Lia Tarachansky
I am an award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and scholar with two decades of experience in production and story development. My work bridges investigative, long-form, poetic and experimental documentary forms. The films I’ve directed and helped as The Doc Doula won prestigious awards at Sundance, premiered at Berlinale and at TIFF. They have also toured internationally through Impact Distribution community-engaged models.
I care deeply about form and rigorous storytelling that engages history, politics, and culture in accessible ways. I also spend much of my time developing and continually adapting the filmmaking process itself as each film is different.
In 2026 I will complete my PhD in Cinema and Media Studies at York University, Canada. My doctoral work looks at decolonial gestures through emerging media like Augmented Reality, Interactive Documentary, and Immersive Forms. For this research I won the prestigious Elia Scholarship and MITACS awards.
I teach film production, narrative concepts, and cinema studies at Humber College, York University, and the Toronto Metropolitan University where I help early career filmmakers sharpen both their ideas and their craft.
Recent Doula Projects
The films below are project I’ve helped shepherd, whether in Development, Production, Post Production, or Distribution. To learn about my own films, visit naretiv productions.
Who Killed Alex Odeh? (2026)
I began working on this award-winning film nearly a decade before it premiered at Sundance and went on to Berlinale. I worked with directors William Lofi Youmas and Jason Osder an investigative journalist, camerawoman, and co-producer, tracking down one of the two killers profiled in the film.
There Are No Words (2025)
I joined the team on this film, directed by Min Sook Lee towards its end. I was invited by the National Film Board to shepherd the Post-Production from the edit room to the finishing touches. In September the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Best Documentary award at ReelAsian Film Festival.
No-Fly Kids
I was invited to help director Leila Almawy in the Incubation and Coming to Life stages of this film. As she worked towards organizing her process, her production, and her filming approach I worked to establish routines and workflows, coordinating and organizing alongside her.
Visual Experimentation
I work with various organizations and non-profits to help them experiment with the visual cultures they wish to adopt for their internal and promotional storytelling. This involves an iterative process of co-creation and generative communication.