The Art of Documentary Filmmaking – Episode 6

Welcome to Talking Movies. In the final episode of the Art of Documentary Filmmaking, we continue the conversation with international documentarian Stuart Tanner, who directed The Seeds of Sovereignty, and Matthew Kalil, who is a regular guest on Talking Movies.

MK: I find subjectivity in documentary-making is fascinating because as soon as you choose a frame… you know, if you’re shooting a room and you put your camera up and choose your frame, your subjectivity is already there as a filmmaker. There’s no such thing as capturing the world in an objective way. So what happened for me with some of the documentaries I’ve made, particularly my second last one, which is called Viva Dada, and my favourite tagline for that is like, be one of the seven people who’ve seen this movie. It’s on YouTube if you want to see it. It’s about a friend of mine, and he was my subject matter, but he immediately grabbed the camera and started filming me. And there was this moment in the making of it and the exploring of it because it was a subject matter that we were exploring. He’d written a book many years ago, which had went missing, and we tried to find the book. And I was really struggling with creativity and actually trying to make the documentary myself and a little bit with depression. And he started telling me, well, film that. Film yourself struggling to make the documentary. You know, I find it funny watching myself with my face planted against the floor, not being able to stand up out of depression. It’s kind of funny in a way, but it became a whole documentary about creativity versus depression. And in a way, I was very nervous about becoming the co-subject matter of the documentary. That was me going a little bit gonzo to an extent. I’m not really the kind of person who wants to be, you know, you put a camera in my face, I’m normally quite shy. So that style, it is tempting to me. But thing is, I think it depends on the documentary that you make.

When you start out with your documentary, have you ever had it that you actually stumble upon a much more interesting angle and decide to adopt that halfway through?

ST: I actually cannot think of a single case in the type of documentaries that I’ve been making. I can certainly think of examples where part of the art of documentary filmmaking is who you choose to work with, the contributors, the people that you’re going to feature. And you can certainly have ideas about them that turn out to be wrong. Or as you’re going through the film, you find new people. That certainly happened to me. I made a film for the BBC, which embedded me in the West Bank for months and months, filming with various groups there and telling their stories.

MK: Because you’re exploring as you as you’re discovering one of the amazing things for me about documentary is you don’t know really exactly what’s going to happen. It’s reality, it’s unfolding in front of you. And I like that about documentary filmmaking is that you’re following this river of the story and it takes you different places.

ST: Well, that’s interesting because, you know, not everybody does, you see. I also like that aspect of documentary filmmaking where, you know, you can’t be too rigid and situations are not entirely controlled. You have to be pretty strong as a filmmaker and a documentary filmmaker in terms of making sure things happen and asking for what you need in order to make the film. And that often means you can be quite demanding. And you’ve got to be okay with that because if you don’t do that, you can come back with a lot of stuff that’s just incomplete and that’s a disaster. So you have to follow through to make sure that you get what is necessary for the film and everything. You do have to be ready to switch, be fluid, change plans, extend your time. I mean, I went out to make a film in Brazil that was supposed to be for three months. We stayed there for a year and three months. The budget didn’t change. So our diet slowly got worse and worse and worse. Our clothes were, by the end of it, sort of falling off our backs, you know, and had rotted in the jungle. And it was like dire and hard and amazing at the same time. Incredible. But you stay with it. You’ve got to get it. Doesn’t matter how long it takes, whatever. You’ve got to get to the end. You’ve got to be flexible. You’ve got to adjust.
And that’s part of the amazing experience of documentary filmmaking.

This has been such a masterclass and such a wonderful window into the world of documentary filmmaking for people that are sort of not really aware of what it actually entails and the depths and the lengths to which documentary filmmakers go to actually make these things a reality. What would you say to a young documentary filmmaker?

ST: In a way, it’s quite simple. Are you interested in the stories of the rest of the world, other people, situations, issues? There’s the whole thing of travelling, where you sort of go and have an experience. And then there’s documentary. Travelling is like having a little time in a swimming pool. Documentary is like diving into the ocean in all sorts of currents and swimming your way through to an island like five miles out. Which experience would you like to have? Is that in you? Is that like that drive there? Is there that interest, that passion about having that kind of experience and getting to know things to a deeper level to tell stories like that? And partly also to make it not about you, because for most documentaries, you’re really invisible. It’s about your subjects. If you do, then all the technology is there. And the learning, mentors and experiences, you will find your way if that passion is there.

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