Making Your Documentary Matter

I attended the Making Your Documentary Matter conference today, hosted by American University's Center for Social Media.

I was turned off by how many people in attendance make films specifically to advance an agenda, rather than making a documentary first and then thinking about how to extend its reach and impact. Not that using media to advance an agenda or to effect policy change is bad, or wrong, but I was just sad that that was the only way people seemed to interpret the meeting's theme..as if non-advocacy documentaries somehow don't matter. In my mind, documentaries without a pre-set agenda often reveal more truth, because the filmmaker is more open to letting a story unfold. Surprises are let in, versus the media maker assuming they know the whole story at the outset.

I reject the idea that documentaries only "matter" if they lead to legislation or other evidence of specific change. If a documentary touches me, moves me, speaks to me - it matters. And honestly, knowing what it takes to make a documentary, I'd argue that even if no one sees it, it matters -- for the engagement it represents on the part of the artist.

Maybe I just wish the conference was called "Effecting Social Change with Your Documentary Film," or something like that - that's what it was about, and that avoids asking people to parse what matters and what doesn't, which isn't a particularly constructive conversation anyway.

So essentially this is a post about semantics. :)

Check out the conference site for links to some interesting organizations and projects...