ICA is closed from the 30 May – 3 June inclusive.
7 - 11 May 2025
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
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
Programme
18 - 20 April
UK PREMIERE
exergue - on documenta 14
Structured in 14 episodes (screening over three consecutive days), exergue – on documenta 14 offers a look behind the scenes of the institutional contemporary art world.
Friday 18 April, 7.30pm
Adam Szymczyk In Conversation
To coincide with the screening of exergue - on documenta 14, Adam Szymczyk (artistic director of documenta 14) will be present in-person for an in-depth conversation, hosted by Chris McCormack. Co-presented with Open City Documentary Festival and Art Monthly.
Wednesday 7 May, 6pm
VALIE EXPORT
On the occasion of the launch of How to Do Things with VALIE EXPORT, a new book on her filmic work published by the Austrian Film Museum (Vienna) and Spector Books (Leipzig), we present a selection of canonical and lesser-known films by VALIE EXPORT, followed by a conversation about the artist's work.
Wednesday 7 May, 8.30pm
Sanrizuka 1: The Peasants of the Second Fortress
Sanrizuka – Peasants of the Second Fortress is the fourth in a series of seven films shot between 1968 and 1977 by Ogawa Productions in the fields of Sanrizuka. Four years into the conflict, the authorities started the coercive expropriation of the farmlands, and the violence escalated.
Thursday 8 May, 6.15pm
A vampire film by Qin Dao + Q&A
Arguably the most reputed yet enigmatic film from Qin Dao, this work transcends celluloid, screen, and the social milieu of post-socialist China, while interrogating the nature of cinema. Followed by a conversation with Qin Dao and Bo Wang.
Thursday 8 May, 8.30pm
Moving Statics 1: Early Movements
A selection of shorts tracing the Cantrills’ early filmmaking practice and their travels.
Friday 9 May, 6.15pm
Moving Statics 2: Next Journeys
In 1977, Arthur and Corinne Cantrill took their first trip into central Australia to film Uluru. Second Journey (to Uluru) documents the filmmakers’ next visit to Uluru some years later, on a trip taken with the filmmaker Michael Lee.
Friday 9 May, 8.30pm
Being John Smith + Q&A
In response to his latest, autobiographical film Being John Smith, this programme brings together four works that explore, in different ways, what it is to “be” John Smith.
Saturday 10 May, 3pm
Manal Issa, 2024 + The Diary of a Sky + Q&A
Artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan has a sonic research practice that acts to investigate human rights abuses. In this essay film he focuses his “Private Ear” into analysing sonic data generated by the UN to chart the incessant noise pollution emanating from unauthorised Israeli plane and drone flights into Lebanese airspace. Preceded by Elisabeth Subrin's Manal Issa, 2024.
Saturday 10 May, 5.30pm
Moving Statics 3: A Journey through a Face - In This Life's Body
Corinne Cantrill’s sole-authored, autobiographical feature, in which she traces her life story through a series of photographs and probes the relationships between body and image, cinema and photography, the moving and the static.
Saturday 10 May, 9pm
Les fantômes du hard – Chapters 1 & 2 + Q&A
Desire leaves traces – on bodies, in memories, in the flickering frames of old VHS tapes. Les fantômes du hard is a journey through these remnants, an attempt to reconstruct a lost history of hardcore sexuality in Marseille.
Sunday 11 May, 1.30pm
Combined Programme: a river holds a perfect memory + Q&A
This programme brings together three new works by UK-based artists Alex Nevill, Hope Strickland and Rhea Storr who will all be present for a post-screening discussion.
Sunday 11 May, 4pm
Ian White Memorial Lecture: Esther Kinsky, Entering the Gaze
In collaboration with the Ian White Estate, Open City is pleased to present the fourth Ian White Lecture, given by writer Esther Kinsky.
Sunday 11 May, 7pm
Closing Night: Kouté vwa + Q&A
The debut feature-length work by Maxime Jean-Baptiste follows Melrick, a young teenage boy, as he spends a summer in French Guiana with his grandmother Nicole. Followed by a Q&A with Maxime Jean-Baptiste.
18 - 20 April
UK PREMIERE
exergue - on documenta 14
Structured in 14 episodes (screening over three consecutive days), exergue – on documenta 14 offers a look behind the scenes of the institutional contemporary art world.
Friday 18 April, 7.30pm
Adam Szymczyk In Conversation
To coincide with the screening of exergue - on documenta 14, Adam Szymczyk (artistic director of documenta 14) will be present in-person for an in-depth conversation, hosted by Chris McCormack. Co-presented with Open City Documentary Festival and Art Monthly.
Wednesday 7 May, 6pm
VALIE EXPORT
On the occasion of the launch of How to Do Things with VALIE EXPORT, a new book on her filmic work published by the Austrian Film Museum (Vienna) and Spector Books (Leipzig), we present a selection of canonical and lesser-known films by VALIE EXPORT, followed by a conversation about the artist's work.
Wednesday 7 May, 8.30pm
Sanrizuka 1: The Peasants of the Second Fortress
Sanrizuka – Peasants of the Second Fortress is the fourth in a series of seven films shot between 1968 and 1977 by Ogawa Productions in the fields of Sanrizuka. Four years into the conflict, the authorities started the coercive expropriation of the farmlands, and the violence escalated.
Thursday 8 May, 6.15pm
A vampire film by Qin Dao + Q&A
Arguably the most reputed yet enigmatic film from Qin Dao, this work transcends celluloid, screen, and the social milieu of post-socialist China, while interrogating the nature of cinema. Followed by a conversation with Qin Dao and Bo Wang.
Thursday 8 May, 8.30pm
Moving Statics 1: Early Movements
A selection of shorts tracing the Cantrills’ early filmmaking practice and their travels.
Friday 9 May, 6.15pm
Moving Statics 2: Next Journeys
In 1977, Arthur and Corinne Cantrill took their first trip into central Australia to film Uluru. Second Journey (to Uluru) documents the filmmakers’ next visit to Uluru some years later, on a trip taken with the filmmaker Michael Lee.
Friday 9 May, 8.30pm
Being John Smith + Q&A
In response to his latest, autobiographical film Being John Smith, this programme brings together four works that explore, in different ways, what it is to “be” John Smith.
Saturday 10 May, 3pm
Manal Issa, 2024 + The Diary of a Sky + Q&A
Artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan has a sonic research practice that acts to investigate human rights abuses. In this essay film he focuses his “Private Ear” into analysing sonic data generated by the UN to chart the incessant noise pollution emanating from unauthorised Israeli plane and drone flights into Lebanese airspace. Preceded by Elisabeth Subrin's Manal Issa, 2024.
Saturday 10 May, 5.30pm
Moving Statics 3: A Journey through a Face - In This Life's Body
Corinne Cantrill’s sole-authored, autobiographical feature, in which she traces her life story through a series of photographs and probes the relationships between body and image, cinema and photography, the moving and the static.
Saturday 10 May, 9pm
Les fantômes du hard – Chapters 1 & 2 + Q&A
Desire leaves traces – on bodies, in memories, in the flickering frames of old VHS tapes. Les fantômes du hard is a journey through these remnants, an attempt to reconstruct a lost history of hardcore sexuality in Marseille.
Sunday 11 May, 1.30pm
Combined Programme: a river holds a perfect memory + Q&A
This programme brings together three new works by UK-based artists Alex Nevill, Hope Strickland and Rhea Storr who will all be present for a post-screening discussion.
Sunday 11 May, 4pm
Ian White Memorial Lecture: Esther Kinsky, Entering the Gaze
In collaboration with the Ian White Estate, Open City is pleased to present the fourth Ian White Lecture, given by writer Esther Kinsky.
Sunday 11 May, 7pm
Closing Night: Kouté vwa + Q&A
The debut feature-length work by Maxime Jean-Baptiste follows Melrick, a young teenage boy, as he spends a summer in French Guiana with his grandmother Nicole. Followed by a Q&A with Maxime Jean-Baptiste.
no. 236848.