Video Exclusives

Filmmaker Q&As, panel discussions and master classes have been an integral part of SDFF since it began over 15 years ago. Filmmakers had been increasingly ubiquitous at the in-person festival, holding Q&As after screenings, giving presentations about their areas of expertise, pitching films, connecting with other filmmakers and engaging in panel discussions on topics related to the industry, filmmaking practice, the media in general, and, in some cases, documentary topics that were essential to a given year’s fest. When the pandemic hit and we found ourselves quickly moving to online events, we knew it would be impossible to reproduce this same level of participation, but were also presented with new possibilities for our filmmakers to communicate with their audiences and their colleagues, while also leaving a record for posterity, and an archive for folks to revisit.

This Video Exclusives section includes all free video exclusives from SDFF 2020 and 2021, from filmmaker interviews and panel discussions to awards speeches, and will also be adding new free interviews and panel discussions from 2021, which were previously only available behind the pay-wall (by buying tickets during the festival). We will release the 6 2021 paid exclusives for free for the next few months, see “Upcoming Exclusives” button for a list of those films and their release dates.

All interviews and panels accompany film festival selections and were made during SDFF 2020 and SDFF 2021.

Director Susan Sandler + Comedian Julia Scotti, Julia Scotti: Funny That Way   l   Director Yung Chang, This Is Not A Movie + Wuhan Wuhan   l   Director Mostafa Salehi Nezahad, Three Meters And A Few Centimeters   l   Director Mirra Bank, No Fear, No Favor   l   Farzaneh Omidvarnia, Son Sparrow   l   Director Mark Street + Artist William Kelly, Can Art Stop A Bullet   l   30 Best American LGBTQIA Docs