Team
Laverne Caprice
Festival Marketing Manager
Laverne is the Marketing Manager at Open City Documentary Festival. She has worked on various UK film campaigns as well as film festivals such as Rianne Pictures’ Women X. She is also a writer, presenter and podcast host mainly focused on film and culture.
ContactLucy Wardley
Festival Producer
Lucy is the Festival Producer at Open City Documentary Festival. She has worked with the festival in a variety of capacities including on the guest and programming teams and holds an MA in Documentary Practice from Queen Mary University of London.
ContactMaría Palacios Cruz
Festival Director
María Palacios Cruz is a film curator, writer and educator. Before joining Open City Documentary Festival, she led the Film Curating course at Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola in San Sebastian (Spain). María has worked for many years as an independent curator for film festivals and cultural institutions worldwide. She has been a programmer for the Courtisane Festival since 2008 and was its Director between 2010 and 2012. She was Deputy Director of LUX, the UK agency for artists’ moving image, from 2015 to 2020.
ContactSiavash Minoukadeh
Programme & Marketing Assistant
Siavash is the festival’s Programme & Marketing Assistant. He has previously worked at Watershed, Bristol and worked on festivals including BFI Flare and London Film Festival. They are also a curator and writer, working mainly with moving image.
ContactOliver Wright
Director of Programming
Oliver is responsible for the festival’s film programme, as well as our year-round screening events. He has been involved with the festival since its inception and has been programmer since 2015.
UCL Public Anthropology Team
Dieter Deswarte
Head of the Centre for Public Anthropology
Dieter is a filmmaker and lecturer on the MA in Ethnographic and Documentary Film and heads UCL Public Anthropology. He is also the co-director of Yarrow Films, a social enterprise that specialises in collaborative filmmaking practices to support local communities through filmmaking and is currently developing his next film that focuses on fictional companionship in Japanese culture.
ContactEleonora Passelli
Short Courses Programming and Engagement Coordinator
Eleonora joined the Open City Docs team in 2022 to coordinate their nonfiction short courses programme. She has previously worked in marketing across distribution, film festivals, and filmmaking education. She holds an MA in Film Studies from King's College London.
Contact