This course will return in the Autumn of 2026.

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WHAT: We will explore the uncertainties inherent to working processes that rely on an openness to the people and situations filmed, and to the unpredictable course these may take. We will also engage in a series of readings of key works of literature, engaging with the encounter.

WHERE: Online, please join from the comfort of your own home.

WHO: Run by filmmaker, researcher and educator Therese Henningsen  & Juliette Joffé, a filmmaker and lecturer based in Belgium.

WHEN: Coming Autumn 2026.

COMMITMENT: 2 hours per week, with extra optional reading/watching.

WHAT YOU GET: 6 sessions facilitated by professional filmmakers and academics, alongside a cohort of others with similar research interests.

HOW MUCH: General: £195 | Student/Concession: £180 | UCL Student: £165

DEADLINE TO SIGN UP: Rolling basis, please sign up as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

AGES: 18+

BURSARIES: Please see our bursaries page for more info.

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Learning outcomes

• You will have access to watching and discussing a diverse range of films exploring the idea of ‘documentary as encounter’ with the moderators and a group of dedicated participants.

• You will meet and have discussions with guest filmmakers about their work.
• This course does not offer answers, rules or guidelines, but instead you will be able to explore a complex understanding of the documentary filmmaking process and apply this to your own work.
• We will address difficult ethical conversations in documentary filmmaking, examining the relationship between filmmaker and subject and the dynamics involved in their encounter.
• We will analyse the paradox of the gaze, evaluating how a filmmaker’s authorial voice can both shape artistic expression and raise questions about the agency and autonomy of those filmed.
• We will assess the role of intention in nonfiction filmmaking, including the relationship between pre-defined conceptual frameworks and openness to the unexpected during the filmmaking process.

Documentary as Encounter

This six-week short course will explore the notion of “documentary as encounter”. Drawing upon their anthology Strangers Within, filmmakers Therese Henningsen and Juliette Joffé will pursue a rich and diverse journey through the work of historical and contemporary filmmakers who use the camera as a tool for encounter. We will explore the uncertainties inherent to working processes that rely on an openness to the people and situations filmed, and to the unpredictable course these may take. From interventionist approaches of Cinéma Vérité to diaristic, essayistic, and personal films, we will look at works that engage with the relational aspect of the documentary process, and examine how lived experience and filmmaking intertwine.

1. Cinema Verité and Encounters through Intervention 

We will look at the camera as an accomplice to create new forms of encounters and explore the idea that the filmic tool opens up a space for a type of interaction which wouldn’t be possible in everyday life. We will look into Jean Rouch’s suggestion that “It – the camera – becomes a kind of psychoanalytic stimulant, which lets people do things they wouldn’t otherwise do.” We will visit key works of cinema verité and explore the ethical implications of these forms of encounter.

Chronicle Of A Summer by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin

Portrait of Jason by Shirley Clarke

2. Documentary as Diary: Encounters in Everyday Life 

We will look at films in which the filmmaker “re-encounters” the everyday behind the lens. In these works the filmmaker’s gaze on the everyday turns the mundane into poetry. The camera becomes a tool which separates and connects the maker from/to her own world and holds an important role in this alteration of the everyday.

Diary by David Perlov; Walden by Jonas Mekas; Katatsumori by Naomi Kawase; and The Filmmaker’s House by Marc Isaacs.

3. A Journey of Encounters: Structure or Adrift 

We focus on films that employ the camera as a premise for an existential journey, crossing the border between life and film. Whether through a preconceived framework or taking shape through the filmmaker’s chance encounters the journey will thus be analysed as both a direction or a lack of direction in the films, leading to the question: Can you embark on a film with no clear intention?

Those Who Go Those Who Stay by Ruth Beckermann; Addicted To Solitude by Jon Bang Carlsen; Et La Vie by Denis Gheerbrant; Guest by José Luis Guerin, Gallivant by Andrew Kötting; Sherman’s March by Ross McElvee, I touched her legs by Eva Marie Rødbro

4. Strangers Within: Encounters with Self through the Other 

We will focus on films which question commonly held assumptions around the division between director and subject in the documentary encounter. We look at processes of making where the filmmaker’s search opens up to a mirroring effect between those she films and herself. Finally, we will explore the idea that such films allow for the autobiographical to meet the to-be-shared biography of the subject.

L’année Prochaine on Partira by Juliette Joffé; IWOW I Walk On Water by Khalik Allah ; Far and Near by Xiaolu Guo; On Akka’s Shore by Umama Hamido, Déjà Vu by Jon Bang Carlsen; Les Glaneurs et Glaneuses by Agnes Varda.

5. Intimacy, Shared Vulnerability and Relational Ethics

We will consider what happens when filmmakers cross into spaces of intimacy and interrogate how power and vulnerability is negotiated, where boundaries are tested, and how ethical responsibility evolves when relationships deepen during the filmmaking process. We will discuss the possibility of moving beyond ethical frameworks of power and exploitation, toward a more nuanced understanding of documentary as a relational practice.

All These Summers by Therese Henningsen, Stand Out of My Sunlight by Messaline Raverdy, Craigslist Allstars by Samira Elagoz, Antonio e Caterina by Cristina Hanes, People I Could Have Been and Maybe Am by Boris Gerrets, Act of Affection by Viet Vu, Life After Death by Pierre Creton

6. Encounter as Collaboration and Working Process 

We explore collaborative ways of working where the production processes may be seen as an encounter between groups of people and consider frameworks that allow for the imaginative input of the people involved. We look at different kinds of collaborative processes and consider how these may expand our conceptions of filmmaking methods and expressions.

Here for Life by Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Adrian Jackson; In Vanda’s Room by Pedro Costa; Mysterious Object at Noon by Apichatpong Weerasethakul; Ogawa Productions; Medvedkine Group, Karrabing Film Collective

(Image: Wanda, Barbara Loden, 1970) 

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This course will be delivered via online distance learning, and students will require a computer or other internet connected device.

This course offers bursary places. Please check our Terms and conditions to see if you are eligible to apply. 

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If you would like to:

• Find out more information about UCL Public Anthropology Short Courses
• Be updated with info such as future course dates and prices
• Be the first to know when  new courses go online

please subscribe to our mailing list.

If you still have other questions relating to a specific course or request, please get in touch with us via emailing shortcourses@opencitylondon.com

or call us at +44 20 3108 7586