Personal Documentary: Trust, Boundaries, and Protecting Relationships During Filming PANEL
Participants: Sári Haragonics (director, Don’t Worry, Sári!), Lea Podhradská (director, My Father’s Daughter), Arum Nam (director, K-Family Affairs)
Moderator: Asia Dér (director, Verzió curator)
This discussion focuses on the unique challenges of personal documentaries: how to maintain trust, respect boundaries, and protect close relationships when the director is part of the story.
ASIA DÉR is a Hungarian-Slovak documentary filmmaker known for her intimate, character-driven storytelling and long-term observational approach. She was born in Bratislava, spent most of her life in Budapest. She graduated from the DOCNomads international MA program and holds a PhD in practice from the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest. Her debut feature, Her Mothers (2020), co-directed with Sári Haragonics, premiered at Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival and was screened at more than 30 international festivals, including Sarajevo, Thessaloniki, and Taipei. Among other recognitions, the film won Best Feature
Documentary and Best Editing at the Moscow DOKer Festival and the Social Awareness Award at Crossing Europe.
Her second feature, I Won’t Die, follows an art gallery owner confronting life after a terminal cancer diagnosis. The film premiered in 2023 at the A-category Warsaw Film Festival.
Asia has participated in industry programs such as ZagrebDox Pro, East Doc Platform, Docu Rough Cut Boutique, DOCCIRCLE, and Cannes Docs.
She also teaches documentary film making whenever she is given the chance.
She is a founder and ex-board member of MADOKE, the Hungarian Documentary Association, and she is an active advocate for independent film making in Eastern Europe.
Sári Haragonics earned her BA degree in media studies from the University of Bedfordshire, in England, in 2007, then completed her master's degree in documentary film directing at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, in 2015. Her graduation film, Coming Face to Face, won the grand prize in the ZOOM-IN section of the Verzió International Documentary Film Festival. Her first feature-length documentary, Her Mothers (co-directed with Dér Asia), premiered in 2020 at the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, in Canada. Don't Worry Sári!, her second feature-length film, is a personal story about her own family.
Photo: Csaba Aknay
Lea Podhradská graduated from the University of Theatre and Film Budapest as a documentary filmmaker. Before that, she studied interdisciplinary social research at the doctoral school of ELTE. The film My Father's Daughter is her first feature film. She is motivated by the art of experimentation in filmmaking. Lea is a Talents Sarajevo scholarship holder.
Arum Nam is a documentary director based in Seoul, South Korea. Currently pursuing a master's degree in documentary at the Korea National University of Arts. She directed a short documentary called Pink Femi, which tells the story of a feminist mother, and co-directed Teleporting with Japanese directors during the pandemic. K-Family Affairs is her first feature documentary.
