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Subjective Realities is an ebook that explores the art of creative nonfiction film, the spectrum between fiction and nonfiction in documentary filmmaking, also known as hybrid documentaries and experimental documentaries.

Subjective realities:

The art of creative nonfiction film

Explore the spectrum between fiction and nonfiction in documentary filmmaking

This ebook is available as a PDF and ePub.

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Why we wrote the book

About

Subjective realities

Discover how ‘creative nonfiction’ documentaries, otherwise known as hybrid or experimental documentaries, push the boundaries of what we traditionally conceive of documentary to be.

Subjective realities is a six part ebook composed of interviews and essays. Discover the myriad forms of nonfiction filmmaking, from animation to archival and beyond, and find out what funding structures exist to make them possible. 

Subjective realities focuses on how the past ten years have changed the course of nonfiction filmmaking. Creative approaches to the medium have become more mainstream; for example, animated documentaries (e.g., Flee) and personal documentaries (e.g., Dick Johnson is Dead) are increasingly being programmed alongside more traditional documentaries and receiving wider releases.

Whether you’re a nonfiction fanatic, or a skeptic who’s tired of watching boring info dump docs, Subjective realities will be an eye-opening read.

This is our second book on nonfiction filmmaking; the first is In their own words: Documentary Masters.

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Discover exclusive behind-the-scenes artifacts from the films in the book

In addition to in-depth interviews with the filmmakers, the book will take you behind the scenes, visually, with photos from the set, as well as excerpts from the scripts and storyboards.

  • Director’s notes from Ninth Floor
  • Behind-the-scenes still of cinematographer Franklin Dow on Evelyn
  • Behind-the-scenes stills of Still Processing
  • Behind-the-scenes still from Searchers

Get both ebooks on documentary at a discount

Dive deep into the work of Frederick Wiseman and Gianfranco Rosi and read our initial interview with Penny Lane on creative nonfiction by getting Documentary Masters in a bundle with Subjective Realities

Get the bundle now

What is documentary vs. creative nonfiction?

The films and filmmakers in Subjective realities defy easy classification. Here’s how some of the filmmakers featured think of their films and the terms we have for nonfiction film.

Watch the masterclass on creative nonfiction with Penny Lane and Carol Nguyen.

“With documentary, you’re making some kind of pact with the audience about the type of creative license you either are or aren’t taking.”

-Penny Lane, director of NUTS!, Our Nixon, and Hail Satan?

“Nonfiction’ still feels to me like… what is that? The negatively defined thing.”

-Kirsten Johnson, director of Dick Johnson is Dead

“Is Little Ethiopia creative nonfiction? Yeah, I can see that. Is it nonfiction is another question, just based on [the fact that] some things are fabricated. It is definitely based on truthful things.”

-Joe Bini, director of Little Ethiopia

READ: What is creative nonfiction? >>

READ: The case for Bo Burnham: Inside as creative nonfiction >>

READ: Learning about nonfiction isn’t just for documentary fans >>

Table of contents for Subjective realities: The art of creative nonfiction film

Explore the spectrum between fiction and nonfiction in documentary filmmaking

Part 1: What is creative nonfiction?

  • An introduction to creative nonfiction with Penny Lane and Carol Nguyen
  • How do you classify your nonfiction film?

Case study: Funding nonfiction

  • United States: Tabitha Jackson on Sundance’s Art of Nonfiction Initiative
  • Canada: Executive Producer David Christensen on producing at the National Film Board of Canada

Part 2: Where is the line between fiction and reality?

Case study: Animated nonfiction filmmaking

  • Leanne Pooley on 25 April (2015), an impressionistic recreation of Gallipoli
  • Tomasz Wolski on bringing telephone recordings to life through stop motion in 1970 (2021)
  • Jonas Poher Rasmussen on animating memory in Flee (2021)
  • Félix Dufour-Laperrière on deconstructing archival footage through animation in Archipelago (2021

Part 3: How can nonfiction reframe and reclaim history?

Part 4: How can nonfiction paint a portrait of a person?

  • Joe Bini on editing with Werner Herzog’s documentary character studies
  • Gillian Armstrong on capturing the vibrant wit of costume designer Orry-Kelly in Women He’s Undressed (2015)
  • No set truth: How the casting conceit embraces ambiguity
  • ‘He cannot tell his story in an easy way’: Eliane Raheb on Miguel’s War (2021)
  • Pacho Velez on Searchers (2021), a portrait of New York City through its online daters
  • ‘Once again without you’: Chantal Akerman’s portraits of the lonely artist
  • Self-portrait of the artist through her desktop: An interview with Chloé Galibert-Laîné

Part 5: Does nonfiction filmmaking have the power to heal?

Part 6: Can creative nonfiction change our conception of cinema?

  • ‘I don’t think we’ve scratched the surface of what forms are possible’: Joe Bini on Little Ethiopia
  • ‘There are tons and tons of ways for moving images to exist and be seen’: Zia Anger on My First Film

Films featured in Subjective realities: The art of creative nonfiction film

Hover over the still for the film title and a list of accolades received.

  • Dick Johnson stares just past the camera, mouth agape in awe, a feather boa around his neck.
    Dick Johnson is Dead (2020); Winner, Critics’ Choice, Best Documentary
  • A still from No Ordinary Man, which is featured in our 2021 preview.
    No Ordinary Man (2020); Winner, Best Feature New Visions Award, Montreal International Documentary Festival
  • A young boy looks down into the camera in Residue, a film with some of the best sound design of 2020.
    Residue (2020); Winner of the John Cassavetes Award, Film Independent Spirit Awards
  • A still from John Ware Reclaimed.
    John Ware Reclaimed (2020); Nominee, Best Documentary, Writers Guild of Canada
  • A still from the film Point and Line to Plane.
    Point and Line to Plane (2020); Selected at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival and 2020 Festival du Nouveau Cinema
  • A woman stands in a dark room in front of a film processing device, which illuminates her silhouette.
    Still Processing (2020); Selected at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival and 2020 Indie Memphis Film Festival
  • A still from Flee.
    Flee (2021); Winner, Grand Jury Prize World Cinema Documentary, Sundance Film Festival; Winner, Grand Angel Audience Award, Nyon Visions du Réel; Winner, Best Feature (Cristal), Annecy International Animated Film Festival.
  • Ninth Floor (2015); Nominee, All King Award for Excellence in Documentary, Directors Guild of Canada
  • Road Forward, Marie Clements
    The Road Forward (2017); Winner, Best Director, American Indian Movie Award
  • Women He's Undressed, Orry-Kelly
    Women He’s Undressed (2015); Nominee, Best Documentary, Australian Film Critics Association Awards
  • A man in light drag regards himself in the mirror in Miguel's War, one of the best films of Berlinale 2021.
    Miguel’s War (2021); Teddy Award, Berlinale
  • A closeup of one of the documentary subjects in Searchers, one of the best films of Sundance 2021.
    Searchers (2021); Winner, Best Documentary Feature, Sun Valley Film Festival
  • Peter Wintonick, Wintopia
    Wintopia (2019); Selected at HotDocs 2020
  • Evelyn (2018); Winner, Best Documentary, British Independent Film Award

Praise for our books

I can’t recommend Roads to Nowhere enough

“A book that celebrates the auteur that is Reichardt without erasing the collectivity of making movies… This is a book about making films, but it’s also about watching cinema, experiencing its refracted perspectives, and going into the imagination of others.  As a Kelly Reichardt fan, I can’t recommend it enough and hope that, if you do venture into its pages of knowledge and discovery, you can find as much joy as I did…one sometimes feels alone in their cinephilia. Roads to Nowhere assures us, at least it assured me, that we’re not lonesome after all.”
Cláudio Alves
Critic, The Film Experience

Breathtaking in its insight

“Once again, the Seventh Row team of Alex Heeney and Orla Smith have collaborated on a book that is breathtaking in its insight. Roads to Nowhere: Kelly Reichardt’s Broken American Dreams follows the release of what might be the director’s finest work to date, First Cow. While there is plenty here about the early 1800s-set Cow, Reichardt’s entire career is represented….Reichardt deserves this sterling tribute, and readers will gain even greater appreciation for her work.”
Christopher Schobert
The Film Stage

A cornerstone for future Sciamma scholarship

“Portraits of Resistance covers enormous ground, reading Sciamma’s work as queer cinema, women’s cinema, European cinema, looking at the both the stories and the aesthetics, and how Sciamma has already created distinct and unique films with a singular voice. Not only is it a great introduction for any who want to learn more about the filmmaker, it will be a cornerstone for any future Sciamma scholarship.”
Shelagh Rowan-Legg
Editor, Screen Anarchy

Get both ebooks on documentary at a discount

Dive deep into the work of Frederick Wiseman and Gianfranco Rosi and read our initial interview with Penny Lane on creative nonfiction by getting Documentary Masters in a bundle with Subjective Realities

Get the bundle now

How to buy Subjective realities: The art of creative nonfiction film

Pre-order now, and the book will be delivered to you as soon as it’s released.

The ebook will be delivered to you as both an ePub and PDF, which are readable on all tablets, smart phones, and eReaders.

Purchase the ebook now for $29.99 USD.

Or save money by becoming a Cinephile member, and get this book + 14 more for the price of 7 ebooks — a deep discount — plus more member perks!

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