GFF Perspective A Window into our Reality

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This year marks an exciting year for documentaries at Glasgow Film Festival, and I feel extremely privileged to have contributed 4 titles to this year's line-up.

As we witness the alarming rise of fascism worldwide, the erosion of human rights in countless forms, and daily atrocities live-streamed directly into our homes, the importance of documentaries—to observe, bear witness, imagine and speak truth to power—has never been clearer. I have always believed in film as a collective experience, one that unites communities and inspires empathy.

Films not only offer a window into our realities but can also serve as powerful catalysts for change, sparking connections and igniting action through shared emotional journeys. Films are political. My aim was to champion works that resonate with the urgency of our times.

Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan in Gaza is a definite must-see—the kind of film that stays with you long after the credits roll. Built from grainy MiniDV tapes Aljafari shot in 2001 while searching for his former cellmate from the first Palestinian Intifada in 1989. Twelve years later, he returns to Gaza with his camera, guided by Hasan through streets that tell a thousand stories. What unfolds is a simultaneously moving and devastating travelogue that takes audiences from the North to the South of Palestine, with every frame carrying the weight of what has happened since.

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Jaripeo is Efraín Mojica’s directorial debut with Rebecca Zweig. This one transports you to Michoacán’s testosterone-soaked traditional rodeos explored through a queer perspective, delving into themes of longing, memory, and what it means to exist as a queer person within this hypermasculine tradition. The immersive style of the piece is remarkable and all-encompassing - I can't wait to see what this duo will do next.

Militantropos, collectively directed by Yelizaveta Smith, Simon Mozgovyi, and Alina Horlova, captures the human condition through the fractured realities of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The film pieces together everyday lives transformed by war — those who flee, those who lose everything, and those who stay to resist and fight — tracing both the instinct to survive and the need for closeness. Amid devastation and atrocity, the human is absorbed into war — and war, in turn, becomes part of the human.

The final film in my lineup is A Fox Under a Pink Moon, a co-authored work by Mehrdad Oskouei and Soraya. This intimate, multi-layered portrait follows Soraya, an Afghan artist, as she makes repeated attempts to escape Iran and reunite with her mother in Austria. Directed remotely by Oskouei, Soraya documents her harrowing journey over five years with an iPhone, blending moments of terror and hope with scenes of singing, dancing, and her extraordinary surrealist art. While many films have depicted the refugee experience, A Fox Under a Pink Moon sets itself apart through its uniquely intimate perspective as Soraya brings her own story to the screen.

Lauren Clarke is a film programmer, researcher and distribution consultant originally from Treaty 13 Territory/Toronto and based in Glasgow. She has over 10 years’ experience working on a wide range of international film festivals and cultural organisations.