The Documentary Life

Getting your first documentary grant can be akin to getting into your first documentary film festival. That is, it is often the first one that is the most difficult one to get. Getting that first gra…

One of the often overlooked elements to a documentary filmmaker’s footage is their B-roll. And the biggest reason that I have to make this assumption is the copious amounts of really really bad looki…

As a documentary filmmaker, often the idea of having to wrangle talent releases, location releases, crew deal memos, music rights, all seems like a world that is not really ours. That’s for the featu…

The idea that one must go to school for documentary filmmaking in order to become a good documentary filmmaker is a fairly hollow assumption. There are plenty great doc films made by people that neve…

I would like to talk to you about Peter Broderick. No, not that Peter Broderick, the independent film distribution guru. But another Peter Broderick. Who makes music. Really really amazing music. The…

Over the past few months I’ve received a number of requests for a show dedicated to how one goes about making their first documentary film. And the truth is, I could probably spend the next year dedi…

Professional actor, writer, director, and documentary filmmaker, Jeremy Xido, initially set out to do research for a documentary film about Chinese railway construction workers in Angola. What he end…

Shooting BTS (behind-the-scenes), or EPK (electronic press kit) as it’s known in the film industry, can be a great and a rather appropriate way for a documentary filmmaker to make some additional inc…

Documentary Scriptwriting

One of the more over-looked aspects of making your documentary film is the scriptwriting process. If your intention is to just shoot, shoot, shoot, and then go through your f…

The War Correspondent

History wouldn’t be quite the same without the tireless and sometimes incredibly dangerous work of the war correspondent or doc filmmaker. Ever since I could pick up a camera, I …

Debt can be a crippling thing for anyone, and documentary filmmakers are no exception. In fact, it’s we independent filmmakers who are often hit in particular with the ugly debt stick. The kids’ dayc…

Welcome to the first episode of The Documentary Life‘s new weekly format! Contained within this initial release I’ll start off by detailing how the new format will work from this point forward. Namel…

Documentary Film Festival, Part Two

Welcome to part two of a very special two-part series that explores the mysterious world of the documentary film festival from the perspective of the filmmaker as w…

Documentary Film Festival, Part One

Welcome to part one of a very special two-part series that explores the mysterious world of the documentary film festival from the perspective of the filmmaker as …

TDL’s (Temporary) New Host

We are excited to announce that the new host of TDL is Faith Fuller (formerly of Desktop Documentaries)!

Okay, so maybe it’s only for one week. And while Faith still holds he…

Back in October, documentary filmmakers, Deia Schlosberg and Lindsey Grayzel were arrested while filming separate but linked acts of civil disobedience. In Grayzel’s case it was for her documentary f…

The interview is the cornerstone of the documentary film. And therefore mastering the conducting of the interview is not something to be taken lightly. It is an art form unto itself. But sadly, many …

Many of you are probably familiar with Robert Hardy‘s work for No Film School, where he wrote film content for the popular website. But it is with his own creation, The Filmmaker’s Process, that Hard…

You’ve got to get creative with your income when you’re trying to make it as a documentary filmmaker in this world. Luckily, there are a number of different, actually pretty cool ways in which you ca…

Brent E. Huffman‘s debut documentary, Saving Mes Aynak, is making a lot of noise these days. This MacArthur Foundation-sponsored film has played dozens of film festivals all over the globe, and its f…