Capturing Reality

Filmmakers have been turning their cameras on the real world since the time of the Lumière Brothers — and the documentary genre has sparked impassioned creative debate ever since.

What comes into play when filmmakers set out to represent reality? What ethical concerns arise when portraying real people on screen? How does music condition our emotional response to film?

From cinema-vérité pioneers Albert Maysles, Joan Churchill and Michel Brault to maverick moviemakers like Errol Morris and Nick Broomfield, and socially engaged directors like Kim Longinotto, Patricio Guzmán and the legendary Alanis Obamsawin — some of the doc world’s brightest lights reflect upon the unique power of the genre in this interactive companion to Pepita Ferrari’s 2008 feature documentary of the same name.

Ferrari interviewed 38 documentarians to make the feature version of Capturing Reality, amassing over 80 hours of footage with master filmmakers from around the world. The interactive documentary showcases 163 interview clips curated from this footage that can be navigated by topic or theme. Viewers can navigate freely through the content or watch all of the interviews with a particular filmmaker or those related to a specific topic.

Originally built in FLASH and released in 2008, this project was rebuilt using Wordpress and re-released for web and mobile in 2018.