Independent Candidate is an observational documentary following Fiona Lali’s and her Revolutionary Communist Party’s (RCP) 2024 parliamentary campaign in Stratford & Bow, East London. The film sets out to capture the everyday reality of grassroots politics and the determined energy of RCP’s activists. They are running to win, but the film’s focus is the campaign more than the result, as Fiona and her comrades organise to bring their vision of radical change directly to the people.
Directed by Teilo Vellacott / 46 mins // 2025 // Actual Fact & Alborada Films
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Fiona Lali and Teilo Vellacott, the film's director. Chaired by Pablo Navarrete (Alborada Films) and Sam Liebmann (Filmmaker).
Short film screened at the start:
FIDSA Newsreel Nr. 2
10 mins, 2025
This FIDSA Newsreel Nr. 2 (19/03/2025) documents a discussion on the state of documentary film production and distribution, held during the 2025 edition of the FIDSA Film Festival in Santiago, Cuba.
Prominent internationalist filmmakers including Gordon Main, Lázara Herrera, Alejandra Guzzo, and others, share insights into the challenges of sustaining independent documentary cinema amid global market pressures and digital platform monopolies.
Directed and edited by Rodrigo Vázquez Salessi, with executive production by Osaín Álvarez, the newsreel continues the legacy of politically engaged filmmaking once embodied by the ICAIC Latin American Newsreel.
By highlighting these discussions, the FIDSA News Bulletin acts not only as a cultural homage to its predecessor but as a political intervention, updating the mission of revolutionary cinema to meet the realities of the 21st century.
Event supported by Santiago Alvarez In Memoriam International Documentary Film Festival (FIDSA).
