Martina Adamcikova 
University Events Officer, Oxford Brookes University

Documentary films are one of the most important mediums for change available. They are fascinating, unexpected, adventurous and controversial.

Through capturing a world, picturing real people, places and events, they raise awareness, educate audiences to think critically and motivate individuals to be actively engaged citizens.

An idea that documentary movies should be shared with the wider community with the same cinematic experience as blockbusters became the inspiration for setting up the Oxford Brookes Documentary Club.

This project is a unique and exciting initiative created by Oxford Brookes Technical Instructor Nati Lopez. I joined the Documentary Club during its early planning stages and both Nati and I have combined our areas of experience to facilitate the venture which we hope members of the Oxford community, as well as our staff and students, will take full advantage of.

We aim to promote the very best independent and inspiring documentaries, engage the audience in a discussion on a wide range of topics, build a community of documentary lovers and hopefully inspire people for some kind of change.

The Club launched its first official screening in March this year with critically acclaimed documentary ‘Blackfish’. The evening was a great success with over 100 people coming together for an extraordinary and spectacular night.

Since then, we’ve received extremely positive feedback from our audiences, not least from director Lee Salter (The Fourth Estate) who after attending a screening, said it was one of the best he has ever been to: “It wasn’t just the screening itself but the whole environment, from the welcome to the drinks after that made the event what it was.”

Our team is a synergy of like-minded and passionate volunteers, bringing together students, staff members and the public. Students have an opportunity to be involved in project planning and learn about events management, marketing, corporate branding and customer service. This co-curriculum activity will help them to develop new professional skills while enhancing their employability.

As a result of working for the Documentary Club, student Rowland Daniel, was offered an internship with a major film distributor. Anyone can volunteer with the club. If you are interested, come along to our meetings which take place every Monday at 6pm.

Thursday nights now promise to be inspirational, educational and provocative, simply great evenings for learning something new and to broaden and shape our minds. Whether you are interested in history, politics, sport, nature, music or fashion our programme offers eye-opening stories for everyone.

This semester we have prepared a fascinating selection of 12 documentary pieces such as: The Act of the Killing, Chasing Ice, Dior and I, Citizenfour and The Look of the Silence.

On December 3 we will welcome Donna Lipowitz, the director of ‘Cat Show,’ a touching story about a unique road trip adventure of a young blind woman named Carly from Witney and her cat.

Next semester, we will be delighted to host Andre Singer, the director of ‘Night Will Fall’ who will uncover the untold story of the Nazi concentration camps. This chilling holocaust documentary movie drew on the original footage of cameraman Sidney Bernstein and Alfred Hitchcock.

Throughout the year, the Oxford Brookes Documentary Club has developed exciting collaborations with Human Rights Festival, Oxford Fashion Week, Phoenix Picturehouse, Feel Good Festival, LGBT Society or Amnesty International and we hope to continue to grow our networks.

If you love exploring the world from new perspective, we invite you to join us every Thursday for spectacular evenings at 7pm in John Henry Brookes Lecture Theatre at Oxford Brookes University.