Documentary Voice & Vision

Chapter 15Interviewing and Working with Subjects

At its core, documentary filmmaking is about relationships with people. Many documentary directors will tell you that the human exchanges at the heart of the process are why they do this work. Securing access, building trust, and maintaining relationships with your subjects are a central aspect of a documentary filmmaker’s work. And the interview—one of the core elements of documentary filmmaking—is an opportunity for deep communication that can be extremely meaningful and is often emotionally intense. Forging and maintaining relationships with your subjects requires skill, patience, and time. But as many filmmakers have said, documentary films are only as good as the relationships they are built ...