By Gregg Goldstein
How to Grab Your Audience's Attention Without Saying a Word
Documentaries have been flooding streaming services and arthouse theaters for years, and for good reason: They’re typically the cheapest indie films to produce, and they can spark cultural conversations that draw in huge audiences. But with so many to choose from, how can filmmakers stand out from the crowd?
In Toronto, directors take a number of unconventional approaches: inserting new scenes to present a history that cannot be filmed, capturing mind-bending aerial acrobatics that go far beyond the usual documentary photography, using auditory techniques that mimic the experiences of the main characters, and even applying documentary elements to other genres.
"We're definitely living in a world of much more nonfiction filmmaking and audience engagement than we did 10 years ago," says TIFF's documentary programmer Thom Powers. "And with that increase comes new challenges, because audiences are becoming familiar with certain visual styles of documentary filmmaking. If you want to wake them up and get them to look at something with a fresh eye, you have to have a different lens."
