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SDGI Blog: Exploring Reality I

April 5, 2023

Maria Corradini gives us an angle on our Exploring Reality Documentary skills series.

 

Exploring Reality is a documentary filmmaking programme being put on by The Documentary Film Alliance at the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland. The training series began with Structure of Documentary Story, a two-day learning event exploring how to develop story arcs, observational filmmaking, scripted/designed documentary, visual structure, collaborating with the editor to find the story, and so much more. Our eager and talented participants were enthralled by the unique perspectives provided by our guest documentary film directors.

 

A lively and passionate documentarian, Sean McAllister spoke of the importance of making deep connections with the subjects of his films. McAllister creates documentaries that showcase the complexities of human experience and the challenges faced by people fighting to make change. His work has been nominated and won many awards, including The Special Jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival for his film The Liberace of Baghdad. He encouraged our directors to follow the natural progression of their subject’s story, but to not be afraid of giving guidance to a subject to explore all of the directions that narrative can go in.

 

Inspiring and insightful, Vanessa Engle presented her work to the participants and shared her storytelling process. Engle’s work stems from the personal and explores the fundamental values and belief systems driving society. Her work in documentary series and feature length films have been nominated for many broadcast awards and recognized at various film festivals, including the Outstanding Contribution to Documentary award she received at the Aldeburgh Documentary Festival. Clarity and structure are key to Engle’s filmmaking approach, and she emphasized the importance of understanding what your film is about on the surface, the underlying themes just beneath the narrative, and the ultimate purpose of sharing the story. McAllister and Engle came together on day two of the session to offer their unique perspectives to the participants and give them an opportunity to ask more nuanced questions in a Q&A panel setting.

 

Also on day two, Oscar nominated documentary film maker, Simon Lereng Wilmont stood before the group to talk about his body of work, his thoughts and processes. After a group viewing of his most recent film A House Made of Splinters, Wilmont engaged participants in discussion about collaboration in filmmaking, editing, and visual storytelling.

 

We are honoured to have such accomplished, fascinating guest directors share their experience and expertise with us and exciting start to an enriching, comprehensive documentary filmmaking series that will provide our participants with the inspiration, perspective, newfound technical skill, and all too important industry knowledge to make their future documentary work a success.

Maria Corradini is SDGI’s spring 2023 intern. She is originally from Pennsylvania, USA, and is currently studying at Dublin City University for the spring semester as a Media and Communication major. She is assisting the guild with organizing the annual meeting of directors as well as the Exploring Reality documentary training course, social media, and content creation.

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