Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival and Forum

09/14/2026

🎤 Join us for the RIGHTS FROM THE GROUND UP panel at this year's DX Public Forum - Nov. 6 at the John Hopkins University Bloomberg Center! 🎤

The session will include Seth Stern of Freedom of the Press Foundation Freedom of the Press Foundation and will be hosted by Kathleen Lingo kathleen lingo - formerly of New York Times Op-Docs who is now a documentary producer who is the force behind the "Lingo on Demand" Substack.

The rights journalists exercise, from filming in public, to reviewing government records, to attending meetings and asking tough questions, belong to every citizen, not only to those with press credentials. But unlike professional journalists, whose rights are defended by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and others, ordinary citizens often face the consequences of exercising those rights largely alone. As government conduct has grown more aggressive, with masked immigration agents, surveillance of protesters, and retaliation against public employees who speak out, the gap between legal rights and practical protection has widened dangerously.

🗓 SEE FULL SCHEDULE:
https://dxfest.com/schedule/

🎟 BUY A PASS TO PARTICIPATE:
https://dxfest.com/attend/passes-and-tickets/

🌟 BONUS: The next 20 people to purchase an all-access pass will receive a free Chick-fil-A® gift card!

📷 Still photos: Unsplash courtesy of Alex Radelich and Koshu Kunii

Reporters Committee

09/11/2026

🎤 The inaugural DX PUBLIC FORUM is ready to welcome you Nov. 6 & 7 with panels and workshops with practical tips and info! 🎤

Accountability journalism in America never belonged solely to those carrying press credentials. The right to film in public, request records, and demand that public bodies meet in the open belongs to everyone.

This year's inaugural DX Public Forum builds its program around that premise, at a moment when the record itself is under strain from both directions: deliberate efforts to manufacture doubt, and the accumulated toll of institutions that haven't always earned the trust placed in them.

🗓 SEE SCHEDULE:
https://dxfest.com/schedule/

🎟 BUY A PASS TO PARTICIPATE:
https://dxfest.com/attend/passes-and-tickets/

🌟 BONUS: The next 25 people to purchase an all-access pass will receive a free Chick-fil-A® gift card!

***

Including these events at the John Hopkins University Bloomberg Center:

"RIGHTS FROM THE GROUND UP" lays out what those rights actually are and the risks that come with exercising them without institutional backing and how to mitigate those risks.

"YOUR CITY YOUR STORY" follows communities in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit where citizens stopped waiting on official channels and built the record themselves.

"FAKED, ERASED, DISTORTED: DOES THE RECORD MATTER?" brings archivists and technologists face to face with altered footage and disappearing datasets, and asks what it takes to keep a public record trustworthy at all.

"CAST OUT AND SPEAKING UP" turns to whistleblowers and former employees who spoke when silence would have been safer, a reminder that defending the record is work, and that work carries a cost.

"HOW TO KNOW WHAT'S REAL" teaches practical, everyday habits for checking whether what you’re looking at is what it claims to be: how to trace where an image or video actually came from, what warning signs suggest manipulation, and what questions to ask before you share something or believe it.

Plus other workshops and panels, with even more to be announced! See the website for full details.

Photos by Carolina Kroon

09/10/2026

🎤 Unveiling the inaugural DX PUBLIC FORUM, full of panels and workshops with practical tips and info! 🎤

Accountability journalism in America never belonged solely to those carrying press credentials. The right to film in public, request records, and demand that public bodies meet in the open belongs to everyone.

This year's inaugural DX Public Forum builds its program around that premise, at a moment when the record itself is under strain from both directions: deliberate efforts to manufacture doubt, and the accumulated toll of institutions that haven't always earned the trust placed in them.

🗓 SEE FULL SCHEDULE:
https://dxfest.com/schedule/

🎟 BUY A PASS TO PARTICIPATE:
https://dxfest.com/attend/passes-and-tickets/

🌟 BONUS: The next 25 people to purchase an all-access pass will receive a free Chick-fil-A® gift card!

***

Including these events at the John Hopkins University Bloomberg Center on November 6 & 7:

"RIGHTS FROM THE GROUND UP" lays out what those rights actually are and the risks that come with exercising them without institutional backing and how to mitigate those risks.

"YOUR CITY YOUR STORY" follows communities in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit where citizens stopped waiting on official channels and built the record themselves.

"FAKED, ERASED, DISTORTED: DOES THE RECORD MATTER?" brings archivists and technologists face to face with altered footage and disappearing datasets, and asks what it takes to keep a public record trustworthy at all.

"CAST OUT AND SPEAKING UP" turns to whistleblowers and former employees who spoke when silence would have been safer, a reminder that defending the record is work, and that work carries a cost.

"HOW TO KNOW WHAT'S REAL" teaches practical, everyday habits for checking whether what you’re looking at is what it claims to be: how to trace where an image or video actually came from, what warning signs suggest manipulation, and what questions to ask before you share something or believe it.

Plus other workshops and panels, with even more to be announced! See the website for full details.

09/01/2026

James Mae James Mae, a documentary photographer, filmmaker, freelance journalist, owner of Starlight Productions, and former scholarship recipient for Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival, shares how attending the festival has been impactful for them on a personal and artistic level.

PURCHASE YOUR PASSES TODAY:
https://dxfest.com/attend/passes-and-tickets/

Full festival lineup announced in early October, with full Symposium lineup (panels and workshops) announced by early next week!

08/27/2026

EARLY BIRD PASSES for Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival available through Aug. 31!

Get a 15% discount w/ code
😃 EARLYBIRD-DX26T 😃

AVAILABLE PASSES:
https://dxfest.com/attend/passes-and-tickets/

ALL-ACCESS: $170
(Reg: $200)

DX ACADEMY PROFESSOR: $128
(Reg: $150)

DX ACADEMY STUDENT: $85
(Reg: $100)

STUDENT: $110
(Reg: $94)

SENIOR & MILITARY: $64
(Reg. $75)

SINGLE DAY: $85
(Reg. $100)

JUST FILM: $85
(Reg: $73)

FIVE FILMS: $50
(Reg: $43)

08/20/2026

This week on Next Calling: As Syma Solovitch looked at retirement from a career in education policy for the state of California, she went right back to school. Humbling though it was, she earned credentials to become an educational therapist, teaching children with dyslexia to master reading. She confesses that she never thought about her legacy, but knows a meaningful day through a different measure.

How Syma Solovitch traded a finished career for a harder one, and discovered the real measure of a day

08/03/2026

Dr. Scott Laney spent years studying black lung disease at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. After speaking publicly about the importance of that work as the institute faced sweeping workforce reductions, his position was eliminated.

At the EPA, more than 170 employees signed a public letter arguing the agency was no longer fulfilling its mission. Many feared retaliation. The agency later placed the 139 named signatories on administrative leave while investigating the matter.

At Voice of America, journalists spoke out after more than 1,000 employees were placed on administrative leave during major workforce cuts, raising concerns about the future of independent journalism around the world.

These stories raise a profound question:

What does it take to be the person inside an agency who chooses to speak out about what they believe the public needs to know?

Join us at the Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival & Forum for:

CAST OUT AND SPEAKING OUT: VOICES FROM INSIDE GOVERNMENT

📍 Washington, DC
🗓 November 5–8, 2026

Experience four days of investigative films and conversations with journalists, filmmakers, and public servants examining transparency, accountability, and the challenges of speaking truth from inside government.

Early Bird Discount: Save 15% on all festival passes with code EARLYBIRD-DX26 through August 31. https://dxfest.eventive.org/passes/buy

08/03/2026

New from 100Reporters, home of Double Exposure. Speaking on The Long Game podcast, Teresa Ghilarducci, foremost labor economist and author of "Work, Retire, Repeat," notes that just 30 years ago, retirement as an age sanded down inequalities. Today, it calcifies them. Here's how you get a jump on it.

Labor Economist Teresa Ghilarducci on the collapse of America's retirement dream, and how to cover yourself

07/28/2026

In The Long Game's first personal guest essay, Margaret Morganroth Gullette, the noted cultural critic and expert on growing old in America, writes about a terrifying initiation rite for young men among the Asmat people of West Papua New Guinea. Drawing on an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, Gullette's account captures the role of dread in transmitting values from one generation to the next. Where, she asks, does the absence of fear in our modern world leaves us?

,
://djschemo.substack.com/p/crawling-the-spirit-canoe?r=ywo1

06/03/2026

What would life look like if planets could think? What if they could speak to us? What if they could read our minds?

HYPEROBJECT is a groundbreaking experience that blends live performance, artificial intelligence, wearable neurotechnology, and interactive media to explore the evolving relationship between human intelligence, AI, and planetary intelligence.

Created, written, and directed by award-winning filmmaker and Johns Hopkins University professor Graham Sack in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team from JHU, HYPEROBJECT premieres TOMORROW at 7:00 PM at the JHU Bloomberg Center.

Don't miss this immersive and thought-provoking piece! Free tickets available: https://hyperobject.thundertix.com/events/264846?only_one=true