In 2027, the EthnoKino Doc Impact Lab will unfold through three immersive filmmaking retreats across Ladakh, Locarno and Şanlı Urfa, bringing together filmmakers, artists, researchers and local communities to learn, create and travel together.
Each retreat will last between five and ten days, combining collaborative film production with workshops, mentoring, cultural encounters, excursions and festival participation. Participants form small creative teams and develop short films inspired by the people, places and questions they encounter. The emphasis is not simply on producing films, but on experimenting with collaborative and socially engaged forms of documentary storytelling, while creating lasting relationships between emerging and established filmmakers from different parts of the world.
LADAKH | MAY 2027
Film. Landscape. Community.
The first retreat takes place amid the extraordinary cultural and ecological landscapes of Ladakh, India. Over approximately ten days, participants will move through an intensive process of imagining, filming and shaping short documentary works together. Workshops and mentoring sessions will be interwoven with excursions to villages, heritage sites and mountain landscapes. Ladakh becomes both our filmmaking location and our open-air classroom.The retreat asks: What can we create when we slow down, listen to a place and make films collectively?By the end of the retreat, participating teams will have developed new short films or audiovisual works that can continue travelling through the EthnoKino film festivals and network around the world.
LOCARNO | AUGUST 2027
Cinema. Exchange. International Encounters.
The second gathering brings the Doc Impact Lab to Locarno, Switzerland, alongside one of the world's major international film gatherings. Here, participants will experience cinema not only as filmmakers, but also as audiences, collaborators and members of an international creative community. The retreat combines film festival participation, screenings, workshops, mentoring, networking and collaborative filmmaking. Conversations emerging from the festival will become material for new creative experiments, while excursions around Locarno and its surrounding landscapes will take participants beyond the cinema halls. Locarno becomes a bridge between the intimate process of making films and the larger international ecosystem through which films circulate.
ŞANLIURFA | NOVEMBER 2027
Heritage. Memory. Moving Images.
The final retreat travels to Şanlıurfa in southeastern Türkiye, connecting filmmaking with some of the region's remarkable cultural landscapes. Participants will explore Şanlıurfa, Halfeti and Göbeklitepe, combining heritage excursions with workshops, collaborative film production and participation in the local film festival. Ancient landscapes meet contemporary stories. Through encounters with communities, archaeological sites, the Euphrates landscape and the festival itself, participants will explore how documentary cinema can engage with heritage, memory, belonging and transformation without treating places simply as backdrops.
The retreat culminates in another cycle of collective filmmaking, exchange and public encounter.
ONE LAB, THREE LANDSCAPES
Ladakh → Locarno → Şanlıurfa
Across the three retreats, the Doc Impact Lab creates a travelling community of practice. Participants may enter through different landscapes and stories, yet they become connected through a shared methodology: learning by making, travelling by listening and creating films through encounter.
The programme brings together:
Collaborative Film Production • Doc Impact Workshops • Filmmaker Mentoring • Heritage & Landscape Excursions • Festival Participation • Community Encounters • Peer-to-Peer Learning • Screenings & Conversations
Films developed through the retreats can continue their journey through the wider EthnoKino Film Festival and Doc Impact Lab network, creating opportunities for screenings, dialogue and future collaborations. Ultimately, the 2027 retreats imagine the Doc Impact Lab as something larger than a training programme. It is a travelling laboratory for cinema, people and place, where filmmaking becomes a way of meeting one another, exploring landscapes and asking what kinds of stories might help us imagine more inclusive futures.