OTHERWHERE
DISTRICT
FOUNDED BY TEODORA SERBANESCU (©2026)
OTHERWHERE DISTRICT IS A STUDIO CHAMPIONING DECENTRALIZED INTELLIGENCE ACROSS TECH, DISCOURSE, AND FILM BEYOND TRADITIONAL LOGIC, TRANSCENDING SYSTEMS.
OTHERWHERE DISTRICT AIMS TO DISRUPT PRE-EXISTING RIGID SYSTEMS OF THINKING AND ALLOWING EVERYONE THE FREEDOM TO FIND THEIR OWN TYPE OF INTELLIGENCE: EMOTIONAL, RELATIONAL, EMBODIED, SOMATIC, INTELLECTUAL. THE STUDIO GREW OUT OF A FASCINATION WITH EXILE, AND WITH FORMS OF INTELLIGENCE THAT DO NOT BEGIN IN THE MIND. I’VE BECOME INTERESTED IN THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE ECOSYSTEM AROUND US IS ALWAYS COMMUNICATING—JUST NOT IN WAYS THAT ARE IMMEDIATELY INTELLECTUAL. INSTEAD, IT IS SOMETHING FELT, SENSED THROUGH CONNECTION, INTUITION, AND A WIDER FIELD OF PERCEPTION THAT SITS BEYOND THE LIMITS OF CONVENTIONAL UNDERSTANDING.
IT BEGAN WITH MY PLATFORM OTHERWHERE DISTRICT, A SPACE FOR EXPLORING LESS COMMONLY ARTICULATED MODES OF THOUGHT—WAYS OF LINKING IDEAS THAT FALL OUTSIDE FAMILIAR PATTERNS, AND OF SEEING BEYOND THE USUAL FRAGMENTATION BETWEEN SYSTEMS.
EVERYTHING BEGAN WITH THE WAY I PROCESS INFORMATION, WHICH HAS ALWAYS FELT TRANSCENDENTAL AND OUTSIDE INSTITUTIONAL NORMS. I THINK INDEPENDENTLY FROM AN EARLY AGE AND RESIST BEING CONFINED BY RIGID IDEAS OF RIGHT AND WRONG. I BELIEVE CAREFULLY PRE-CURATED TRUTHS SHOULD BE CHALLENGED, QUESTIONED, AND RECONSTRUCTED RATHER THAN SIMPLY ACCEPTED.
INDEX
FRAMEWORK
MYTH MEETS
TECHNOLOGY
MEETS SYSTEM
DISTRICT
EXPERIENCE MAKER
TRANSCEND
INTELLIGENCE
SYSTEMS
SECTOR
COMMUNITY SYSTEM
COMING SOON
IN OTHER MINDS: A WINDOW INTO CINEMA BEYOND HUMAN KNOWING
A CURATED EVENING OF 5 FILMS SCREENING & PANEL TALKS
Spend an evening exploring a cinematic journey through decentralized knowledge and systems of intelligence.
Conceived as an open and evolving space, the programme positions intelligence as a guiding force, technology as an extension of perception, and non-linear narratives as the shared ground where these relationships unfold. Each film contributes to an ongoing conversation about how meaning is produced across different ecosystems,, moving between speculative futures and urgent present realities.
At its core, the event proposes film as a way of listening: a method for attuning to the systems that surround and exceed us. From ecological formations and material processes to inherited mythologies and embodied experience, it asks what becomes visible when we understand the world as an interconnected structure in continuous relation to surrounding sensibilities. In this sense, the programme frames perception itself as distributed—across distinct umwelt, including bodies, environments, histories, and non-human systems.
The event asks: What responsibilities do artists and cultural practitioners hold in shaping ecological futures through film? How might cinema support systems of knowing that acknowledge uncertainty, incompleteness, and the limits of inherited frameworks? And in what ways can technology be rethought—not as a neutral tool or aesthetic layer, but as an active participant within creative practice, shaping perception, narrative, and consciousness alongside the filmmaker?
These questions extend into a broader concern with cinematic language itself: what forms of expression are required for futures that are not yet defined? How might multiple intelligences—human, technological, ecological, and otherwise—coexist without hierarchy, and what kinds of speculative imaginaries might emerge from such convergence?
The central intention of the event is to foster dialogue, collaboration, and sustained exchange between artists, filmmakers, and independent practitioners across disciplines. Through this endeavour, the event aims to contribute to a more resilient and connected creative ecosystem, one that supports ongoing relationships between independent creative practitioners across disciplines beyond the duration of a single screening.
The evening will unfold through a curated screening programme, followed by a moderated panel discussion with the filmmakers and special guests, a Q&A session, and a concluding chat and drinks exchange—offering space for reflection, dialogue, and connection around film, technology and perception as a collective inquiry.
A Constellation of knowing beyond Superstition and Myth.
MATERIAL INTELLIGENCE
A Constellation of a constellation of learning through textile, culture and continuity.
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE
A Constellation of rethinking urban landscapes while exploring the decline of starlings as a vital UK species.
LANDSCAPE INTELLIGENCE
A Constellation of understanding how melting glaciers impact humans, their rituals and resilience in the face of change.
KINAESTHETIC INTELLIGENCE
A Constellation of repurposing the body as a knowledge system through intuition, movement, signal and precision.
CO: BELIEFS or COMMONALITY OF BELIEFS (3:23)
DIRECTED BY SAMI MALLA & JANGHYUN ‘ZOEY’ KIM, MMII DUO
HOW TO DRAPE A SAREE (9:01)
DIRECTED BY ANUSHKA TENDOLKAR
WILL WE DISAPPEAR IN THE COVER OF THE SKY? (5:29)
DIRECTED BY ANUSHKA KHEMKA & AARTI BHALEKAR
OUR GODS ARE ANGRY (6:05)
DIRECTED BY RICHA SHRIWASTAVA
DESIRE, ENGINEERED: UNCODED BODIES BEYOND THE AGE OF MACHINES (8:47)
DIRECTED BY TEODORA SERBANESCU
AN OTHERWHERE DISTRICT PRODUCTION
FILM PROGRAMME
CURATION: 5 CONSTELLATIONS OF INTELLIGENCE
INHERITED INTELLIGENCE
PANEL TALKS
THE FUTURE OF CINEMATIC LANGUAGE
FILMMAKERS PANEL TALK AND Q&A SESSION
A moderated conversation with leading filmmakers on the intersection of creativity, technology, and intelligent systems, and their impact on the future of storytelling and film.
The curation has done something quietly radical. It takes the word intelligence, which in 2026 belongs almost entirely to machines, and redistributes it across ancestry, material, animals, land and the body. A thought that then emerges is that the forms of knowing that cinema most needs right now are precisely the ones that resist being coded, extracted or centralised (text by Shahwali Shayan)
When you were making your film, what did you start to understand differently?
Cinema is historically the most centralising medium there is. One camera, one eye, one author, one point of view. Looking at the literature for this event, we see decentralised intelligence: So: can cinema actually hold decentralised, distributed, more than visual knowing, or does the medium quietly re-centre everything it points at?
Some of your films deal with subjects that cannot speak back in a simple way: a landscape, an animal, a material, an inherited ritual, or a body shaped by larger systems. What does it mean to do justice to those subjects through film? How do you avoid speaking over them?
What makes a story feel urgent to you? How do you know when something needs to become a film?
Was there a moment in your process where the tool pushed back….failed, glitched, or misunderstood, and that failure became part of the work? Or more simply - Was there a moment where the limitations of technology changed the direction of the film?
DIALOGUE DIRECTION SHAPED BY TEODORA SERBANESCU AND SHAHWALI SHAYAN.
COLLABORATIVE FUTURES
SPECIAL GUESTS PANEL TALK AND Q&A SESSION.
Theodora Serbanescu in dialogue with Karolina Kanska and Daria Protsenko, Founders of Honeycombs Hub, and Lynda Lorraine, Founder of Lynda Lorraine Studio.
This evening brought together HoneyCombs Hub Collective and Lynda Lorraine Studio for a conversation exploring how creative practice can become a catalyst for community building, cultural knowledge, and social transformation. Through exhibitions, education, filmmaking, and participatory experiences, both practices challenge conventional ways of making and sharing knowledge while creating spaces where people can gather, reflect, and imagine new possibilities together.
The discussion will explore the role of creativity in addressing uncomfortable truths, examining how artists and communities can engage with themes such as identity, belonging, grief, power, and transformation without losing a sense of collective care. Rather than avoiding tension, the conversation considers how difficult experiences can become opportunities for deeper understanding and new ways of working collaboratively.
HoneyCombs Hub Collective will share how their multidisciplinary exhibitions and workshops foster participatory experiences that encourage audiences to move beyond passive observation into collective reflection. Drawing from projects such as Ego, the conversation will examine how immersive artistic experiences create communities grounded in vulnerability, dialogue, and shared transformation, while also reflecting on the evolution of the collective from informal collaboration to a sustainable creative organisation.
Lynda Lorraine Studio will discuss the intersections of visual art, education, and filmmaking, exploring how culturally grounded creative practice can challenge systems of representation and preserve lived experience through concepts such as embodied intelligence and the living archive. The conversation will also highlight the importance of community-led storytelling, knowledge exchange, and self-agency, particularly within Filipino and Global Majority communities.
Across both conversations, the evening will reflect on how knowledge is created collectively—through relationships between people, place, history, and creative practice—rather than by individuals alone. The speakers will also share their long-term visions for their respective practices and offer a glimpse into upcoming projects, including HoneyCombs' future exhibitions and Lynda Lorraine Studio's forthcoming documentary exploring the lives and experiences of London-based Filipinos.
Ultimately, the event invites audiences to consider how art can serve not only as a form of expression, but as a tool for building resilient communities, preserving cultural memory, and imagining more inclusive futures together.
