Ourlightswitch Documentaries | Original Films & Cultural Stories

The Boy Shaman

Current spotlight of our field-based production in Mongolia

DOCUMENTARIES

Our documentary work includes long- and short-form projects, but the approach remains the same. Time, attention, and responsibility toward the people being filmed come first. Whether a story unfolds over months or within a shorter frame, the work begins with observation and stays open long enough for complexity to show.

The Boy Shaman

At 18, Gegeene is caught between two worlds: a university student in a fast-paced modern life,
and the chosen host of a thousand-year-old spirit, destined to lead one of Mongolia’s most revered shaman guilds.
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As both paths pull at him, he must navigate identity, tradition, and the quiet weight of the generations to come.

The Jazzman
of Rosenthaler Platz

A short documentary about recognition, dignity, and the people we often overlook.

It follows Malachi “Mike” Basden, a jazz musician and artist who has made Rosenthaler Platz both his stage and his home, using music and art to forge connections with those around him.

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“Nomad”

A short documentary about legacy, change, and quiet courage.

‍Nomad follows the heir of a thriving 300-year-old nomadic dynasty as he makes an unexpected choice: to end a tradition at its height, so his children can begin a different future.

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Only a Number

A short documentary following Arno Drefke, the last known survivor of East Berlin’s original U-Boot secret Stasi prison. Arrested at 19 and stripped of his identity, he became only “Prisoner 62.”

Now in his 90s, Arno reflects on the silence, psychological torment, and lasting trauma of a system built to erase him, and what it means to survive