The Documentary Life

Filming in extreme environments as a doc filmmaker can be a challenging thing. Shooting in Antarctica? A whole other ballgame. Just ask Anthony Powell, who has been working on the continent for over …

If there ever was a Bible for documentary filmmaking, for my money, it would have to be Michael Rabiger‘s Directing the Documentary. The shear volume of books, online courses, podcasts, and How-to Yo…

Film marketing & promotions, crowdfunding, and theatrical distribution are topics that, at some point in time, all independent doc filmmakers will need to know about. So if you’re looking to start ar…

The International Documentary Association (IDA) has been nurturing, guiding, and contributing to the projects and lives of documentary filmmakers since its inception in 1982. In the organisation’s wo…

How to Make a Music Documentary

The music documentary has a long history as well as a special place in my heart when it comes to documentary films. A couple of my favourite docs of the past few years …

The short form documentary aka micro documentary has been one of the emerging forms of filmmaking over the past decade. The demand and acceptance for this type of content has been so great that even …

How to Write Your Documentary Grant Proposal

For the documentary filmmaker, obtaining a grant to do one’s film can sometimes feel akin to the quest for the Holy Grail. And so sitting down to actually …

Highlights of 2017

As 2017 draws to a close, it feels like a good time to look back in honor and reflection on the year that was here at TDL, and to then look forward to what will be in 2018.

As we di…

5 Advantages to Shooting Solo as a Doc Filmmaker

Whether by necessity or aesthetic choice, we doc filmmakers often shoot our projects with minimal crew and gear, sometimes even opting to go entirely s…

5 Things to Look For in a Fiscal Sponsorship

The fiscal sponsorship is one of the more critical aspects of a doc filmmaker’s success when seeking funds for their film. And we take a look at 5 things t…

Do you consider yourself a documentary filmmaker or is that a term that you are hesitant to give yourself?

Is there something that is holding you back from your first documentary film?

Perhaps what’s k…

5 Ways to Nurture Your Doc Life

There are many ways that we documentary filmmakers take care of ourselves, or perhaps maybe more aptly put, do not take care of ourselves. And with the long hours, some…

Zoltan Torok is one of the world’s premiere wildlife filmmakers. He spends days, sometimes weeks-on-end in some of the most remote regions of the earth, behind some of the most fantastical-looking ca…

If editing were something we could learn from a manual or Youtube videos, we could all become great storytellers in fairly short order. We could just sit down, learn a few keys, maybe read a theory b…

5 Best Ways to Market and Distribute Your Documentary

After all of the time, energy, and money spent getting one’s documentary film to completion, how does an independent documentary filmmaker market …

5 Ways to Edit More Efficiently

To edit a documentary can be a tricky, sometimes frustrating business, even for the more seasoned veterans. But for the less experienced, the edit can just be a downrig…

Believing in yourself as a documentary filmmaker is critical to seeing one’s documentary project through. With so many pitfalls and obstacles along the way, not to mention a multitude of different as…

Gordon Quinn has been making documentary films for over 50+ years with his landmark company, Kartemquin Films.

You may not know his name, but you’ve most likely seen one, if not a number of the films…

For today’s episode of TDL I’m going to do something a little different. Today, I’m going to be asking you, my fellow #doclifer, some questions. I’d like to discover a little bit more about who you a…

In this increasingly growing world of content creators, but ever shrinking world of actual distributors who allow you to retain at least some rights to your work, how can the independent documentary …