The Power of Making Documentaries in Education

In this presentation, Jasper will share why creating documentaries with students is such a fun, valuable, and meaningful experience. He will draw on his work as a film teacher and as director of Stichting Documaken – a name that literally means making documentaries. Film helps students follow their curiosity, tell stories, and bring their research to life in a creative way. Jasper will also show how this looks like in practice – both from a technical and a pedagogical-didactic perspective.

Jasper Vreken

For the past twenty years, Jasper has been teaching film with great enthusiasm to secondary school students. At the Montessori Lyceum Amsterdam, he guides young people in discovering the power of film – from short reports and trailers to horror films, commercials, and fiction stories. He is also the director of Stichting Documaken, an organization that supports students across the Netherlands in creating documentaries as part of their final research projects. Through this process, they learn how to turn their ideas and research into meaningful films that tell real stories. Finally, Japer develops and leads an after-school film program in which students work together to create short fiction films. In these projects, creativity takes center stage as they bring their own stories to life on screen.