A Guide to (Short) Documentary Filmmaking: Creating Artful Short Documentary Films

Using examples and hard-earned experiences from the Author’s courses and lectures at the esteemed MFA in Documentary Film Program at Stanford University, A Guide to (Short) Documentary Filmmaking: Creating Artful Short Documentary Filmsexplores what is unique about the short-form documentary and guides the reader through the process - from ideation to completion and distribution.

This accessible and practical textbook guides readers through the steps of creating powerful and artful documentaries. Interviews with filmmakers and case studies of innovative and successful recent documentary shorts are included throughout to provide experienced insights and complement the chapters on Research, Pre-production, Production, Editing, and Distribution.

The first and most definitive of its kind, this is the only resource to explore the short documentary as a distinct art form. It will therefore be essential for all students and professionals involved in producing this medium.

Professor Jamie Meltzer teaches in the M.F.A. Program in Documentary Film at Standford University. His feature documentary films have been broadcast nationally on PBS and have screened at numerous film festivals worldwide. Shifted Landscapes, a documentary feature in production, presents a mosaic of stories depicting the environmental, cultural, and psychological landscapes of California amidst the ongoing climate crisis. His short documentary not even for a moment do things stand still premiered at SXSW in March 2022, winning a Special Jury Mention in Visual Reflection. The film provides an observational glimpse into a COVID-19 art installation, dropping into intimate moments of people honoring their loved ones, and interrogating the role of mourning and closure during an unfolding tragedy. It was published as a New York Times Op-Doc in April 2022. Huntsville Station, a short documentary film directed with Chris Filippone, was featured as a New York Times Op-Docs and premiered at Berlinale and SXSW in 2020. The film observes the scene at a bus station, where dozens of inmates just released on parole take in their first moments of freedom before taking the bus home. True Conviction (broadcast on Independent Lens in May 2018), a co-production of ITVS and the recipient of a Sundance Institute grant and a MacArthur grant, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival where it received a Special Jury Mention in the Best Documentary Feature category. Informant (2012), about a revolutionary activist turned FBI informant, was released in theaters in 2013 by Music Box Films. Previous films include Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story (Independent Lens, 2003), about the shadowy world of song-poems, Welcome to Nollywood (PBS Broadcast, 2007), an investigation into the wildly successful Nigerian movie industry, and La Caminata (2009), a short film about a small town in Mexico that runs a simulated border crossing as a tourist attraction.