IN THE FIELD: YOUR GUIDE TO AMDOC MEETUPS & MOMENTS, Oct 2025
This October, AmDoc staff will be convening around the country and beyond! We’ll be hosting events at our home base in NY, heading South and on to the West Coast for more screenings and conversations. Members of our programming team will be traveling to Europe to check out the international documentary scene and meet with industry peers, filmmakers and catch a few films along the way.
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
October 10 - 18 | Hot Springs, Arkansas
Opal H. Bennett will be headed south to attend the 34th Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, one the longest running documentary film festivals in North America. Situated in the Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, Opal will catch recent international documentary films and participate in the panel Responding to the Moment: Filmmaker-Focused Organizations and the Future of Funding / Distribution at the HSDFF Filmmaker Forum on October 12. She will join representatives of Firelight Media, American Documentary/POV and the National Multicultural Alliance to discuss how they are adapting to the new realities of the public and commercial media landscape and how they envision continuing to serve filmmakers.
The conversation will be moderated by Bernardo Ruiz, Filmmaker and 2024 Documentary Film Fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.
Read more about the forum and register here. Screenings and events will be held on-site at The Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa.
Opal H. Bennett (Executive Producer, POV Shorts; Senior Producer, POV)
Screening: The Ride Ahead + Q&A with filmmakers
DCTV's Firehouse Cinema, 87 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10013
October 20 | NY, NY, 3pm
POV and longtime partners DCTV will co-present a special afternoon community screening of The Ride Ahead, from our current season. Cayla Clements, Doug Truong and Claire Epstein will be in attendance at the Firehouse Cinema to welcome attendees and The Ride Ahead co-directors Samuel Habib and Dan Habib will be in conversation following the screening. The film will be introduced by Suzanne Sanchez, NYC Public Schools Chief of Special Education.
Co-presented by: American Documentary/POV, FWD-DOC, Westchester Institute for Human Development, LikeRightNow Films, and NYC Public Schools' Division of Inclusive & Accessible Learning.
Cayla Clements (Media Coordinator, Production & Programming, POV and POV Shorts), Claire Epstein (Outreach Coordinator, POV Engage); and Doug Truong (Development Associate, External Affairs, American Documentary | POV)
Dok Leipzig
October 27 - November 2 | Leipzig, Germany
Opal H. Bennett will travel to Germany to attend Dok Leipzig, the 68th iteration of the storied International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Films. This unique festival offers a rich program of contemporary nonfiction films along with animated works and curated series honoring timely classics, timely themes, plus awards competitions.
Opal H. Bennett (Executive Producer, POV Shorts; Senior Producer, POV)
AmDoc's NYC Partners in Nonfiction 2025 at DCTV's Firehouse Cinema
October 28 | NY, NY, 12-3pm
As a lead up to this year’s GalaFest 2025, POV staff will host a mixer for our non-fiction partners. Erika Dilday, Cecilia R. Mejia, Robert Salyer, Cayla Clements, Claire Epstein and Doug Truong will be in attendance to mix and mingle with guests. The event will feature a fireside chat and a conversation with POV filmmaker Stephen Maing, co-director of UNION. The event will be an opportunity to learn about ways to collaborate with American Documentary, producers of the Peabody, Emmy ™and Oscar™-winning non-fiction documentary series POV, POV Shorts & American ReFramed.
Erika Dilday (Executive Director), Cecilia R. Mejia (VP, External Affairs), Robert Salyer (Manager of Engage & Impact), Cayla Clements (Media Coordinator, Production & Programming), Claire Epstein (Outreach Coordinator, POV Engage); and Doug Truong (Development Associate, External Affairs, American Documentary | POV)
San Quentin Film Festival
October 23 - 24 | San Quentin, CA
Asad Muhammad and Gina Basso return to the San Quentin Film Festival and will be joined by Cecilia R. Mejia who will attend for the first time. For the second year, American Documentary is a proud supporter of the San Quentin Film Festival. This is the first-ever film festival to be held inside a prison and takes place at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. The festival features a variety of films by currently and formerly incarcerated filmmakers along with awards presentations. This unique festival showcases the creativity and transformative power of film and allows for a shared experience by San Quentin residents and industry guests alike.
Cecilia R. Mejia (VP, External Affairs), Gina Basso (Communications & Station Relations Manager), and Asad Muhammad (VP, Vice President, Impact & Engagement Strategy)
Ji.hlava
October 24 - November 2 | Prague, Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic, Chris White will be at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival. Since its beginning in 1997, the festival has become recognized as one of the leading European documentary film festivals and the largest event of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe. It attracts thousands of film professionals gathering to celebrate creative documentary cinema and is a major meeting place for the world documentary industry.
Chris White (Vice President, Programming & Production, Executive Producer, POV, POV Shorts, America ReFramed)