Summer in the Big Apple: Bites from UnionDocs Documentary Lab 2026

This summer, our Travel Grant Fund supported five emerging UK filmmakers to attend the prestigious UnionDocs Summer Documentary Lab Programme in New York.

Through workshops, screenings, mentoring, professional development and peer feedback, the programme helps participants clarify their artistic vision, strengthen project materials and connect with an international documentary community.

UnionDocs offers two focused programmes: a Research and Development Lab and an Early Production track aimed at emerging filmmakers working towards creative documentary projects.

We caught up with three of the UK cohort to get the inside track...

Meet the Filmmakers

Isaac Knights-Washbourn is a Scotland-based filmmaker whose short Money Honey premiered at the 70th Berlinale, won the Wellington UNESCO City of Film Award at NZIFF and Best Director at Show Me Shorts. His documentary Mother’s Milk premiered at DOK Leipzig and was nominated for a Silver Eye Award. An Erasmus Mundus Scholar in screenwriting, he attended IDFAcademy and ESoDoc in 2023 with his debut feature documentary, Thorntree, due for release in 2026.

Isaac’s second feature documentary, Fallout, began with a search for his estranged grandfather and led him to discover that he is part of a community of British nuclear test descendants living with the inherited consequences of atmospheric testing. Moving across Kiribati, Japan and the UK, the film traces the fallout of a history he did not know was his. It is in active research and development, supported by the BFI Doc Society RAD Fund and produced by Nadja Lapcevic of Varda Pictures. Isaac Knights-Washbourn site

Clara Helbig is a London-based artist filmmaker whose practice explores the entanglements of humans, animals and landscapes in a complex and fragile consumerist world. Her work has screened internationally at exhibitions and film festivals, and Vast Glowing Vault is her debut feature project.

Vast Glowing Vault, which follows a pair of peregrine falcons nesting on a skyscraper above London. As they raise their young over one nesting season, their lives become entangled with the humans below, revealing a world where survival, care and resistance take unexpected forms. Clara Helbig

Priya Woods is an Indian-Scottish self-shooting director from South London. Her observational, character-led films explore grief, addiction and memory, and how intimate stories can illuminate wider social issues. A full-time carer for her dad, she is developing a feature documentary in which he is the subject.

Priya was in attendance to develop Still, Life (working title), weaving family archive and observation into an exploration of grief, addiction and the ways places remember us. Until she was seven, her mum filmed everything. After her mum died from a brain tumour and her dad disappeared into alcoholism, Priya returned 20 years later to care for him. Her crumbling childhood home begins to reveal a mother she never knew and a father she thought she did. The film won the 2025 Edinburgh Pitch and is backed by Random Access Pictures, produced by John English, co-produced by Nadja Lapcevic of Varda Pictures and set to be distributed by MetFilms. About — priya woods

Also in attendance on the Lab from the UK were filmmakers Roisin Agnew and Topher Campbell.

Why UnionDocs?

Priya: I heard about UnionDocs through a friend who took part in the Lab the year before. It immediately felt like the right fit for both me and the project. I was at a stage where I had enough material and a strong enough sense of the film to really benefit from outside perspectives, while still having room to shape it. With such a personal film and a very small team, I was craving a wider sounding board of people who could challenge my writing, ask questions I might not be asking myself, and help me see the film through different lenses.

Clara: I’ve been following UnionDocs for a long time. Their commitment to artist-driven non-fiction work has always resonated with me. The lab came at an important point in the year for me and allowed me to leave with a renewed sense of confidence in my process and understanding of myself as a filmmaker. As far as my film goes, I arrived with a mountain of research done and left with a clear narrative vision of where to go from there.

The lab allowed me to chisel down and zero in on what this film is going to be about and why I want to make it happen.

It’s been such a rewarding experience to be in community with the other participants of the lab, the mentors and visiting artists, expanding my network and forging new friendships.

Isaac: I applied to UnionDocs because I needed help sharpening the formal and ethical questions at the heart of Fallout, specifically, how to hold my own position in the frame honestly rather than observing from outside a story I'm implicated in. Coming from a fiction and screenwriting background, I wanted a space that takes those questions of form seriously, in the company of filmmakers doing the same. Longer-term, I was drawn to UnionDocs' community and way of thinking as somewhere I could locate this project, and my future work, within a more international, rigorous practice.

I wanted a space that takes those questions of form seriously, in the company of filmmakers doing the same

Priya: The structure of the Early Production Summer Lab was particularly relevant to where I was with the project. The Lab was split between developing the non-fiction core application and creating a new media sample, with both helping to strengthen our projects for upcoming funding applications and forums. I was just beginning my first round of applications, so having five weeks specifically dedicated to getting the project into a strong position felt incredibly well timed and was an invaluable experience.

The structure of the Early Production Summer Lab was particularly relevant to where I was with the project.

Although many of the themes within the project are universal, it is a personal film rooted in a distinctly Scottish/British experience. I was curious to see how it might translate in an international documentary context and, most importantly, how my dad’s thick Glaswegian accent held up! I thought it would be good to share it with people from different backgrounds and understand what resonated and what didn’t.

The opportunity to connect with a wider network of filmmakers was also a big draw for me at this stage in my career. I am still early on, and wanted to learn from filmmakers at different stages, build relationships, and begin to understand what I want my career to look like beyond this film.

Finally, the physical distance was a huge deciding factor in my application. As a full-time carer, being away from home for five weeks gave me rare, uninterrupted time to properly immerse myself in the film, without the everyday responsibilities. It gave me the space to step back from the realities of caring and filming, and to look at the project with a little more distance and perspective.

Lab Highlights

Isaac: The UnionDocs R&D Lab took place over three weeks in Ridgewood, Brooklyn. I worked alongside a group of talented filmmakers developing their own projects, who offered great support at what is a fragile stage of the filmmaking process. I worked closely with mentor Su Kim, who guided me through a process of drawing out the best of the project and bringing it to a stage where I could present it to funders. It was invaluable to pitch to guest filmmakers, producers, and festival programmers, a real chance to understand what's working and what still needs improvement.

Priya: It was honestly the highlight of my year so far, and one of the best experiences I’ve had as a filmmaker. UnionDocs is right on the cusp of Brooklyn and Queens, and I stayed nearby in a flat share in Ridgewood, just a 10-minute walk away. It was a lovely part of New York to live in for five weeks, with a huge South American community. Coming from South London, the vibe felt instantly familiar and welcoming. I was lucky enough to be there during such an exciting time in the city. The 2026 World Cup, NYC Pride and 4th of July charted my 6 week stay and made my whole experience extra special.

It was honestly the highlight of my year so far, and one of the best experiences I've had as a filmmaker

I really loved the structure of the EPL programme. There was a good balance between focused time on our individual projects, watching and discussing films, wider group seminars and smaller mentor groups where we could go deeper into our work. Having that variation meant I could step away from my own project, take in a different perspective, and then return to it with fresh eyes.

The programme itself was varied, with sessions led by editors, distributors, producers, directors and cinematographers. We also had talks with organisations across the US documentary landscape, including Sundance, Women Make Movies, POV and Doc Society, as well as other brilliant speakers and UnionDocs alumni.

We were each assigned a mentor and placed into smaller groups, which became a really important part of the experience for me. I was lucky enough to have Paul Dallas as my mentor, and our WhatsApp group soon became named “Paul Dallas Buyers Club”. Having a smaller group and a mentor who knew the project throughout the five weeks gave me a continuity that was incredibly valuable. I could keep returning to the same questions, developing ideas and testing things with people who understood how the project was evolving. I really loved them all.

It’s difficult to pick one highlight because so many of the sessions were useful and engaging but I particularly enjoyed the seminars with Ruth Somalo, Qutaiba Barhamji and a talk with Zaina Bseiso.

Clara: The lab is packed and demanding, in the best kind of way. Across the three weeks, the lab was structured between individual and group feedback sessions, group seminars, artist visits, industry sessions and site visits. It's hard to pick out a particular highlight. I think the lab worked so well thanks to the interplay of the variety of voices we encountered, from Lynne Sachs getting us to draw symbols to represent our films, over Joanna Rabiger breaking down what it means to truly write a great grant proposal, to our site visit to Doc Society, where all those elements came together in presenting our projects and exploring what funds are out there.

Top Takeaway

Clara: Everyone at UnionDocs, and in particular Su Kim, who is leading the lab, did an excellent job creating a supportive, structured environment that allowed us to connect to our own practices and the filmmaking community around us more deeply, while also demystifying the industry we operate within in the meantime.

I think the lab worked so well thanks to the interplay of the variety of voices we encountered

Priya: Ultimately, I left not only with a much stronger project, but with new friendships, connections and a much wider sense of where my film could sit within the documentary world.

One of the biggest practical outcomes was the amount of work I was able to get done. I completed a full revised non-fiction core application and rewrote my synopsis and treatment. The writing had been a real challenge, and I worked through quite a few blocks during the Lab. Having the time, structure and people around me helped me strip the project back, focus on what was actually important and clarify things that had been muddled in my head. I came away with a much stronger understanding of the film and a clearer way of communicating it.

Isaac: Continuing to build connections across the Atlantic and further afield is a significant part of what I'll take from the experience.

Priya, Isaac and Clara attended the UnionDocs Summer Lab as part of our Travel Grant Fund’s Labs and Co-Production Forums strand, which is delivered in partnership with BFI International using funds from the National Lottery.

Find out how the fund could support your creative development internationally and which events are eligible here: Apply for a Lab / Co-Production Forum Travel Grant