In Heads Won’t Roll, students will engage in a variety of studio activities (including screenings, discussion, practical exercises, and reflective tasks) which explore the various ways in which documentaries might be made without onscreen interviews (sometimes called “talking heads”). The first half of the semester finds students responding to the work of contemporary filmmakers who’ve opted not to include these kinds of materials (including Frederick Wiseman, Laurie Anderson, Asif Kapadia and others). Students will also evaluate and improve their own media production skills in a series of in class exercises and sketch tasks. The second half of the semester finds students working in small groups to devise, pitch and produce a major work that adds to the genre of “headless” documentary – be it through conventional documentary practices (observational filming, collating copyright-cleared archive) or more unorthodox, experimental approaches (animation, collage/visual abstraction, perhaps even AI-generated vision). Unless otherwise negotiated, this major work will be submitted as a high-definition video of 4-5 minutes in duration, with a stereo sound mix.