CEU DOCS: Fall Edition
Student Film Showcase
Thursday, October 8th, 2026 I 17:30 - 18:45
QS Room D-001
Join us in celebrating the beginning of a new academic year with this selection of short documentary films produced by CEU students which screened in the CEU DOCS film festival in May. The films were produced last year in production courses that are part of the MA Advanced Certificate in Visual Theory and Practice (VTP), and Visual Theory and Practice Major in the Culture Politics & Society BA program. The courses are supported and facilitated by the resources and expertise of the CEU Library’s Media Hub. For new CEU students, this is a great chance to learn about the activities and resources of the Visual Studies Platform (VSP) and the Media Hub.
This exceptional body of work was made by BA and MA students from a number of different departments. While they are not studying filmmaking as their primary degree, in these projects they communicate through visual/aural media the ideas, concerns and discourses of their artistic and academic interests. These students come from all over the world and present a unique perspective on both local and international issues.
This annual showcase is the first in a series of events hosted by the Visual Studies Platform throughout the year, which include screenings, workshops, and guest presentations that engage with the exhibition, analysis, and discussion of visual and aural media.
The event includes approximately 45 minutes of films followed by a Q&A with some of the filmmakers, and a reception after.
Film Program:
It Is the Horse That Carries the Hero
Fundamentals of Documentary Filmmaking (MA)
by Alba Demiri, Sophia Pedchenko and Kasia Wolinska
Runtime: 7:17
This short documentary explores the underexamined history of the horse, Vienna’s most iconic animal. Through the voices of equestrian scholars and researchers, it traces a complex, enduring relationship between horses and their human sovereigns from the Habsburg era to the present.
Silvio
Critical Fabulation and Anonymity (MA)
by Cemre Altin
Runtime: 4:21
"Silvio" is a short video exploring photography, memory, and historical absence through a largely undocumented figure linked to the attempted assassination of Sultan Abdülhamid II.
The Blue Chapel
History in the Visual Mode (MA)
by Astghik Aslanyan, Lili Kátai and Klara Maass
Runtime: 4:30
This short documentary revisits the Chapel Gallery in Balatonboglár, a key site of Hungarian neo-avant-garde art in the 1970s, active for only three yet influential years. Through conversations with founder György Galántai and Júlia Klaniczay, co-founders of the Artpool archive, it explores artistic freedom and the struggles of sustaining an underground scene in Socialist Hungary.
Still Life
Fundamentals of Documentary Filmmaking (BA)
by Tobias Zsambeki, Katharina Kittinger and Noel Perlaki-Borsos
Runtime: 8:18
Mario Heuschewer has worked as a museum guard for 19 years at the Secession, an independent exhibition venue in Vienna best known for housing Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze. The film explores how spaces shape the soul through Mario’s relationships to work, art, visitors, and the ever-changing soundscape of the exhibition house.
Conversations with Papa
Visual Theory and Practice Certificate Thesis Project (MA)
by Lili Kátai
Runtime: 14:59
This short documentary interweaves archival footage from early 2000s Budapest—an interview my father made with my grandmother about her childhood in hiding during World War II—with a present-day conversation between my father and me. As we revisit the original filming locations, moving between past and present, it explores memory, generational trauma, and the importance of dialogue in the act of remembering.