n the Documentary world, it’s fairly common to fall into the journalistic route and shoot a “news” piece rather than a film. Often times, filmmakers find these incredible stories, but the subjects are not willing to let access into their lives in a meaningful way over a long period of time. Or sometimes you really…
It’s a problem that seems to be shared by both quantum physics (a subject about which I know a ton, seriously) and documentary filmmaking – does the act of watching something change it in some fundamental way? How can someone act, react and respond “normally” to life when they’re aware those actions, reactions and responses are being…
Ken Burns is one of America’s leading documentary filmmakers. With career spanning over 30 years, his work includes seminal documentaries “The Civil War” (1990), “Baseball” (1994), “Jazz” (2001), “The War” (2007), and “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” (2009). Ken has won seven Emmy Awards, and received two Oscar nominations. In this interview for Penn State Public Broadcasting’s “Conversations from Penn…
Documentaries are one of the best ways for an unknown filmmaker to get their name recognized and gain some initial success in the industry. What’s great about documentaries is that you don’t need to hire big stars, and you can tell compelling stories in this format without an A+ script. Of course, it is the…
I just finished working on a set of a documentary about poverty and developmental politics in Latin America. This documentary led our team through villas in Buenos Aires and slums in Brazil. The amount of knowledge acquired is, beyond debate, more than I received in an equivalent amount of time in my University Classes. However, as we started…
