An Idiot's Guide to University (2025)

vvvamor

A formally free poetic documentary filmed through a summer depression in northern Portugal.

Research and Crime: the Reich University of Strasbourg

Strasbourg was home to one of three Reich Universities founded by the Nazis, known as a project close to Hitler's heart. The university, founded in 1941, is infamous for the human experiments performed on KZ prisoners by the professors of the medical faculty. What did its dean, Johannes Stein, grandfather of documentarian Kirsten Esch, know of these crimes?

The Thinnest Line

A fist-person story of the director of the documentary, who talks about the loneliness that entails living with an eating disorder and her vision now thar she is entering into adulthood.

Occupation

Students seeking greater control over the hiring of faculty occupy the offices of the Political Science Department at McGill University. The film crew lives with the students and follows their action through confusion, argument, dissent, and negotiations with faculty. The result is an intimate view of a student political action.

Final Score

In this documentary, four boys spend their senior year of high school studying for college-entrance exams that only one in five students will pass.

State of Exception

Estado de Excepção is a documentary about CITAC (Coimbra Theater Initiation Circle), a university theater group, revealing history since it was constituted in 1956 until the aftermath of the 1974 revolution. It is the history of the theater group university and, through it, the history of theater in Portugal, revealing two remarkable decades of the History of Portugal. Through the Academy of Coimbra, the documentary reproduces student life, the position of women in society, and the change in mentalities of being and being in the world. It reproduces the existing censorship and the fight against the dictatorship, the resistance to an exhausted regime, as well as the emerging contradictions of the democratic revolution. CITAC has a heritage of 50 years of experience in Coimbra. It carries with it the possibility of the theatrical and civic formation of thinking bodies, constituting a proper ball of a possible model, generation by generation, between studies, theater, and social drama.

Acadia Acadia?!?

In the late 1960s, with the triumph of bilingualism and biculturalism, New Brunswick's Université de Moncton became the setting for the awakening of Acadian nationalism after centuries of defeatism and resignation. Although 40% of the province's population spoke French, they had been unable to make their voices heard. The movement started with students-sit-ins, demonstrations against Parliament, run-ins with the police - and soon spread to a majority of Acadians. The film captures the behind-the-scenes action and the students' determination to bring about change. An invaluable document of the rebirth of a people.

Playboy: College Girls

Year in, year out, Playboy magazine's college pictorials are a big hit. Now, for the first time ever, our course in collegiate beauty comes to video with some of the most beautiful student bodies in the nation.

At Berkeley

Direct cinema pioneer Frederick Wiseman takes an in-depth look at the preeminent American university during a fall semester that saw a vigorous debate taking place over tuition hikes, budget cuts, and the future of higher education in the United States.

Voices of Muslim Women from the US South

When one thinks of the American Deep South, the image of veiled Muslim students strolling the University of Alabama campus is the last thing that comes to mind. VOICES OF MUSLIM WOMEN FROM THE US SOUTH is a documentary that explores the Muslim culture through the lens of five University of Alabama Muslim students. The film tackles how Muslim women carve a space for self-expression in the Deep South and how they negotiate their identities in a predominantly Christian society that often has unflattering views about Islam and Muslims. Through interviews with students and faculty at Alabama, this film examines representations and issues of agency by asking: How do Muslim female students carve a space in a culture that thinks of Muslims as terrorists and Muslim women as backward?

Four Years of Solitude

A written testimony by co-director Jin Ryoo on his experience preparing for Korean compulsory military service is juxtaposed with images of an empty UCSD campus, the desolate construction sites sprawling off of it, and the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial.

We, Students!

Nestor, Aaron, Benjamin and Rafiki are economics undergraduates at the University of Bangui. Navigating between the overcrowded classrooms, the petty trades that allow students to survive, bribery lurking everywhere, Rafiki shows us what students lives are like in the Central African Republic, a shattered society where the youth keeps dreaming for a brighter future for their country.

Sparni

It’s the second semester of junior year for Pierce “Sparni” Sparnroft, a gifted jazz vibraphonist studying at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Sparni’s prospects on the vibes were rejuvenated by their new professor, the world-renowned Steve Nelson, and are to be showcased during a student-driven recital in May 2023. But all the while, Sparni must face a crisis within.

Erasure: The Tank, the Swan, and the Balloon

1. Siren Song 2. Ship Of Fools 3. Chorus 4. Breath Of Life 5. Chains Of Love 6. Love To Hate You 7. Joan 8. Voulez Vous 9. Take A Chance On Me 10. S.O.S. 11. Lay All Your Love On Me 12. Am I Right? 13. Oh L'Amour 14. Waiting For The Day 15. Heart Of Stone 16. Stop! 17. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly 18. Who Needs Love Like That 19. Stand By Your Man 20. The Soldier's Return 21. Turns The Love To Anger 22. Star 23. Blue Savannah 24. Over The Rainbow 25. Love Is A Loser 26. A Little Respect 27. Home 28. Perfect Stranger 29. Sometimes British synthpop legends Erasure perform live at the Manchester Apollo on 8 June 1992, as part of their Phantasmagorical Entertainment Tour.

Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities

A haven for Black intellectuals, artists and revolutionaries—and path of promise toward the American dream—Black colleges and universities have educated the architects of freedom movements and cultivated leaders in every field. They have been unapologetically Black for 150 years. For the first time ever, their story is told.

Eric Rushton Won't Die Alone

Fledgling comedian Eric Rushton has never been on a date - until this documentary.

There We Were, Now Here We Are... The Making of Oasis

A documentary made for television that looks back on the development and rapid rise of Oasis from being a band practicing nightly in the Boardwalk to one the biggest British bands of the last thirty years. Building from the formation of the band (with Liam apparently just fed up waiting for other bands to release records and decides to do something himself), the film uses contributions from key people really well to tell the story in an engaging way.

the tearoom generation

a short documentary-style film, following the first semester of a kooky group of university students in their third year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXtxXN2e5pw

Martin Luther King at Newcastle University

A remarkable event the great American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King makes a powerful speech on a unique visit to Newcastle University.

longseason

In the year of 2022, a late teenager and their friends film moments they would prefer not to forget: their long season.

The Impossible Dream

A look back at Manchester United's unprecedented run to the three most prestigious club trophies an English team can win — the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the Champions League.

A Cor do Cinema

Plot unavailable

Looking Back Before You Leap

A collection of memories from a tumultuous time at University.

this is Mount Rinjani

At once a journey and a reckoning, this film follows 19 year old Koen's ascent of Mount Rinjani—often regarded as Indonesia’s toughest summit. What begins as a test of endurance gradually transforms into something more intimate: a dialogue between self and nature. Shot as a reflective video diary, the film holds not just the view from the summit, but the moments of insight and introspection discovered along the way.

the days we'll look back on

A story about 6 kids who grew up together and stayed together, once strangers, then friends, now family. Both a video diary and a travelogue, this coming-of-age film explores the fleeting moments of youth, reflecting on nostalgia, connection, and the bonds that endure as we grow older. A chapter in the story we've been writing since we were kids, these are the days we'll look back on.

Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In

A look at the life and legend of Sir Alex Ferguson, from his working-class roots in Glasgow through to his career as one of the greatest football managers of all time. While recovering from a traumatic brain haemorrhage in 2018, Sir Alex intimately recounts vivid details of his life and career to his son, including his legendary 26-year tenure as manager of Manchester United.

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment

During a two-day period before and after the University of Alabama integration crisis, the film uses five camera crews to follow President John F. Kennedy, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, Alabama governor George Wallace, deputy attorney general Nicholas Katzenbach and the students Vivian Malone and James Hood. As Wallace has promised to personally block the two black students from enrolling in the university, the JFK administration discusses the best way to react to it, without rousing the crowd or making Wallace a martyr for the segregationist cause. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1999.

The Great North

Beginning at the industrial revolution of the ‘great north’, Jenn Nkiru draws lines between peoples, cities, countries, buildings, movements, bodies and spaces(s) using a mixture of archive materials and new footage. There is little stillness as we are pushed and pulled through Black histories and communities across the city of Manchester and beyond. Nkiru has termed this filmmaking process “cosmic archeology”, and it is grounded in Afro-surrealism, experimental film and the Black arts movement.

Daedalus

"Fly too high and you will burn, go too low and you won't breathe." A 7 day vlog during the summer of 2023, a story of dreamers and drowners.

Where On Earth Can We Go?

You've seen them in pictures...Now see them on the big screen! Everyone's favorite best friends make their feature length debut in a slice of life experience fit for the whole family to enjoy. Follow Abuse of Power as they make their way across the world and back while getting into a little trouble along the way! Will they die in a horrible car wreck? Will Yoon be detained for international war crimes? Will Kaleb and Lon drown Lucky in a hot spring? Will J Little laugh at everything? Did Jug capture all of this action? There is only one way to find out...

Aberdeen

Explore the growth of Aberdeen’s sparkling streets.

CARMEX

An Evil Entity intrudes on a YouTube Vlog by a group of Queer teenagers.

DisoVlog

Plot unavailable

Lights Over Tesco Car Park

Basically, Robert reported lights over the Tesco car park. Then he told us an alien was coming to stay in his spare room. With the help of some historical abduction stories, a latex alien mask, and a bucket of flying saucers, we’re working out whether to believe him. Maybe this is a good place to believe him? Maybe you can help?

Bloggers and Roads

"Bloggers and Roads" is an honest story of travel in Russia in the format of a travel-vlog. A company of very different bloggers goes on a journey to see what people live in the villages and small towns of our country. Without written cues and a clear plan, they plunge headlong into adventures. Nastya Ivleeva, Eldar Jarakhov, Danya Milokhin, Yulia Gavrilina, Cherocky and Vital Parapatronov disconnected from the bustle of the capital to live in the "here and now" format for a week. They will invite themselves to visit the locals, arrange a village drift, work on the farm and even go on a real hike in the wild! We guarantee-made with the soul.

CATCH ME ON THE ICE

Ava Caputo, a freshman at Toronto Metropolitan University, left her home in Alberta to embark on her university journey as a female hockey athlete.