Click here to learn more about our Global Ecological Cinema Podcast. Individual episodes follow, beginning with the most recent.

Episode Seven: WOMAN IN THE DUNES & Kōbō Abe

Dr. Timothy Iles joins us to discuss ecological aspects of WOMAN IN THE DUNES, the second film produced by the legendary collaboration of Kōbō Abe and Hiroshi Teshigahara—as well as Abe’s expansive ecological imagination more broadly, including in his novels and stories. Click here to listen.

Episode Six: TO THE WEST, IN ZAPATA

We talk with David Bim, whose film, TO THE WEST, IN ZAPATA (AL OESTE EN ZAPATA), earned our festival’s 2026 Black Merlin Grand Prize. The cinematic, feature-length documentary tells a deeply human story about a family's life and love in the Cuban wilderness at the height of Covid-19. Click here to listen.

Episode Five: CRADLED BY THE EARTH

When Renata Mireilles and David Vêluz prepared to make a feature-length documentary about Indigenous childhood in Brazil, they did so not with a script in hand and cameras pointed, eagerly. Instead, they approached the exploration with open hearts and minds, asking the Guarani Kaiowá, Guarani Ñandeva, Baniwa, and Khisêtjê peoples, “What would you like to celebrate about the ways you raise your children?” Click here to listen.

Episode Four: DISTANCE TO THE MOON

DISTANCE TO THE MOON is an immersive stop-motion animation film that explores hope, memory, solitude, and grief. We talk with the film’s co-director, Sacha Kyle, and composer, Giles Lamb, about these themes, finding inspiration in dreams, simultaneously loving and letting go of what the world once was, and more. Their film is an Official Selection in our 2026 festival. Click here to listen.

Episode Three: AL BASATEEN (THE ORCHARDS)

We speak with Antoine Chapon, a French filmmaker who collaborated with former residents of Damascus, Syriah's Basateen al-Razi neighborhood to reflect on their shared struggle and reimagine the future of the land they once called home. AL BASATEEN (THE ORCHARDS) is an Official Selection in our 2026 festival. Click here to listen.

Episode Two | AKABABURU: EXPRESSION OF ASTONISHMENT

AKABABURU: EXPRESSION OF ASTONISHMENT is a short film from Colombia’s Karmata Rua Indigenous Reservation, which reimagines the myth of Kiraparmia, a woman who was punished by the gods for laughing at her husband. We talk with the film’s director, Irati Dojura, and producer, Laura Giraldo about this Official Selection in our 2026 Indigenous Voices series. Click here to listen.

Episode One: THE GLEANERS AND I

For the very first episode of our Global Ecological Cinema Podcast, we focus on Agnés Varda’s beloved, meandering masterpiece, THE GLEANERS AND I—with Kiva Reardon, Urban Gleaners, and the founder of our festival, Dawn Smallman. Click here to listen.