Can we generate a public space for a better conversation around documentary film?

ARTISTIC DIFFERENCES, co-programmed and produced with programmer Cíntia Gil, is a monthly sequence of interlocking events— an online cineclub, along with physical screenings and public dialogues— that brings a diverse, international audience on a journey to many places and new contexts, welcoming many different films, voices, ideas and visions. Along the way, it makes room for brave questions and candid responses to challenging documentary art, and invites the voices of the audience to a more public stage after taking time to think together. 

Join us on the first Saturday of every month, 12pm EST!

Besim Sahatçiu’s 117 (1976) part of August ’22 UNDO Study Group with DokuFest

Presented with

Oberhausen-575

William Greaves’ In the Company of Men (1969) part of August ’22 UNDO Study Group with Open City Docs

Past Events

Under A Roof, Partnership with DokuFest

Featuring films—
117 by Besim Sahatçiu
O Movimento das Coisas (The Movement of Things) by Manuela Serra

Conversation with Boris Buden, Manuela Serra & Cíntia Gil

It has to Feel Real, Partnership with Open City Documentary Festival

Featuring films—
Special Features by James N Kienitz Wilkins
Tester by James N Kienitz Wilkins
In the Company of Men by William Greaves

Conversation with James N. Kienitz Wilkins & Morgan Quaintance and Cíntia Gil

Making A Face & A Fist, Partnership with DocLisboa & FICValdivia

Featuring films—
Cosas de Mujeres by Rosa Martha Fernández
Y si eres Mujer… by Guadalupe Sánchez
Vicios en la Cocina by Beatriz Mira
No es Por Gusto by Maricarmen de Lara & María Eugenia Tamés

 

Conversation with Karina Solórzano & Cíntia Gil

Means of Ordinary Disruption, partnership with Taiwan International Documentary Festival.

Featuring films

Dry Ground Burning by Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós

Temporary 臨時工 by HSU Hui-ju

Conversation with Joana Pimenta, Adirley Queirós, HSU Hui-ju, Christopher Allen, Jenny Miller, Cíntia Gil & Wood Lin.

Ghosts of a Damned Earth, Partnership with Berlin Critic’s Week (Woche Der Kritik)

Featuring films—
La Formula Secreta by Rubén Gámez
The White Death of the Black Wizard (A Morte Branca Do Feiticeiro Negro) by Rodrigo Ribeiro-Andrade
Lavra Dor by Ana Carolina and Paulo Rufino
O Tigre e a Gazela by Aloysio Raulino

Conversation with Victor Guimarães & Cíntia Gil

Haunting Archive, Partnership with Looiersgracht 60

Featuring films—

Like The Glitch of a Ghost (2023) by

Paula Albuquerque

Recollection (2015) by Kamal Aljafari

Featuring films—

The House of Science: A Museum of False Facts by Lynne Sachs
Drawn and Quartered by Lynne Sachs
Maya at 24 by Lynne Sachs
A Biography of Lilith by Lynne Sachs

Violently Honest, partnership with FICG (Guadalajara International Film Festival) & Seminario El Publico del Futuro with FICUNAM

Featuring films—

Les Ludiones by Anne Claire Poirier
A Scream From Silence by Anne Claire Poirier Les Filles du Roy by Anne Claire Poirier
Let Me Go by Anne Claire Poirier

What is a film? Partnership with DocLisboa Film Festival.

Featuring films—
Notes for a Film (Notas para una película) by Ignacio Agüero

This is The Way I Like It (Como Me Da La Gana) by Ignacio Agüero

Conversation with Filmmaker & Cíntia Gil

Series Title, Partnership with Name of Partner

Featuring films—
Film 1 by Filmmaker

Film 2 by Filmmaker

Film 3 by Filmmaker

Conversation with Filmmaker & Cíntia Gil

How it Works

Join the Club!

Sign up for the club, and get the links to view the films and join our monthly meeting, the first Saturdays of every month. 12pm EST, or you can check your time zone here.

If you are joining our monthly meeting, you’ll receive extra resources and context to help stoke new ideas and understandings

After watching and reviewing, we’ll gather together ONLINE to share epiphanies, exchange knowledge, debate and contribute together to generate a set of questions to bring to our featured filmmakers. The group as a whole is invited to add their voices and perspectives to the public dialogue.

Share Back

We’ll bring the ideas generated together back to the invited artists and writers for a conversation that foregrounds your inquiries from the larger collective to explore these topics as a community.

Watch & Listen

You don’t have to join the club to participate. Anyone is invited to listen to our final conversation with featured artists and to tune into the films too. Available for select 1 month periods over on our MEMBERSHIP SITE and on our iOS and Roku apps too. The conversation is available for members in our hub or for everyone wherever you listen to podcasts.

Why A Drifting CineClub?

This drifting cinema club is an experiment in building an inclusive international community in partnership with some of the most exciting documentary events and spaces around the world. We screen singular films that open questions about the possibility of collective transformation, about forms and practices of togetherness, and speak to filmmakers and authors that bring those notions into the core of their own artistic interrogations.
It’s all about spiraling together, being generous with our differences, and finding a shared focus, through reading, listening and responding in small, self-organized groups that together form a larger collective experience that can exist both in the World Wide Web and in the embracing darkness of a nearby cinema.

Co-Programmer, Cíntia Gil

Born in Portugal, Cíntia Gil is a film programmer. She studied at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema (Lisbon Theatre and Film School) and holds a degree in Philosophy from the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto (Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Porto), where she has also taught seminars on aesthetics. She directed DocLisboa Film Festival from 2012-2019 and Sheffield Doc Fest from 2019-2021.

UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art

UnionDocs is a Center for Documentary Art that presents, produces, publishes, and educates. We lead a diverse community on a search for urgent expressions of the human experience, practical perspectives on the world today, and compelling visions for the future.

FAQs

Everything can be accessed online! But if you are nearby we encourage you to attend screenings IRL on the ground with our partners, with many programs also available live at UnionDocs.

Memberships have a 30 day trial so your first time participating is totally free. If you enjoy your experience, we ask you to pay $7/month for these programs next time in addition to the other perks and work available to UNDO members. It’s a pretty great deal!

We all know how the work that challenges us most is sometimes the most difficult to watch on your own; that was pretty much the impetus for starting our little cinema. Not only is it hard to locate physically, the motivation and mental energy required to watch can be tough to muster without a shared commitment of attention. That’s why we are organizing this social way of watching together with lots of resources to help us approach the relevant questions and meaningful insights that these films have to offer.