For a decade now, the Open City Documentary Festival has worked in tandem with the Public Anthropology programmes at UCL, with the joint aim of nurturing the next generation of nonfiction filmmakers. We invite you to join us for this showcase of work produced on our film courses over the past year. These projects demonstrate the ability of our student cohort to approach complex ideas innovatively and cinematically, whilst maintaining a mature and empathetic sensibility grounded in ethics and values.

Bird Bird
Willow Senior | 2024 | UK | 7’ | Digital | English spoken

The playful coupling of the Meisner Technique and the mimicry of birdsong leads to an emotional exploration into connection and intimacy.

Floating Life Like Dust
Shuo Wang | 2024 | UK | 22’ | Digital | Mandarin spoken, English subtitles

The implementation of new national policies has changed the landscape of traditional Chinese industry; here, the struggles of the underclass are revealed through this observation of daily life in a cotton mill.

In Arboretum
Kate Colenbrander | 2024 | UK | 29’ | Digital | English spoken

In this discourse on the sanctity of trees, we are forced to confront the irreversible consequences of environmental destruction and the experiences of ecological grief.

Love, Poem
Qiaochu Wu | 2024 | UK | 29’ | Digital | Mandarin and French Spoken, English subtitles

The birth of her daughter, Poem, poses a challenge to Coralie’s creativity and, in turn, elicits a transcontinental dialogue around motherhood.