Making documentaries
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This document discusses making documentaries with teenagers. It outlines a long history of creative documentaries involving youth and describes two case studies in Belgium. The first case study from 2012 unsuccessfully had teenagers make portraits of classmates they did not know to try to create social links. It failed because cinema cannot replace real social interaction and empathy which requires getting to know subjects. The second successful 2014 case study involved teenagers documenting their school kitchen garden over four seasons, where they did most of the work themselves on a long-term project. The document concludes with discussing telling stories in documentaries.
Making documentaries
- 1. Making documentaries with teenagers •Long history (Henry Storck -> Dardenne brothers) •Misère au Borinage (Storck, 1933) •Creative documentaries (with a cinematographic point of vue) •Documentary ≠ television or web reportage •2014 : 14 documentaries supported by he Film Commision (and 18 long feature films) •Very difficult to promote (among teachers, teenagers, etc.)
- 2. www.laplateforme.be Making documentaries with teenagers
- 3. First (unsuccessful) case study •Portraits of my school (2012, 15 y/o) •School with teenagers coming from different communities but living next to each other •« Pick up one teenager you don’t know and make his portrait » •Cinema would create social link Making documentaries with teenagers
- 4. Why we failed... •Cinema cannot replace the social link... •Cinema does not create empathy : you must learn to know your subject •Lack of prepardeness (Bowling for Columbine) •Q&A •No point of vue •Top-down initiative Making documentaries with teenagers
- 5. Second (successful) case study •My roots, my culture (2014, 7 y/o) •Kitchen garden as metaphor •The kids did (almost) everything •Long term project (4 seasons) Making documentaries with kids
- 6. •Être et avoir (Philibert, 2002) •« When do you start fictionnalizing your films ? » •About telling a story Making documentaries with kids
- 7. •Être et avoir (Philibert, 2002) •« When do you start fictionnalizing your films ? » •About telling a story Making documentaries with kids