In its second year, the Creative Nonfiction Film Weekend (CNFW) will focus on ‘personal documentary’, showcasing the thrillingly varied approaches of eight filmmakers telling their own story on film.

The tightly curated lineup includes two UK Premieres: Julian Castronovo’s Debut, or, Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued, which world premiered at IFFR; and Therese Henningsen’s All These Summers, which world premiered at CPH:DOX.

The festival also features the first public performances of a new multimedia project by editor Joe Bini (Grizzly Man, You Were Never Really Here, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed). Burden of Other People’s Dreams is a one-of-a-kind autofiction that crosses the experience of reading a book with the experience of watching a film, in order to tell a story about how stories are told. The piece will be booked in slots and experienced one audience member at a time.

Opening the festival will be a £3-entry showcase of online video: Chronically Online: A Personal History of the UK Internet presents some of Britain’s most iconic internet videos in the new context of a cinema screen, followed by a panel with online creators. This screening is presented in partnership with Our Screen Heritage, supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery Funding.

Filmmaker guests include Julian Castronovo, Therese Henningsen, Joe Bini, Chloe Abrahams, Jordan Lord, and Saeed Taji Farouky.

CNFW is intended as a collective, communal event, as opposed to a series of individual screenings. The whole programme (and particularly each day of screenings) was programmed for the films to speak to one another, building a rich and cohesive picture of personal documentary filmmaking.

Therefore, as well as buying individual tickets through the Rio website, audiences are encouraged to buy a full festival pass or a day pass.

See the full lineup below:
Chronically Online: A Personal History of the UK Internet + panel
Burden of Other People’s Dreams (Joe Bini, work-in-progress)
MS Slavic 7 (Sofia Bohdanowicz, 2019)
Kings & Extras: Digging for a Palestinian Image (Azza El-Hassan, 2004) + discussion
Debut, or, Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued (Julian Castronovo, 2025) + Q&A
Shared Resources (Jordan Lord, 2020) + Q&A
The Taste of Mango (Chloe Abrahams, 2023) + Q&A moderated by Saeed Taji Farouky
All These Summers (Therese Henningsen, 2025) + Q&A