Unspooling within the 76th Berlinale, the third edition of the “Films Change the World” symposium will invite industry professionals to look beyond premieres and festival Q&As to engage with the wider conditions, responsibilities and consequences of documentary filmmaking. Taking place on Friday 13 February in Berlin’s Rotes Rathaus, the event focuses on questions of authorship, visibility and power, asking who gets to tell history and whose stories are remembered.

The symposium posits documentary cinema as a key tool in shaping social and geopolitical memory. This year’s edition explores what it means to document reality under pressure, and how personal, political and psychological dimensions intersect in the work of contemporary filmmakers.

The programme opens with remarks by Florian Graf, head of the Berlin Senate Chancellery, followed by a conversation entitled “Unbroken Witness: Documentary Filmmaking Beyond the Film”, involving Iranian filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi (Roya, Son-Mother [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]), Roberto Deniz and Juan Andrés Ravell (author and actor in A Dangerous Assignment – Uncovering Corruption in Maduro’s Venezuela) and reflecting on documentary practice as an act of resistance and long-term engagement.

A key moment in the symposium will be the presentation of “Another Story”, a new initiative dedicated to rethinking documentary film history by foregrounding overlooked works by women directors. Developed by HER Docs Film Festival, the Balkan Documentary Center, Cineuropa, Festival dei Popoli and The Good Media Network (Doxumentale), in partnership with Eye Filmmuseum, Loreley Films and Alphapanda, “Another Story” is funded by Creative Europe MEDIA.