Cinema is made through practice.
Every documentary begins with an observation. A place. A person. A conversation. A question that refuses to leave you alone.
The challenge is rarely finding an idea. The challenge is carrying that idea all the way to a finished film.
This studio exists for that journey.
Not to teach filmmaking as theory.
To make films together.
Each participant develops a documentary from the earliest notes through research, production, editing and critique.
The sessions move the way a real production does. Early on, it's about pulling a shapeless idea into a structure that can hold an audience — without flattening the parts of the story that resist a script. From there, it's crews of two or three learning to read a location, choosing shots that carry weight, and making fast, confident calls when the light or the moment doesn't wait. The last stretch is spent in the edit, where the film actually gets found — cutting for rhythm, testing what the footage is really saying, and being honest about what to leave out.
Learning to look carefully before reaching for the camera.
Finding the people, places and questions that shape a documentary.
Developing structure without losing the unpredictability of reality.
Working with composition, movement, light and duration.
Recording voices, atmosphere and silence with equal care.
Discovering rhythm, meaning and the film itself in the edit.
"This is not a classroom.
It is a working studio."
Ideas are discussed. Footage is screened. Edits are questioned. Every participant receives thoughtful feedback throughout the process.
The emphasis is simple:
Make the work.
The core of the practice is the same wherever you are. How you show up to it is flexible.
Weekly sessions, screenings and critique from wherever you're based — no travel required to start.
Periodic in-person meetups in Munich, Copenhagen and other cities as the group travels — shooting and editing side by side.
Direct one-on-one meetings for feedback on your footage, your cut, or wherever you're stuck.
Filmmakers with an idea they haven't yet made.
Photographers moving into moving image.
Writers working with real stories.
Artists exploring nonfiction cinema.
Anyone willing to spend time looking carefully at the world.
"I came in with a vague idea and left with an actual film — and the confidence to make the next one."
— Participant, 2024 cohort"The feedback was honest in a way that actually made the work better, not just kinder."
— Participant, 2024 cohort
Jonas Kolecki is a painter, filmmaker and collagist working between Munich and Copenhagen. His documentary and commercial work has been made for clients including Porsche, Piaget and Richard Mille, and his fine art practice returns again and again to one question: what remains after we're gone.
He teaches the way he shoots — slowly, attentively, and with a bias toward the real thing over the theory of it.
Wander into his fine art world →A selection of documentaries completed in past sessions.
A portrait of a lighthouse keeper on the North Sea coast.
Three nights inside a Munich night bakery.
A daughter retraces her father's route from Gdańsk to Copenhagen.
A completed documentary.
A clearer creative process.
Constructive feedback.
A community of filmmakers.
The beginning of your next film.