Student Films
Here are examples of some of the films made during the Documentary Short Courses at Open City Docs School
The Last Name of John Cage - Margaux Guillemard - 2021
With only 4 minutes and 33 seconds, how much can one imagine and feel? How many times can one gain and lose trust? The Last Name of John Cage is a calm dialogue between a loud inner tension and the silent one that surrounds.
Screened at Ann Harbor Film Festival, Riga International Film Festival and Taiwan International Documentary Festival. Included in Sight & Sound’s picks of 2021’s best experimental films.
Displaced: Small Acts of Survival - Charlotte Burck, Anthony Barlos, Andres Ribagorda - 2020
‘Displaced’ is an observational study of two pairs of friends, Iranian and Greek, in Patras, a port in Greece. Two Iranian migrants have been in Patras for many months sleeping on the street. The two friends deal with daily frustrations and boredom, living in the in-between of both trying to claim asylum and trying to go on further into Europe. Patras has high levels of unemployment and economic hardship. Two Greek builders, one a pensioner, one long term unemployed, find a way to survive poverty through friendship and their relationship to the port. Patras port authorities are building a new wall to keep migrants out of the port as well as the Patras residents. Both sets of friends demonstrate through ‘small acts of survival’, ways in which they refuse to allow their circumstances to dominate them, finding ways to support each other to sustain themselves.
Winner of Best Short Documentary at Halicarnassus Film Festival.
The Toothless Tiger - Sharmin Ahammad - 2018
The Toothless Tiger explores a complex relationship a daughter has with her dead father. He grew up in the poorest part of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She grew up in a detached house on the outskirts of London. Through a series of personal interviews with her mother, she discovers that their memories could not be more different.
Winner of Best Short Film at the UK Asian Film Festival.