48. Lights, Camera… Courage: Dany’s Arctic Documentary Journey

In this deeply honest and energising episode of Psychologically Speaking, Dany Johnston — data & AI consultant, documentary filmmaker, and PhD researcher — shares her most ambitious and vulnerable goal yet: to create and release a new documentary filmed during a once-in-a-lifetime expedition to the Arctic Circle.

Dany’s story is one of dual passions: 25 years in business transformation and data, and a lifelong pull toward storytelling, creativity, and human rights. Her PhD bridges those worlds, exploring how data harvesting and AI shape the human rights landscape — and how documentary can help everyday people join conversations that usually happen behind closed doors.

But 2026 isn’t about theory. It’s about exposure.

The kind she’s avoided for years.

Dany openly shares her “abject fear of judgment,” the reason projects from New York still sit on a hard drive, and why this year must be different. Her measure of success? Not just making a film — but submitting it to the festival circuit.