Experimental Documentary GLE Course 2026

Authors: Kryštof Lánský, Peter Hornaday, Sarah McFeely, Stevie Razac

Authors: Luis Caro, Charlotte Islas, Scarlett Prater, Esti Sochorcová

Authors: Grace Gunter, Chaz Haines, Natálie Chytková, Claire Moniatte

Authors: Lily Bacon, Rebeka Chudobová, Brady Kaupas, Kavin Tharanee, Eden Wening

Authors: Summer Burkhart, Paige Desimone, Bella Rodda, Adel Štěpán, Shay Tennant

This week, our team focused on revising our rough cut. We began by planning an updated approach, which helped us clarify the direction we wanted to take the current film. Each team member contributed by commenting on the student's feedback, allowing us to refine our visuals and sound. We also mentioned the addition of Adel's footage which we were waiting on, which helped streamline our collaboration and keep everyone aligned. In terms of research, I compared and rewatched other docs we've seen in the class like "Room". We looked at the other group's films to better understand their techniques and approaches. This influenced our project by further enhancing our tone and leaning into our visual decisions.

This week, our team really got to see our vision come alive through Krystof’s editing and through the collection of our remaining footage. One of the most unique parts of this process was seeing how each of us individually experience and relate to belonging in such vastly different ways. As it naturally turned out, our group discussion (the audio component of our film) mostly centered on our shared experience of feeling belonging and excluded in different locations. However, the footage revealed that, despite these overarching similarities, our personal emotions related to belonging are different and expressed in different visual ways. Ultimately, this has been one of the most exciting and surprising parts of the film: the way our creative processes revealed how individual and nuanced belonging is. It is not a concept that can be described in its entirety on a broad scale, but rather manifests in unique ways on a case-by-case basis. In terms of next steps on the project, our team is ...

We have reached the end of our project and are quite happy with the shape it has taken. Brady’s idea to overlay disembodied arms and legs over some of our footage added an interesting layer to our message that we all enjoyed. It’s been very interesting to work together and learn from each other; if only we could have visited each other’s cities during this project! Our director, Rebeka, describes our finished piece as “A captivating collage of how it feels for bodies to move through public space. Strikingly hypnotic, delightfully odd, and seamlessly narrated.” It is my hope as I write this that we will be able to work together again, and perhaps even visit each other someday in the future. What an interesting experience to collaborate on a film from across the globe. – Lily Bacon, Producer

During this week, we worked on the final touches of our film. We added more visual footage and effects and the recordings from our interviews. What we found fascinating was the differences in how we went on about the interviews –in terms of wether it was in person or by phone, or how formal the setting and our family member was. Not only did it add diversity to our film, the latter also made us realise the differences - cultural or not – in how our families spoke and acted to express themselves in a way the felt most comfortable - or at home - to talk about the topic of belonging and home.