The Next Wave of Documentaries with Ben Zand and Donata von Perfall episode artwork

EPISODE · Sep 30, 2025 · 46 MIN

The Next Wave of Documentaries with Ben Zand and Donata von Perfall

from TellyCast: The content industry podcast · host Justin Crosby

In this week’s TellyCast, Justin Crosby is joined by filmmaker Ben Zand and Documentary Campus CEO Donata von Perfall. Ben discusses the launch of Human, his bold new self-funded YouTube documentary strand that puts storytelling and brand-building ahead of TV commissioning. He explains why he’s betting on a digital-first strategy, how Zandland is creating content with empathy and access, and the business model behind the series.Donata von Perfall outlines the evolution of Documentary Campus, its renowned Master School training programme, and the launch of NEXTWAVE – a new digital-first documentary summit taking place in Halle, Germany this autumn. She shares how Documentary Campus is helping filmmakers adapt to the fast-changing factual landscape and why now is the moment to champion digital-first storytelling in Europe.HUMAN launches Thursday 2nd October on ZANDLAND's YouTube channelBuy tickets to NEXTWAVEVisit Tubular Labs Sign up for The Drop newsletterSupport the showEnrol on the TellyCast Digital BootcampBuy tickets for the Digital Content ForumSubscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videosFollow us on LinkedInConnect with Justin on LinkedINTellyCast videos on YouTubeTellyCast websiteTellyCast instaTellyCast TwitterTellyCast TikTok

In this week’s TellyCast, Justin Crosby is joined by filmmaker Ben Zand and Documentary Campus CEO Donata von Perfall. Ben discusses the launch of Human, his bold new self-funded YouTube documentary strand that puts storytelling and brand-building ahead of TV commissioning. He explains why he’s betting on a digital-first strategy, how Zandland is creating content with empathy and access, and the business model behind the series. Donata von Perfall outlines the evolution of Documentary Campus,...

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The Next Wave of Documentaries with Ben Zand and Donata von Perfall

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This episode is 46 minutes long.

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This episode was published on September 30, 2025.

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In this week’s TellyCast, Justin Crosby is joined by filmmaker Ben Zand and Documentary Campus CEO Donata von Perfall. Ben discusses the launch of Human, his bold new self-funded YouTube documentary strand that puts storytelling and brand-building...

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