity in 2025.

Films by both directors are also part of this year’s HER Docs Film Festival programme!

11:30 am – 11:45 am
Introduction and presentation of Another Story Project

Marta Golba-Naumann, Katarzyna Świątoniowska – HER Docs Foundation

Another Story is dedicated to bringing greater visibility, accessibility and circulation to overlooked films by women filmmakers. By rediscovering their work and artistic perspectives, the project creates space for dialogue, curiosity and new ways of looking at film history, while connecting the legacy of pioneering women filmmakers with future generations of documentary creators.

Another Story is a two-year collaboration between five European partners: HER Docs Foundation (Poland), Festival dei Popoli (Italy), The Good Media Network / Doxumentale (Germany), Balkan Documentary Center / Sofia DocuMental (Bulgaria) and Cineuropa (Belgium). The project is supporter by Creative Europe MEDIA (Audience Development and Film Education).

11:45 am – 1:15 pm
MASTERCLASS | Part 1: Stories Beyond the Frame

How do we find stories in images that were never meant to tell them? What happens when we look at existing footage from a different perspective? In this masterclass, filmmaker and archival materials specialist Magdalena Szymków will take us behind the scenes of her creative practice, exploring how she searches for, selects and reinterprets archival and found footage. Through excerpts from her films, selected archival materials and insights into her working process, she will share the questions, choices and discoveries that shape the transformation of existing images into new narratives.

Using the history and representation of women in cinema as a starting point, the masterclass will explore how archives shape the stories we can tell: who is visible, whose perspective is preserved, what is missing, and what can be discovered between the images. A feminist perspective will be an important tool for questioning established narratives and looking at familiar materials differently

Masterclass is a part of the Another Story project. 

1:15 pm – 2:15 pm
Lunch Break

2:15 pm – 3:45 pm
MASTERCLASS | Part 2: Archives in Practice

In the second, more practical part of the masterclass, participants will be introduced to the key stages of working with archival materials: research, finding and accessing footage, rights and licensing, selection, and creative use. The session offers an inside look at the archival filmmaking process and practical tools for approaching archives in a critical and informed way.

4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
PANEL DISCUSSION | Games in Film and Education: New Approaches to Storytelling and Participation

Guests:

• Karoline Roessler director: Intersection: It’s political, Germany
• Mascha Ermakova – game art design, Intersection: It’s political, Germany
• Alexa Cardas – F-SIDES Collective, Romania
• Alexandra Florescu – F-SIDES Collective, Romania

This conversation explores how game-based tools can open up new possibilities for storytelling, participation and learning.

The talk brings together two case studies that use gaming and digital technologies in different contexts. Intersection: It’s Political draws on game mechanics to experiment with cinematic storytelling and audience engagement. The Romanian collective F-SIDES uses gamification and digital tools, including VR, to develop feminist film education and reach young people beyond the limitations of traditional cultural infrastructure.

What can interactive tools bring to cinema and film education? How can they make space for audiences and perspectives that are often underrepresented in traditional cultural spaces? And how might gaming encourage more participatory ways of making, learning about and experiencing film?

Drawing on the experiences of both initiatives, the discussion will explore their methods, challenges and discoveries, as well as the potential of gaming as a creative, educational and community-building too

You can also see Intersection: It’s political at the HER Docs Festival on 2 October 2026 at 8:45 PM at Kinomuzeum.