John Burgan

Who is John Burgan?

John Burgan is an independent documentary director and writer. Many of his films are themed around identity, sense of belonging, and migration.

Burgan is best known for his 1998 documentary essay Memory of Berlin. Sometimes autobiographical, sometimes observational, he takes the viewer on a search for identity, sharing his own roots as English adoptee as well as reflecting on the torn identity of the city he chose to live in: Berlin. The film was shown in many film festivals around the world and received the first prize at the Marseille festival "Vue sur les Docs". The film was repeatedly broadcast by ZDF and ARTE. Selected commentary to "Memory of Berlin" was published in Grand Street.

In Friendly Enemy Alien Burgan asks: "Friends, enemies, aliens: is it possible to be all three at once? June 1940: Jewish refugees from Austria, Germany and Italy flee Hitler at the outbreak of the war and are given asylum in England, to be interned as suspected spies, shipped off on the HMT Dunera to Australia to endure months behind barbed wire deep in the outback."

Friendly Enemy Alien was first broadcast by ZDF in Germany in August 2006.