Around the world, documentary filmmakers are navigating censorship, surveillance, legal persecution, and the slow erosion of independent filmmaking. These pressures aren't new. Filmmakers have been developing responses, protections, and collective strategies for decades. But the forms of repression are multiplying: state funding withdrawn and film festivals targeted by politicians; film ratings boards and corporate platforms pressured into compliance; filmmakers surveilled, prosecuted, and exiled for daring to film. In this conversation, filmmakers who have faced these conditions will share how they fought back through legal appeals, media strategy, activist networks, and the slow work of building institutions.
Supported by Grace Lay—LinLay Productions
Moderator: Orwa Nyrabia
Panelists: Lucía Requejo (Fuera de Campo), Vinay Shukla (While We Watched), Ingrid Raphaël (Anonymous Working Group), Alina Simone (Black Snow)
Biographies (submitted by the speakers):
Lucía Requejo is a film critic and programmer from Argentina. She is a member of Fuera de campo, a political collective dedicated to distributing and discussing Argentine cinema amid a climate of attacks and public dismantling by the national government. Her work engages with cinema through writing, curation, and critical reflection, contributing to the collective's ongoing conversation about film and its intersections with politics, aesthetics, and audience development.
Vinay Shukla is a prominent Indian filmmaker, producer, and key figure in the country's documentary landscape. In 2016, he co-directed his debut feature film, "An Insignificant Man," a non-fiction political thriller alongside Khushboo Ranka. The film received international acclaim, set a precedent for anti-censorship, and became the most successful documentary film in India in terms of theatrical release. Apart from filmmaking, Vinay has gained recognition as the producer of the widely acclaimed political strategy board games, "SHASN" and its sequel, "SHASN: AZADI." In 2022, Vinay's second feature film, "While We Watched," a non-fiction newsroom drama, premiered and won at the Toronto International Film Festival. It subsequently enjoyed a six-week theatrical run at the IFC Center in New York.
Alina Simone is an award-winning filmmaker and writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian Long Read, The Atlantic and NPR, among many others. Her debut documentary, Black Snow (PBS) was nominated for an Emmy for Best Documentary and won more than a dozen awards, including the FACT Award for best investigative documentary at CPH:DOX, the Sustainable Future Award at the Sydney Film Festival and the Cinema Eye Spotlight Award. Simone is a 2025 Guggenheim fellow, a 2025 Women's Academy Gold Fellow, and the recipient of an NYSCA/NYFA Film Fellowship.
Orwa Nyrabia: A filmmaker, writer, and festival director. He is a co-founder of No Nation Films GmbH, DOX BOX Association, and The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR). Vice-chair of IDA, and the president of The Festival Academy. Former IDFA's Artistic Director.
Around the world, documentary filmmakers are navigating censorship, surveillance, legal persecution, and the slow erosion of independent filmmaking. These pressures aren't new. Filmmakers have been developing responses, protections, and collective strategies for decades. But the forms of repression are multiplying: state funding withdrawn and film festivals targeted by politicians; film ratings boards and corporate platforms pressured into compliance; filmmakers surveilled, prosecuted, and exiled for daring to film. In this conversation, filmmakers who have faced these conditions will share how they fought back through legal appeals, media strategy, activist networks, and the slow work of building institutions.
Supported by Grace Lay—LinLay Productions
Moderator: Orwa Nyrabia
Panelists: Lucía Requejo (Fuera de Campo), Vinay Shukla (While We Watched), Ingrid Raphaël (Anonymous Working Group), Alina Simone (Black Snow)
Biographies (submitted by the speakers):
Lucía Requejo is a film critic and programmer from Argentina. She is a member of Fuera de campo, a political collective dedicated to distributing and discussing Argentine cinema amid a climate of attacks and public dismantling by the national government. Her work engages with cinema through writing, curation, and critical reflection, contributing to the collective's ongoing conversation about film and its intersections with politics, aesthetics, and audience development.
Vinay Shukla is a prominent Indian filmmaker, producer, and key figure in the country's documentary landscape. In 2016, he co-directed his debut feature film, "An Insignificant Man," a non-fiction political thriller alongside Khushboo Ranka. The film received international acclaim, set a precedent for anti-censorship, and became the most successful documentary film in India in terms of theatrical release. Apart from filmmaking, Vinay has gained recognition as the producer of the widely acclaimed political strategy board games, "SHASN" and its sequel, "SHASN: AZADI." In 2022, Vinay's second feature film, "While We Watched," a non-fiction newsroom drama, premiered and won at the Toronto International Film Festival. It subsequently enjoyed a six-week theatrical run at the IFC Center in New York.
Alina Simone is an award-winning filmmaker and writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian Long Read, The Atlantic and NPR, among many others. Her debut documentary, Black Snow (PBS) was nominated for an Emmy for Best Documentary and won more than a dozen awards, including the FACT Award for best investigative documentary at CPH:DOX, the Sustainable Future Award at the Sydney Film Festival and the Cinema Eye Spotlight Award. Simone is a 2025 Guggenheim fellow, a 2025 Women's Academy Gold Fellow, and the recipient of an NYSCA/NYFA Film Fellowship.
Orwa Nyrabia: A filmmaker, writer, and festival director. He is a co-founder of No Nation Films GmbH, DOX BOX Association, and The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR). Vice-chair of IDA, and the president of The Festival Academy. Former IDFA's Artistic Director.
