The Documentary Makers: 20 Interviews with the Best in the Business

With the advent of accessible and affordable equipment, the documentary has become more important than ever as a film making genre but it is poorly represented on the cinema book shelves. Imagination, wit, technique, endurance and often courage is required in vast quantities to complete a modern documentary film, and The Documentary Makers brings the reader right inside the heads of the best practitioners working today. In the tried and tested RotoVision tradition of exhaustively researched and extensively illustrated interviews, 20 of the world’s leading documentary makers are invited to explain their ideas, their working principles and the pitfalls they have faced when attempting to capture ‘truth’ on camera. Professionals, film students and lovers of cinema alike will flock to this book, which truly brings new insight to a shamefully underfunded and under recognised sector of the film industry. Amongst the interviewees are Ken Burns (US, ‘Jazz’), Paul Watson (‘The Family’, UK) Moshen Makhmabaf, Iran); David Attenborough (‘The Blue Planet’ series, UK) and Wim Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club, Germany/US).
David Goldsmith, formerly a drama and documentary director, started his career in Canada, came to Britain’s independent TV network and was a won a BAFTA Award as director at Britain’s ITN. He works and lives in Italy.