May Abdalla
Interactive Documentary Filmmaker.
Exploring documentary storytelling in the age of the interface
In recent years, a wide range of people working across film, digital arts, science and media have been innovating the documentary genre. Here is a list of people and organisations who we consider important digital pioneers. Through their work, they have been making us think, play and love what digital documentary storytelling has to offer.
Please inform us if you find any information that should be updated.
Gabo Arora
Thinker, artist, humanitarian and co-creator of the United Nations Virtual Reality film series
Memo Akten
Memo Akten is an artist working with computation as a medium, exploring the collisions between nature, science, technology, ethics, ritual, tradition and religion.
Tega Brain
Australian born artist whose eccentric engineering asks questions of ecology, perceptions of environment and computation.
Martin John Callanan
Artist & researcher exploring notions of citizenship within the globally connected world.
Gabriel Dance
My name is Gabriel Dance. I am originally from Colorado, and currently I live in New York City.
Yasmin Elayat
New media artist, experience designer, and creative technologist working at the intersection of art and technology.
Ze Frank
Online performance artist, humorist, and public speaker, Ze Frank is creator of star.me and many other online play spaces.
Ira Glass
American public radio personality, host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.
Ross Goodwin
Creative technologist exploring the possibilities of artificial intelligence and storytelling
Brent Hoff
Director of programming at IFP’s New Media Centre in New York and co-founder of Wholphin DVD.
Jonathan Harris
Artist and computer scientist, assembling vast amounts of data to create large-scale real-time portraits of humanity.
Todd Heisler
An award-winning photojournalist, currently a staff photographer for the New York Times.
Sep Kamvar
LG Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT & Director of the Social Computing Group at the MIT Media Lab.
Michelle Kasprzak
PhD candidate at University of Porto & Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute.
Jason Kottke
Jason Kottke is an American blogger, former web designer, and founder of one of the oldest blogs on the web: kottke.org
Kadir van Lohuizen
An international photojournalist best known for his long term projects on the seven rivers of the world and the diamond industry.
Édouard Lanctôt-Benoit
Creative developer and a technical director specialized in interactive videos, new media art and installations
Kathleen Lingo
Comissioning Editor, Opinion Video and Series Producer/Curator for The New York Times Op-Docs.
Rob McLaughlin
Editor-In-Chief, Deputy Publisher and a leading innovator in the field of factual interactive content.
Bjarke Myrthu
On a mission to unleash the power of media and push the limits of storytelling with visuals, audio and interactivity.
John MacFarlane
Producer at SBS Australia with a background in journalism, documentary film, media theory and interactive design.
Jigar Mehta
Documentary filmmaker and journalist working on developing tools for collaborative journalism.
Lauren McCarthy
Artist exploring current social and technological systems and structures for interacting with other people.
Tommy Pallotta
Director and producer fusing new technologies with filmmaking, animation and interactivity.
Nina Maria Paschalidou
Award-winning documentary filmaker, producer and an acclaimed Greek journalist.
Jason Spingarn-Koff
Jason Spingarn-Koff is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker and journalist
Jeff Soyk
Media artist with experience in creative direction, UI/UX design, HTML/CSS/JS and film/video.
Paisley Smith
Paisley Smith is a Canadian filmmaker, virtual reality director, and creative producer based in Los Angeles and Vancouver.
Florian Thalhofer
Media artist, documentary filmmaker, and inventor and architect of the Korsakow System.
Osnat Trabelsi
Founder of Trabelsi Productions, producing critical, creative and politically moving documentaries.
William Uricchio
Professor of Comparative Media Studies at MIT, Principal Investigator of MIT’s Open Documentary Lab, and Professor of Comparative Media History at Utrecht University.
Antoine Viviani
Young French filmmaker and producer exploring the possibilities of new media storytelling.
Sander Veenhof
An Amsterdam based new media artist researching new models of interaction and communication.
Zach Wise
Associate professor at Northwestern University and former multimedia producer for The New York Times.
Roel Wouters
Independent conditional designer and director in the field of interaction, media design and film.
Arte
ARTE is a European public-service cultural television channel that targets audiences from different cultural backgrounds, in particular French and German.
Anagram
Anagram is a creative studio who make immersive experiences, bringing together digital interaction and non-fiction storytelling
CNC
The CNC promotes, distributes, and supports projects across the French film, television, video, and multimedia industry.
Condition One
Technology startup developing immersive experiences for next generation virtual reality devices.
Cognito Comics
Interactive storytelling studio exploring the intersection of comics, games, graphic novels, and e-books.
Google Creative Labs
A place to explore and play around with prototypes of some of Google’s wild and crazy ideas.
Honkytonk
An interactive production studio based in Paris, Honkytonk develops, produces, and distributes multimedia documentary films.
IDFA DocLab
The official new media program of IDFA, showcasing new forms of documentary storytelling, digital technology, and media art.
IDFA Forum
International co-financing market for documentaries and Europe’s largest gathering of filmmakers, TV commissioning editors, and documentary producers.
Jam3
An award winning collaborative interactive production studio, Jam3 blends creativity with technical wizardry.
Mediafonds
Mediafonds stimulates the creation of innovative cultural and media content via radio, television and Internet public media institutions.
MediaStorm
Mediastorm is an award-winning multimedia production studio with a focus on creating cinematic narratives for distribution across a variety of platforms.
MEDIA
MEDIA Desk Netherlands helps to promote and administer the European Union’s MEDIA Programme in the Netherlands.
Marshmallow Laser Feast
Creative studio exploring the line between virtual and real-world experiences
National Film Board of Canada
The Award-winning National Film Board of Canada produces and distributes bold and innovative documentary, animation, alternative drama, and and digital media productions.
NPR
A thriving media organization at the forefront of digital innovation, NPR creates and distributes award-winning news, information, and music programming to a network of 900 independent stations.
The New York Times
The New York Times is the largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, regarded as the national newspaper of record.
Providences
Paris based production company dedicated to transmedia, web documentaries, linear documentaries and cinema.
Submarine
Amsterdam-based production company Submarine always explores new forms of visual storytelling.
SXSW
Bringing creatives together to meet and share ideas, whether it is music, film, or the internet.
The Smartphone Orchestra
An orchestra in which every person in the audience and their smartphone plays a unique part.
Tribeca New Media Fund
The TFI New Media Fund looks for social issue media projects that use non-traditional and dynamic storytelling platforms to engage audiences.
Tribeca Film Institute
Supporter of individual artists in the field, empowering filmmakers through grants and professional development.
VPRO
VPRO is a Dutch multimedia broadcaster known for its radio, television, internet and guide programming.
VICE Media
VICE is a global media channel focusing on investigative journalism and counter-culture videos
