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The line between documentary reenactment and fiction in Grey Gardens

What's the difference between a documentary and a film that's based on a true story? Where is the line between documentary reenactment and dramatization? Which approach reveals more truth? Let's compare "Grey Gardens" the documentary and "Grey Gardens" the movie to try work through these questions.

How to develop an idea into a finished documentary

Have you ever heard of Robert J. Flaherty?  He’s known as the “father” of documentary filmmaking (“Nanook of the North,” 1922). However, documentaries didn’t...

How to find your storytelling voice

“The sign of a great director is when a film’s voice comes not from the script or the protagonists, but from the filmmaker.” — Antonia Thompson, Huffington Post.

The advantages of keeping your next doc short

The art of short subject filmmaking has come a long way from the days when ‘cutdowns’ were simply feature-length films chopped down to size so they could be shoehorned into TV time slots.

How to tell compelling stories about mundane subjects

In our information-crammed lives, how many of us have been made to sit through coma-inducing fact-films or interminably tedious educational documentaries? Whether in school, at...