Films
I document my life through my films, using filmmaking as a form of therapy to varying degrees of success.
My first feature documentary is Tube Film (2025), co-directed by Kimia Ipakchi, which is currently screening around the UK and available to screen internationally. My short films are Edinburgh ‘25 (2026), Papercut (2022), and Checking In (2020). My next feature, Plane Film, will premiere this year.
I also produce nonfiction and ‘live cinema’ through my production company Talented Friends, co-founded by Kimia. We are currently touring Joe Bini’s immersive project Burden of Other People’s Dreams, which world premiered at CPH:DOX in March 2026.
I haven’t included work from my day job as a producer at Compost Creative, where I coordinate a team producing animation, VFX, and motion graphics primarily for documentaries. You can keep up with the work being made there on the studio’s website.
Burden of Other People's Dreams (2026-ongoing)
producer
"Imagine sitting down in a room with an iPad, a screen and loudspeakers. You are in there, alone. After you look around the room a bit, you pick up the iPad. And off you go on a surreal journey. If you are now wondering what the heck I am talking about, the creator of the experience, Joe Bini, is likely smiling."
The Hollywood Reporter (read the full article)
Created by Joe Bini, co-produced by Kimia Ipakchi for Talented Friends
A surreal and abstract memoir of Joe Bini's life as a film editor.
Book One: Ganymede
80 minute live cinema performance for one audience member at a time, now touring internationally
Book Two
Currently in development
I've been working as a producer with Joe Bini on Burden of Other People's Dreams, an ongoing project that is developing a new storytelling language. This language combines literature and film and takes place in the imaginative space between audience member and author.
Each ‘Book’ will be a wholly original experience, formally and thematically. Each is a playful dance between Bini’s narrator and you, slyly toying with the usually well defined boundary between audience and author.
Screenings:
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2026 – CPH:DOX (world premiere)
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2026 – Goldsmiths University (work-in-progress)
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2025 – The Creative Nonfiction Film Weeekend (work-in-progress)
Edinburgh '25 (2026)
director / editor / producer
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29 minutes
Orla reconstructs her happiest memory of 2025.
I worked on this film from December 31st 2025 to April 29th 2026. It's about how I went to Edinburgh last summer and, in retrospect, realised it was the happiest I was all year. So I went back to Edinburgh at New Year's and attempted to reconstruct the experience through film.
Tube Film (2025)
director / editor / producer
Co-directed with Kimia Ipakchi
52 minutes
Orla goes on the Tube.
This film was primarily made as an excuse for me to face my fear of going on the Tube. But throughout the course of the day, as my friend and collaborator Kimia filmed me and prodded at the underlying anger and frustration behind the day’s activities, we realised that we were bottling a feeling worth shaping and sharing with an audience. The film became about questions of bravery, capability, mental illness, and what we owe to one another. It’s also a film about friendship, by the nature of its making.
Screenings:
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2026 – Birkbeck Arts Week
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2026 – Screening at the Beanbag Cinema in Belfast, presented by Normal Cinema Club and The Creative Nonfiction Film Weekend
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2025 – Screening at The Bath House, presented by CNFW
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2025 – Screening at Close-Up Film Centre, presented by CNFW (World Premiere)
Goodbye, World (2024)
editor / producer
Directed by Kimia Ipakchi
11 minutes
A young woman anxiously considers whether to leave the physical world behind.
I developed this cereberal sci-fi film alongside writer-director Kimia Ipakchi.
Screenings:
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2025 – Sci-Fi London
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2024 – Super Shorts Hackney
Papercut (2022)
director / writer / editor / producer
19 minutes
The rediscovery of a letter from a former friend prompts a young woman to consider what went wrong.
This short film, in which I appear as myself, mixes elements of fiction and nonfiction to tell a personal story.
Screenings:
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2025 – Screening at The Bath House presented by The Creative Nonfiction Film Weekend (screened before Tube Film)
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2023 – Birkbeck Arts Week
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2022 – Drunken Film Festival Bradford
Checking In (2020)
director / editor / producer
6 minutes
A snapshot of early lockdown, exploring communication in a time of social isolation.
I conceived of and produced this film within a month during the first Covid lockdown. It’s a little time capsule that I'm really grateful to have.
Screenings:
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2020 – Runner Up in Essex Doc Fest’s ‘Inventive Connections’ Competition