[Photo credit: wikimedia commons]

 

Jason Arday was a neurodivergent British academic. Born to Ghanaian immigrants, he was the youngest Black professor in Cambridge University’s history. 

 

Jason Arday's Blackness should have been incidental to his academic triumphs but it ended up being integral to his downfall - and his treatment at the hands of the British press. This week an inquest has begun into his death which happened shortly after he resigned from his University post.

 

The 41-year-old had faced allegations of plagiarism and questions about some of his achievements. In the 22 days prior to his death, there were some 249 articles published about him by the UK press, mainly in the broadsheets. Arday denied the claims, but ultimately resigned when the personal cost became too great. 

 

Implied in much of the reporting was the suggestion that a Black person with status was somehow undeserving. Arday's 2022 appointment at Cambridge was criticised as tokenism. While glossing over claims at the root of this story which were seeded by self-defined "race realist" Nathan Cofnas - sacked from his Cambridge post in 2024. It is Carole Cadwalladr who has since uplifted the reporting from an expert in influence operations - revealing the flank of individuals who sought to discredit Arday, their techniques over time, their connection in a bigger right-wing “race realist” network.

 

But facts made for a less interesting piece. Instead what was building was a snow storm of conjecture and mockery and more than a little racism, which made for tremendous click bait. The stories were primed for and proliferated on social media while publishers used paid ads to extend reach. 

Arday described the experience as "an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack".  Friends said that he felt "hounded" and the relentless media coverage had been "a bloodsport"

 

While we await the findings of the coroner there are calls for an "immediate public inquiry into how to ensure a responsible press". Misan Harriman + Professor Sir Isaac Julien have made demands of the higher education establishment. 

 

What does our non-fiction community take from this? We can double our efforts in centering the care of people who take part in our films. Who should never ever be sacrificed for our entertainment. Please don’t forget the brilliant resources from the Documentary Accountability Working Group, which aims to cultivate a culture of care and accountability in nonfiction filmmaking.

 

We need real conversations (and perhaps whistleblowers) to name the rising pressure on journalists and filmmakers to provide spectacle, the bread and circuses that feed algorithms. To help us see more clearly what is changing in the information ecosystem - not just the form of storytelling but the tone and values.

 

Finally, we don’t have to obey. We call for creative resistance from filmmakers and journalists, from commissioners and curators and funders. We call for more soft and slow and strange and punk and queer and beautiful and Black and kind storytelling. Storytelling that does not conform to platform logic. 

 

We send our condolences to his family, loved ones and friends. RIP Professor Jason Arday. 

 

Yours the Doc Society Directors 

Friends, we’re gearing up for this year’s BFI London Film Festival and can’t wait. The programme is stacked with brilliant work from across the field, and three Doc Soc supported films are in the lineup. Doc Soc will be there in person, hosting events across the week. More to come very soon. 

 

Below are the three films you can catch at LFF, running 7 - 18 October.

 

Rebellion, dir & prod. Ken Fero, dir. Tariq Mehmood, world premiere. Supported by the BFI Doc Society Fund, awarding National Lottery funding. 

 

Queer Edward II, dir. Theo Rollason, prod. Sebastien Rabas & Ben Fowlie, UK premiere. Supported by the BFI Doc Society Fund, awarding National Lottery funding. 

 

To Hold a Mountain, dir. & prod. Biljana Tutorov &Petar Glomazić, prod. Quentin Laurent & Rok Biček, UK premiere with support from the Climate Story Fund. 

 

Have a look at the full LFF programme here. Tickets go on sale on 17 September.

Artist filmmakers, this one’s for you. Join us for an online conversation with artist filmmaker Suki Chan, behind the brilliant film Conscious, and Luke Moody, Head of the BFI Doc Society Fund, on how to find and work with producers to expand your practice and reach, from the gallery into cinema and festival distribution. An open practical session on the director producer relationship, and how to grow your work without losing the creative independence that underpins it. Tuesday 8 September, 6:30 PM - 8 PM BST. Organised with LUX and FLAMIN. Register here!

Grab a brew and join the BFI Doc Society team for one of our regular online coffee mornings. This is a chance to meet the BFI Doc Society team and ask any questions about our funds or talent development programmes.

 

Across the next few months we will be hosting these online sessions specifically for producers and directors from various regions and nations across the UK to give you a chance to connect with other filmmakers in your area. Pick your session here!

Super Nature, (dir. Ed Sayers, prods. Rebecca Wolff, Ed Sayers, and Beth Allan) is opening in cinemas on Friday 4 September 5:30 PM BST at BFI IMAX, where Super 8 fills the whole screen. Supported by the BFI Doc Society Fund, awarding National Lottery funding. Tickets!

How Deep Is Your Love, dir. Eleanor Mortimer, prod. Jacob Thomas, opening in UK & Ireland cinemas from 2 October 2026. Catch a preview and Q&A with Eleanor at Bertha Dochouse on 23 September, or at Curzon Soho on 30 September! Supported by the BFI Doc Society Fund, awarding National Lottery funding. More screening info here!

After screening in over 100 countries and 20 languages, We'll Go Down In History, (dir. Cameron Richards and Charlie Tidmas, prod. Anna Lamond) is now available to watch online. The film follows TRUK United, the UK's first all-trans football club, on and off the pitch as its players build a safe haven for their community. Supported by the BFI Doc Society Made of Truth Fund, awarding National Lottery funding. Watch at trukunitedfilm.com or on the film's YouTube channel.

How to Build a Library, (dir. & prod. Maia Lekow and Christopher King), premiered last week on PBS, opening POV's 39th season. The film follows Angela Wachuka and Wanjiru Koinange over seven years as they rebuild Nairobi's McMillan Memorial Library, closed to Black Kenyans until 1958, into a public hub for the city's readers and creatives. Supported by our New Perspectives Fund. Watch on PBS or stream it here.

River of Grass (dir. Sasha Wortzel, prod. Sasha Wortzel and Danielle Varga), is now available on Apple TV and Amazon Prime. A gorgeous gem of a film. A lyrical ode to the Florida Everglades, drawing on the writings of Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the voices of the community who call the region home today. Supported by our Climate Story Fund. Watch on Apple TV or Amazon Prime.

The extraordinary story of the Palila, a Hawaiian yellow finch that sued the state of Hawaii in 1979 to stave off its own extinction (dir. Laurie Sumiye, prod. Anne Misawa). Long-awaited since Good Pitch Hawaii in 2021, we're excited for this one! Catch it at the dctvny in NYC, in LA, and in Honolulu. Find out where to watch it here. 

All Rivers Spill their Stories to the Sea, (dir.& prod. Jeanie Finlay, prod. Charlie Phillips) is coming to a cinema near you! Previews from September 12 and full cinema release on 23 October. Supported by the BFI Doc Society fund, awarding National Lottery Funding. Grab a ticket and dive in here. 

Queer Now is more than convenings; it's a strategic intervention: against rising anti-gender movements, we're moving the story away from "survival" and towards collective power, narrative sovereignty and unapologetic joy. 

Stories are the language of the heart, they help us imagine a better future. But not everyone has the power to transform the shared narratives that define our society.

 

Felipe shares the ultimate lesson in building narrative power: the antidote to apathy, hate, and division is curiosity. And you know what's particularly great at fostering curiosity? Films. When we help people stay open to learning, we expand the horizons of what is possible. 

 

Our latest Queer Now reel is live on Instagram. What happens when you bring together the world's most visionary queer storytellers, movement builders, and culture makers? You get a roadmap for the future. Watch, share, and if you need a bit more queer storytelling magic in your day, dip into our LGBTQIA+ film playlist.

Keeping up with the collaboratives this month, in India, fellows, several of them indigenous women, are heading home to tell the stories of the women farming into their communities futures, while in Brazil, thirty young people turned six months of training into six original films, with three youth collectives already running on their own steam.

 

🇧🇷 Crias pelo Clima, Brazil. They asked a simple question: who gets to tell the stories of the climate crisis? In Baixada Santista, a coastal region hit hard by rising seas and landslides, the answer is the young people themselves. Over three months, 30 young people from the outskirts of Santos created short films, documentaries and art on youth and climate justice, putting cinema, so often out of reach, right at their fingertips. Led by Instituto Procomum, Instituto KondZilla and Instituto Querô.

 

🇮🇳The Woman Farmer Project, India, six fellows documenting the lives, labour and knowledge of women farmers across three of the country's food landscapes. From descending 3,000 steps to reach women practising jhum cultivation in the hills of Meghalaya, to reporting from the fish drying yards of Tamil Nadu, to meeting Baiga women farmers displaced from Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh, the fellows are currently embedded in the communities working on these stories. Led by The Locavore.

 

One belief: that the people closest to the crisis are the ones who should be telling its stories.

 

Read more about the Climate Storytelling Collaboratives programme and dive into the incredible work our partners are doing all over the world.

The Impact Field Guide is our living toolkit for filmmakers pushing for change. The Indigenous Impact Alliance, a collective impact initiative helmed by five Indigenous-led documentary film teams and supported by our Climate Story Unit, has added a set of resources to the Guide that put Indigenous filmmaking knowledge, community-led decision making, and collaboration between projects at the center, rather than the siloed campaigns filmmakers usually navigate. 

 

Explore the Indigenous Impact Alliance resources, dive into the guide, and suggest a resource.

Sasha Wortzel’s beautiful film, River of Grass, has partnered with Journeys in Film to bring a free learning guide to audiences of all ages. “A companion guide to RIVER OF GRASS, our learning guide features lessons on the ecosystem of the Everglades for science classes, a look at art and poetry inspired by the region for English Language Arts classes, a land use component for intersectional learning and/or science, civics, government, social studies, as well as a section exploring data centers and other timely topics related to development and the environment.”

 

Learn more and download the guide here. 

GIPA member Chithra Jeyaram's piece for this month's Provocation shares her experience with grassroots distribution, and asks a question worth sitting with: what if generosity became a foundational part of the marketing, distribution, outreach and impact model?

 

"As independent filmmakers, we face a saturated media environment with shrinking avenues for distribution. What we know from experience is that meaningful work grows through relationships. Distribution is no different." Read the full piece and share it with your communities!

Two celebrations this month! First up: massive love to the team behind How Deep is Your Love, which took home Best Film at the 23rd Seoul International Eco Film Festival. A brilliant win, and one we're proud to celebrate.

 

Next: the Grierson British Documentary Awards 2026 longlist has landed, and four Doc Society-supported films have made the cut. Comparsa is up for Best Single Documentary - International, Holloway and Molly vs THE MACHINES are both up for Best Cinema Documentary, and The Shadow Scholars joins Molly vs THE MACHINES in the Best Single Documentary - Domestic category. Massive congratulations to every team on the list.

 

Congrats to The Librarians team on their Primetime Emmy nomination for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking! This award will be presented at the 2026 Creative Arts Emmys on Saturday, September 5th at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, and then airing on FX and Hulu in the following week. Keep an eye out for the book mavens in the crowd!

 

Big claps for Keith (dir. Steven Fraser & prod. Reece Cargan) and Life of Kai (dir. Fox Fisher & prod. Just Pickles), both shortlisted for the Iris Prize, one of the world's leading LGBTQ+ short film awards. Funded by the BFI Doc Society Made of Truth fund. All 15 shortlisted films will be available to watch on Channel 4 from 16th October.

There are some brilliant opportunities circulating across the field at the moment. Dive in and explore what might be a fit for your projects.

 

Guardian X Arte Short Documentary Fund Open

Democracy at Stake in Europe is a new initiative from Guardian Documentaries and arte.tv. They will be supporting one short documentary on the theme of democracy in Europe today. Deadline: Monday 14 September 2026. Full criteria and entries here!

 

Bridging the Gap - Applications are Open

The talent development programme for emerging Scotland and Northern Ireland-based filmmakers with a story to tell. Successful applicants get professional development training, production funding and mentorship, and a year of international festival distribution, plus in-person and online inspiration sessions to help shape submissions. Deadline: Wednesday 9 September, midnight BST. Full details and application form.

 

BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship - Applications are Open

A nine month cohort programme for filmmakers directing their first or second feature documentary. Fellows receive mentorship, industry access, cohort wide travel, and $10,000 in unrestricted funding. Deadline: Sunday30 August, midnight PT. Apply here!

 

Sustainability Coordinator Essentials in HETV 

Free two-week training from Production Guild UK, Neptune Sustainability and ScreenSkills for Assistant Coordinators and Assistant Location Managers in scripted HETV, running 2-13 November. Limited to 10 places, applications close 30 September. Full details and application.