I II Sponsors & Cultural Partners Director’s Statement We are a mystery even to ourselves; and well as short films chosen by a number of it is in art that we make some of our most the filmmakers with new work at the festival, courageous journeys of discovery. At Open screening before their own features. ROCK JAW City Documentary Festival we celebrate the AUDIO art of non-fiction - creating space for the We make this festival to bring people together. ineffable, the inexplicable, the unresolvable. Our hub is located in the heart of Chinatown and the films play across central London We bring you strongly, personally authored venues, all within walking distance. The work from around the world, films with an industry programme offers a forum for those impressive diversity of subject matter, formal working in documentary across all forms approach and region, demonstrating that a to come together, share experiences and different kind of filmmaking is possible. This forge new connections. Expanded Realities Programme Partners is on show in our opening and closing films - provides a deep-dive into the relationship Juliana Antunes’ Baronesa, a Brazilian study between art and technology through a free of the common sense of the favelas; and exhibition of immersive work and a dedicated Cyril Aris’ The Swing, an elegiac Lebanese symposium presented in partnership with exploration of the lies we so easily chose to live Digital Catapult. We are also thrilled to with - and in all the films screening in between. partner with The Whickers for their Radio and Audio Funding Award (RAFA) and their We use retrospective work to contextualise Documentary Audio Recognition Award current documentary filmmaking practice. For (DARA), and continue to celebrate audio our focuses, we welcome a cinematographer storytelling throughout the programme. of hard places, Japanese master Kazuo Hara for three of his unique examples of ‘action The festival strives to break down the cinema’ and a masterclass; and see a return boundaries between the various forms of to the festival of Penny Lane, a truly distinctive documentary storytelling we showcase, new voice, showcasing her always original bringing together film, audio, and cross-media takes on cameraless cinema. For the first into dialogue. As we head into our eighth Venue Partners time, we have invited artists to present films edition, we hope you will join us at the festival that have informed their own practice, with to experience contemporary stories seen special selections from DJ and producer through different lenses, and think afresh Nabihah Iqbal and filmmaker Marc Isaacs as about the mystery that is humanity. Michael Stewart Founding Director Image: China in Ethiopia (Paul Zhou, 2017) 2 A 2 year MFA providing all the technical and intellectual resources required to not just make outstanding non- fiction moving image, but to discover new ways of looking at the world. Contents An advanced practical programme that also draws upon broad-based anthropological and critical thinking about the social and cultural world. 04–09 The 2018 Awards & Juries 58–59 Parties Students will leave with a deep practical knowledge of the craft of non-fiction filmmaking, and a mid-length (40mins+) feature documentary film to their name. 10–11 Opening & Closing Nights 60–61 Expanded Realities Taught by leading filmmakers: directors Sophie Fiennes 12-17 Kazuo Hara: In Focus 62–63 Open City Docs School (Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami, The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema), Kim Longinotto (Salma, Divorce Iranian Style), and producer Riete Oord (The Leader, His Driver and The 18-23 Penny Lane: In Focus 64 Tickets & Venues Driver’s Wife). 24–43 Film Programme 65 Thanks For more information please visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/taught- degrees/creative-documentary-by-practice-mfa 44–48 Special Events 66–67 Directory 49–57 Industry Events 68–69 Festival Schedule MFA Creative Documentary Creative MFA (By Practice) Image: The Ashes of Water (Antonia Perelló, 2017, 16’) This unique practical MA programme is based out of About Us UCL but run by leading film practitioners, offering high- quality practice-based learning in a top level university research environment. Open City Documentary Festival creates grounded in reality, the festival fosters a an open space in London to nurture and spirit of experimentation and often blurs the Offers the choice of 4 studios (Cinematic Non-Fiction, champion the art of creative documentary boundaries between traditional dichotomies Broadcast Documentary, Cinematic Documentary Storytelling, and UCL 360 Immersive Factual Storytelling and non-fiction filmmakers. of fact and fiction. Alongside our screening (VR/AR)) Students will produce 3 non-fiction films in programme, we bring together non- various modes, developing a diverse portfolio of work, Based at UCL and working with partners fiction storytellers and industry experts to before producing a graduation film of 15-25 minutes across London and throughout the UK, explore and debate the current landscape in length. Open City Docs delivers film screenings, of documentary. Open City Documentary Students have their own camera equipment and editing training programmes and live events Festival is a space for conversation, suites year-round, and a dedicated senior mentor guiding throughout the year to support the next appreciation and examination. them through their final graduation film. generation of filmmakers. For more information please visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/taught- We aim to challenge and expand the degrees/ethnographic-documentary-film-practical-ma idea of documentary in all its forms. We provide a platform for emerging talent as well as established masters working within the documentary form. Although MA Ethnographic & Documentary (Practical) Film 04 2018 AWARDS & JURIES 2018 AWARDS & JURIES 05 Sophie Fiennes to life; and her laboratory, NBH Studios, is on a (Chair) mission to bring chaos to the world. Her various – roles include chief of experiences at WeTransfer, Sophie Fiennes’ feature designer of experiences at the SETI (Search for documentaries include the Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, advisor acclaimed Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami, to the United Nations Virtual Reality Labs and which premiered at Toronto International Film advisory board member at AIGA (American Festival 2017; her collaborations with Slavoj Institute for Graphic Arts). Zizek, The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (2006), and The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (2012); May Adadol Ingawanij Open City and her portrait of German artist Anselm – Kiefer, Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow, Dr. May Adadol Ingawanij is which premiered in Cannes in 2010. Her first a moving image theorist, Award feature documentary, Hoover Street Revival, teacher and curator. She was released theatrically in 2003. Sophie co-directs the Centre for Research and was awarded a NESTA fellowship in 2001 to Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) at develop her innovative approach to film, and University of Westminster. May writes on won the Arte France Cinema Award in 2008. moving image, art, film history, and Southeast Asia for a wide range of publications; and is Beatrice Gibson writing a book on animism, moving image – performances, and contemporary art in Beatrice Gibson is a Franco- Thailand and Southeast Asia. Some recent British artist living and curatorial projects include: Lav Diaz: Journeys working in London. Beatrice (London, 2017) and On Attachments and has twice won the Rotterdam International Unknowns (with Sa Sa Bassac, Phnom Penh, Film Festival Tiger Award for Short Film, for January 2017). Baronesa A Necessary Music (2009), and The Tiger’s Mind (2013). She was shortlisted for the Mehelli Modi Juliana Antunes, 2017, Brazil, 71’ Whitechapel Max Mara Art Prize for Women – (2013-15) and the Jarman Award for artist’s Born into a filmmaking film (2013); and won the 2015 Baloise Art family in India, Mehelli Casanova Gene Prize, Art Basel (2015). Her films have shown Modi came to London in Luise Donschen, 2018, Germany, 67’ at prestigious venues and film festivals the 1960s and has had a long and varied including: CPH:DOX, Toronto International Film career in the music industry. However, Festival, Anthology Film Archives NYC and the Mehelli’s first love has always been cinema Serpentine Gallery London. and, in 2005, he founded Second Run Flight of a Bullet DVD, a company dedicated to releasing Beata Bubenec, 2017, Russia & Latvia, 81’ Nelly Ben Hayoun important classic and contemporary feature – films and documentaries from around Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun is a the world. Their catalogue is now at over multi-award-winning French 120 titles and growing, and includes the The Swing designer and filmmaker works of filmmakers such as Apichatpong Cyril Aris, 2018, Lebanon, 74’ who creates multidimensional experiential Weerasethakul, Miklós Jancsó, Kim projects at the intersection of science, theater, Longinotto, Miloš Forman, Joshua politics and design. Dubbed the “Willy Wonka Oppenheimer, Věra Chytilová, Nicolas of Design”, her projects aim to bring the sublime Philibert and Marc Isaacs. 06 2018 AWARDS & JURIES 2018 AWARDS & JURIES 07 Tessa Boerman as one of the UK’s strongest emerging (Chair) directorial voices. Cecile was selected as – a Broadcast Hotshot and won the Screen Tessa Boerman is an Nation Vanguard Award. Her most recent independent Dutch short filmThe Ancestors Came was documentary filmmaker, programmer and commissioned as part of Tate Modern’s cultural advisor. Her work focuses on issues ‘Soul of a Nation’ exhibition, and she recently of representation, diversity and inclusion. For directed for Insecure (HBO) and Idris Elba’s International Film Festival Rotterdam Tessa In The Long Run (Sky). programmed Black Rebels focusing on Emerging International international films about and predominantly Chiara Marañón by black people navigating the cultural divide – since the origin of cinema. With the Dutch Chiara Marañón is the Filmmaker Award Directors Guild she advocated for cultural director of programming for diversity and inclusion in the Dutch Film and global online cinematheque TV industry.