This year’s Doc Chicago mini-conference kicks off with a showcase of regionally produced short documentaries at Chicago Filmmakers on Friday, December 5, followed by an afternoon of documentary-focused panels, a case study, and discussions at the Chicago Cultural Center on Saturday, December 6. Rooted in a spirit of mutual aid, Doc Chicago is a volunteer-driven initiative that invites the regional documentary community to come together, share ideas, and learn from another.
Speakers and moderators for the free convening on Saturday, Dec 6 in the Chicago Cultural Center’s Studio Theater include accomplished local filmmakers and media arts professionals. Featured participants include award-winning photographer and filmmaker Carlos Javier Ortiz; Alexandra Halkin (Americas Media Initiative); Kyle Henry (Time Passages), veteran PBS producer Dan Protess (In Their Hands, From Rails to Trails): Risé Sanders-Weir (Documentary Producers Alliance); Eric D. Seals and Donnie Seals Jr. (Digifé); and Naomi Walker (Global Impact Producers Alliance), among others.
Doc Chicago opens with a short-film showcase on Friday, Dec 5, 7pm at Chicago Filmakers,highlighting the diversity of concerns, stories and styles shaping Chicago’s vibrant documentary scene. The program features several brand-new works, including Mr Doremus Does What He Can (2025, 14 min), veteran producer Fenell Doremus’s offbeat yet tender portrait of her 85-year-old dad’s weekly graffiti cleanup. In Magic Brown Artist (2025, 13 min), filmmaker Dinesh Sabu and visual artist victor yañez-lazcano are drawn into a surreal hybrid documentary that explores what it means to make art while being brown. From Icelandic filmmaker Gríma Irmudóttir, who has made Chicago home for several years, comes the award-winning Minningaspor (Memory Traces) (2025, 19 min), a deeply personal and poetic meditation on loss and grief.
Festival favorite Broken Flight (2024, 18 min) by Erika Valenciana and Mitchell Wenkus follows Chicago Bird Collision Monitors as they rescue injured birds, presenting a lens of environmental change that impacts every landscape. Truth & Documentary’s Kidnapping is Not a Career (2025, 5 min) observes what happens at the Chicago Job Fair where U.S. Customs and Border Patrol had a recruitment table. Rounding out the program is a special sneak-preview of Paloma Martinez’ Ricky Leaves (26 min), in which her brother Ricardo prepares to move out of his childhood home just as their parents plan to return to their native Mexico. When the siblings watch their long-forgotten home movies, what they discover is not quite what they remember.
The full program runs approximately 90 minutes, followed by a Q+A with the artists.
For full program and RSVP:
Click here for full program
Friday, December 5
7pm
Chicago Filmmakers
1326 W Hollywood Ave
Chicago
Saturday, December 6
noon-5pm
Chicago Cultural Center’s Studio Theater
Free Gathering at Studio Theater, first floor
Entering from the Randolph Street entrance is recommended
78 E. Washington Street – first floor
Chicago
TICKETS:
Click here for tickets and more info
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