Creating Experimental Documentary Films

Theory and Practice Beyond Convention

Pablo Frasconi

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English

Routledge
30 June 2025

Documentary movies & films; Film movie production: technical skills; Media studies

This book explores the continued development and practice of experimental documentary films with evolving trends in still photography, visual arts, journalism, interactive media, and literature–especially poetry and creative nonfiction. Through sets of observations, analyses, and exercises, readers will gain an understanding of the traditional principles of documentary and simultaneously challenge its conventions in practice.

While exploring the responsibilities of a documentary director to be fair and objective, the book weaves through arguments around truth and propaganda and offers practical lessons about how to create hybrid forms of documentary films. Written by a documentary filmmaker with decades of experience, the text provides a comprehensive overview of how documentary narratives are written and created in the research, pre-production, production and post-production phases. This is supplemented with an exploration of the relationships among documentary filmmaking, music, sound design, journalism, poetry, and the essay form. New, inclusive audiences and methods of distribution, interactivity, and immersion are also introduced as a part of the changing landscape of the documentary genre.

This book is designed for students who are approaching documentary for the first time, as well as documentary filmmakers who are searching for new approaches, new subject matter, and languages of cinematic expression.

By: Pablo Frasconi
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781041043775
ISBN 10: 1041043775
Pages: 176
Publication Date: 30 June 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Pablo Frasconi studied with Stan Brakhage at the University of New Hampshire and with documentarians from the National Film Board of Canada at York University in Toronto. His films are in hundreds of collections, including UC Berkeley, the NY Public Library, and the Smithsonian. He has received 20 grants and fellowships for filmmaking, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Film Institute, and Park Foundation. His work has been featured at MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art, NYC; SFMOMA, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; PBS, Public Broadcasting Service national broadcast, and in WIRED Magazine, Filmmaker Magazine, and The New York Times. Frasconi is a professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, where he teaches editing, poetic cinema, documentary, and critical making.