Discover what it takes make a successful documentary from some of the best in the business
Overview
Join an ensemble of documentary heavyweights including Simon Chinn (producer of recent hit big screen docs Searching For Sugarman and Man On Wire), Molly Dineen (The Ark, The Lord's Tale) and director Julien Temple (director of Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten and The Great Rock n Roll Swindle) for this stunning symposium on the art and science of translating real-life stories for the screen.
The critical and commercial success of films as diverse as Senna, Exit Through The Gift Shop and Grizzly Man prove that the truth is not frequently not just stranger than fiction, but also more inspiring, uplifting, shocking or entertaining. With a keynote speech from Nick Fraser, the editor of Storyville, the BBC's famed documentary strand, this is an unmissable event whether you want to make a documentary of your own or are simply curious as to how such astonishing tales are found and told.
Course description
This one-day introduction is ideal for curious film lovers, aspiring documentary makers or those who have just started out making documentaries and who are looking for professional guidance. Through a series of talks and panel discussions, this event explores the creative process of each of the experts, with advice and ideas about documentary film-making for both film and TV informed by their own education and experience. The class is structured as follows;
- Keynote speeches from director/producer Molly Dineen and Storyville editor Nick Fraser
- Four in-depth interview sessions, with directors Julien Temple, Penny Woolcock and Mark Cousins, and producer Simon Chinn – each including demonstrative clips and audience Q&A
- Wrap-up audience Q&A
Speaker profiles
Simon Chinn is one of the UK's leading and most lauded producer of documentaries and the founder of Red Box Films. His films include Man on Wire (2008), Project Nim (2011), Searching for Sugarman (2012) and The Imposter (2012). Man on Wire and Searching for Sugarman both won Oscars, while The Imposter won its director, Bart Layton, the Bafta for best debut film. Chinn's films are known for their high production values and blending of documentary and drama techniques.
Molly Dineen is a British filmmaker who has made some of the most celebrated and original documentaries of the past 25 years. Her unique style of directing and interviewing and her immersive approach to making films has seen her document an ailing London Zoo (The Ark, 1993), follow nighttime workers on the London Underground (The Heart of the Angel, 1989), create an incisive portrait of Geri Halliwell (Geri, 1999), capture the work of British soldiers in Northern Ireland (In the Company of Men, 1995) and record the final days of an unreformed House of Lords (The Lord's Tale, 2002).
Nick Fraser has been the commissioning editor of Storyville, the BBC's much-praised documentary film strand since 1997, a job which sees him both acquire documentaries for the BBC and co-produce them. He has worked with numerous international filmmakers, including James Marsh (Man on Wire, 2008), Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight, 2005) and Nick Broomfield (Kurt and Courtney, 1998). He is also the author of the book Why Documentaries Matter.
Julien Temple has been a filmmaker ever since he began shooting short films of punk bands in the late 1970s. His first feature, The Great Rock n Roll Swindle (1980), was made with The Sex Pistols, and since then he has regularly returned to stories about music and muscians. His music documentaries include Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, (2007) The Filth and the Fury (2000) and Glastonbury (2006). In 2012, Temple directed London: The Modern Babylon, a musical collage of archive footage of the city throughout the twentieth century.
Penny Woolcock is a filmmaker, opera director and screenwriter. Her celebrated documentaries include One Mile Away – a film about gangs in Birmingham which won the Michael Powell Award at the 2012 Edinburgh International Film Festival – and On the Streets, a film shot over eight months in 2010 with rough sleepers and the vulnerably housed. A number of Woolcock's dramas, such as Tina Takes a Break, Tina Goes Shopping and One Day are known for casting non-professional actors and using documentary techniques in their creation. In 2010, Woolcock was awarded the Grierson Trust's prestigious Trustees Award.
To book
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Details
Date: Sunday 10 November 2013
Times: 10am-5pm
Location: The Guardian, 90 York Way, King's Cross, London, N1 9GU
Price:£99 Early bird ticket (limited)
£119 Standard ticket (includes VAT, booking fees, lunch and refreshments)
Event capacity: 100
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Returns policy
Tickets may be refunded if you contact us at least 7 days before the course start date. Please see our terms and conditions for more information on our refund policy.