News from the Documentary Film Program - Fall 2017

Recent highlights from the MFA Documentary Film and Video Program
Stanford University, Department of Art & Art History

Three Stanford films will screen at the upcoming DOC NYC: The Shift, a 1st year winter quarter film by Paloma Martinez and Elivia Shaw (‘18), Puck Lo’s (‘17) 1st year spring film (Almost) Freedom and The Sandman, a thesis film by Lauren Knapp (‘16).

The Sandman has won the Audience Award at DC Shorts Film Festival, adding to the previous Jury’s Choice Award at Black Maria Film Festival, a finalist spot in the 2017 Student Academy Awards and a shortlist spot in the BAFTA Student Film Awards. It’s list of autumn festivals includes Cucalorus Film Festival, St. Louis International Film Festival, and ZINEBI Bilbao International Documentary and Short Film Festival.

Erin Kökdil’s (‘18) 1st year Fall film Unheard will screen at IDFA as part of the Student Documentary Competition.

Room 140, a thesis film by Priscilla Gonzalez Sainz (‘17) was nominated for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award.

Chris Ward’s (‘16) thesis film Drift will premiere at DOK Leipzig.

Playing at the upcoming New Orleans Film Festival are Kadri Koop’s (‘16) thesis Charlie and Puck Lo’s (‘17) (Almost) Freedom, which also screens at Dublin Doc Fest in Ireland.

El Cisne, a thesis film by Daniel Chávez Ontiveros (‘16), screened at Shorts México and Cine+Más San Francisco Latino Film Festival, and is due to screen at Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York, UK and Barcelona International LGBT Film Festival, among others.

Dane Christensen’s (‘17) thesis film Faithful premiered at UN Global Women Voices Film Festival in San Francisco and will screen at the upcoming Denver Film Festival.

Playing at UNAFF at Stanford are Lauren Knapp’s (’16) thesis film The Sandman, Daniel Chávez Ontiveros (’16) thesis film El Cisne and Mike Seely (’05) & John Kane’s (’08) latest film, Exiled.

Faculty member Jamie Meltzer presented his latest feature True Conviction at Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and Heartland Truly Moving Pictures, where it was a nominee for Best Documentary Feature. The film, which premiered earlier this year at Tribeca Film Festival where it won Special Mention for Best Documentary Feature, will also screen at Denver Film Festival, St. Louis International Film Festival, Cucalorus Film Festival and Stockholm International Film Festival.

Faculty member Srdan Keca spent the summer filming his Museum of the Revolution, a feature-length documentary due for completion in 2018. Together with professor Pavle Levi and student Zulfiya Hamzaki (‘18) he completed a piece titled Montage Fever, an exercise in — and on — the process of montage in Soviet cinema of the revolutionary era. The film will be on show at the Cantor Arts Center from October 18, 2017 – January 21, 2018.