Documentary Voice & Vision

Introduction

Documentary filmmaking is a practice that encompasses many different objectives, ways of working, and philosophies about media-making and even about reality itself. It is a bit of an octopus, with one foot in television, another in art practice, and another in journalism, not to mention social sciences such as anthropology. It certainly has a lot in common with its cousin, fiction filmmaking—the border that separates them is sometimes fiercely defended, while at other times it seems to disappear completely.

The debate about what constitutes documentary is as old as the form itself. We believe that it is often a useful debate, and have devoted some time in this text to the history and evolution of the form. A key concept is that ...