Open City Documentary Festival creates an open space in London to nurture and champion the art of non-fiction cinema. Alongside a rich programme of screenings, it brings together filmmakers and other practitioners to explore and debate the current landscape of documentary.

Based in UCL Anthropology’s Section for Public Anthropology, Open City also delivers training programmes, a bi-annual Non-Fiction journal, and events throughout the year that aim to challenge and expand the idea of documentary in all its forms.

More information on the Open City Documentary Festival website

Wed 24 Apr, 6.30pm
Opening Night: Sunless Haven + Q&A
The premiere of Sunless Haven (George Clark, 2024) will be accompanied with a selection of 35mm reels from Clark’s ongoing project Eyemo Rolls – an expanding constellation of over 200 films shot in camera since 2011 – and works by other artists.



Thu 25 Apr, 6.15pm
In Focus: Jessica Sarah Rinland 1 + Q&A
Argentine-British artist filmmaker Jessica Sarah Rinland proposes a cinema of tactility. Closely observing the work of archivists, archaeologists, naturalists, and others, her films investigate museological and environmental conservation as a creative process. This programme consists of a selection of works made between 2006 and 2021 and is followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker. 



Thu 25 Apr, 8.45pm
Grandma's Grammar Programme 1: Prismatic Generations
Grandma’s Grammar traces the persistence of the figure of the grandmother as locus of feminist historicity in non-fiction film, with this first screening in the programme considering the grandmother as cinematic medium and privileged subject for modelling alternative modes of storytelling through films by Gunvor Nelson, Barbara Hammer and Utako Koguchi.



Fri 26 Apr, 6.15pm
In Focus: Simon Liu 1 + Q&A
Simon Liu's analogue-based experimental film practice comprises abstract diary films, multi-channel video installations, and 16mm multiple-projection performances. This programme presents a body of short films made between 2014 and 2024 amid the ongoing political unrest in Hong Kong, his place of origin.



Fri 26 Apr, 8.30pm
Falling Lessons: The Films of Amy Halpern (Programme 1)
A perennial and dynamic presence in American avant-garde circles from New York to Los Angeles, Amy Halpern (1953–2022) remained dedicated to probing cinema’s special capacity to heighten perception and reveal ephemeral states of consciousness.



Sat 27 Apr, 3pm
Grandma's Grammar 2: Refusals of the Given
Part of the Grandma’s Grammar programme tracing the persistence of the figure of the grandmother as locus of feminist historicity in non-fiction film, Katsuhiko Fukuda’s portrait of Grandmother Katsu Someya documents the indomitable voice of an elderly peasant farmer (born in 1899) who worked land designated for redevelopment for the construction of Narita airport.



Sat 27 Apr, 5.45pm
The Films of Narcisa Hirsch
This programme curated by Jessica Sarah Rinland explores the work of Argentine filmmaker Narcisa Hirsch.



Sat 27 Apr, 8pm
Essay Film Festival: Milestones
A film about the American Left in the 1970s and the afterlives of political activism, a sprawling epic that interweaves the lives of numerous characters - hippies, farmers, immigrants, Native Americans and activists - as they navigate the complexities of American life. 



Sun 28 Apr, 3pm
In Focus: Simon Liu 3 + Q&A
Simon Liu's analogue-based experimental film practice comprises abstract diary films, multi-channel video installations, and 16mm multiple-projection performances. This programme presents a body of short films made between 2014 and 2024 amid the ongoing political unrest in Hong Kong, his place of origin.



Sun 28 Apr, 5.45pm
Non-Aligned Film Archives 08: Le cinéma manquant of Madeleine Beauséjour
An evocation of the career and many rebellious lives of feminist, activist, filmmaker and editor Madeline Beauséjour.



Sun 28 Apr, 8pm
Cinematographa + Q&A
Join us for an evening of films and discussion highlighting the analogue camerawork of an exceptional group of intergenerational, intersectional women artists and cinematographas.



Tue 30 Apr, 6.30pm
Closing Night: Leila and the Wolves
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of its release, we are honoured to close the 2024 edition of Open City Documentary Festival with a new digital restoration of Leila and the Wolves, co-presented with Cinenova.