Doc Society co-director and co-founder Jess Search will step back from the organisation following a brain tumour diagnosis.
“Today I am sharing that I’m currently under the care of a neurosurgeon because like 300,000 others every year around the world, I’ve been diagnosed with a brain tumour. I’m stepping back from Doc Society — after 18 years of nonstop creative collaboration, dedicated craft, joyous partying and fierce camaraderie,” Search wrote in a July 6 newsletter message to the organisation’s membership.
She added: “Whether you know me from a distance or up close and personal, I want to acknowledge that as a newsletter announcement, this is pretty heavy stuff. But know that I am extremely calm and have literally everything I need around me. My poetry and philosophy texts are an important part of that and I’ve found myself returning to Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius, who wrote these words almost 2000 years ago: ‘In the end, what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So what is left worth living for? This alone: justice in thought, goodness in action, speech that cannot deceive, and a disposition glad of whatever comes.’”
Fellow directors Megha Sood, Shanida Scotland, Sandra Whipham, Beadie Finzi and Maxyne Franklin will continue to lead the organisation in “a flat power-sharing model.”
The co-directors wrote: “In the course of the last few weeks as dear friends, co-conspirators and forever dance partners, we had to absorb the personal calamity of Jess’s diagnosis. But the knowledge that it is not a calamity for the organisation is a source of strength and pride. It’s in these moments that the work is our guiding light. Doc Society’s mission to support independent filmmakers and cultural organisers stands as true now as it did the day we penned it.”
“We are approaching the coming months with great clarity about the organisation’s strategy. Grounded in the support and love of our team and Boards, enabling us to move forward with resolve, ambition and joy. The Doc Society way,” they added.
In her letter to the members Search underlined Doc Society’s commitment to “unleash the transformational power of documentary film…stand in solidarity with filmmakers and work to unite them with new friend… [and] to innovate, share and innovate again.” She further stressed how the organisation’s “commitment to anti-racism, economic & climate justice is embedded in and informs all we do.
Last week Doc Society launched the new Democracy Story Unit which will “bring storytellers into an ecosystem together with academics, activists, journalists and social scientists to think together about what narratives are most needed and most effective.” The Unit will host its first global Democracy Story Lab in London Nov 27 to Dec 1, with a second edition in Rio in February 2024.
