All About Creative Documentary
This is the blog of the Scottish Documentary Institute, a space for thought that complements our official website.
With this blog we want to share our reflections and questions about creative documentary practice. We invite guest bloggers from time to time and really welcome comments to our articles.
Scottish Documentary Institute’s aim is to inspire and stimulate filmmakers and audiences in Scotland and beyond through creative excellence and the focus on documentary language.
“A great documentary has the quality of fiction — it evokes something larger than the particular story or characters at hand, and lingers in our memory. Too often, a documentary is a super-efficient information machine — but visually unimaginative, conceptually unoriginal and simply ‘about’ something without being something of value in and of itself. Grierson’s definition is still the best: ‘the creative interpretation of reality’. Don’t forget the ‘creative’ and ‘interpretation’ part.”
Gerry Flahive, producer
“Documentary storytelling is about creating emotional and intellectual journeys for audiences. Its tools are image and sound, and its raw materials are all of human behaviour.”
Amy Hardie, filmmaker
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