UNSTRUCTURED
DOCUMENTARY WRITING WORKSHOP
Breaking Form in Documentary Filmmaking
This workshop grew out of my experience making A Mother Apart with Staceyann Chin, where John Truby's 7-Step framework offered something the Hero's Journey couldn't. In documentary filmmaking, I’ve struggled with the notion of forcing real people’s lives into a "hero" mold — particularly when that hero is informed by white, male, hetero norms. In these “traditional” frameworks, there is little room for the nuance, ambiguity — let’s face it — humanity of the kind of people I tend to center in my non-fiction storytelling.
In this workshop, we interrogate time-honored models such as 3-act structure, and the Hero's Journey while considering alternatives like kishōtenketsu and circular/Indigenous storytelling, followed by a deep dive into Truby’s 7-Step framework which is mapped onto my debut feature documentary, A Mother Apart.
Finally, workshop participants will map their own documentary-in-progress and hear from a working filmmaker or editor on structure, ethics, and power.
