Documentary is pleased to debut an exclusive clip from Afterlives, the debut feature from award-winning filmmaker Kevin B. Lee, best known for his pioneering video essays (Transformers: The Premake, 2014). Vienna-based sales outfit Odd Slice Films has picked up worldwide rights to the film ahead of its world premiere at Doclisboa in the Best First Features competition Friday, followed by its UK premiere at BFI London on Saturday, Documentary has learned.
The Swedish premiere has also been confirmed for later this fall at the Stockholm International Film Festival, where Afterlives will compete in the Documentary strand. A German theatrical release is planned for spring 2026 through Berlin’s Arsenal.
Afterlives is a desktop documentary that critically examines the historical and digital traces of extremist propaganda, questioning how images of violence circulate, mutate, and endure. From museum archives to AI-generated reconstructions, the film explores how power structures—from the colonial past to the digital age—shape our perceptions and memories of violence.
“I’m thrilled to partner with Odd Slice Films, whose passion for bold and unconventional cinema perfectly matches Afterlives,” says director Kevin B. Lee. “This film looks at how media violence from the past influences the present, and how we can live without succumbing to its effects. In a time when these questions feel more pertinent than ever, I hope Afterlives offers audiences a space to pause, reflect, and find new ways of caring through looking.”
Odd Slice’s Martina Droandi adds: “With Odd Slice Films, I aim to work on wonderfully odd films that, through unusual storytelling, original formats, and engaging narratives, question and analyze the world we live in. While watching Afterlives for the first time, I instantly knew I wanted to represent this film. Kevin introduced the desktop documentary format in 2014; with this new work, he goes beyond it, delivering an extremely thorough yet accessible investigation into a topic that feels both urgent and contemporary. ”
Afterlives is produced by Caroline Kirberg for pong film (Germany), in co-production with Beata Saboova and Vincent Metzinger for both Naoko Films (Belgium) and Pivonka (France). The project was supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien), Eurimages, the Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Field of Vision, the Belgian Tax Shelter, and the Centre National des Arts Plastiques.
