Embodied Documentary Filmmaking
By Erica Monde (IMPRINT Documentary Collective). 2024.
“Embodied Documentary Filmmaking” is a methodological process of filmmaking within the subgenre of creative documentary. Established by IMPRINT Documentary Collective in 2020, “embodied documentary filmmaking” emphasises the role of the felt sense and the body politic primarily in the process of making documentary films, and secondarily in the film’s subject matter, role in the media landscape, and impact of process on the filmmaker.
“Embodied documentary filmmaking” was developed from IMPRINT Documentary Collective’s research-as-practice from 2020 - 2024. Currently led by Erica Monde and contributed to by over 100 filmmakers internationally, this work has culminated in a forthcoming book on embodied documentary filmmaking practices, reflections, and outcomes.
Embodied documentary filmmaking distinguishes itself from other body-focused filmmaking practices such as screendance, experimental filmmaking, and ethnographic filmmaking/visual ethnography by positioning itself firmly in the subgenre of creative documentary: documentaries that explore and represent the objective, “real world”, without limiting the use of the creative tools available to filmmakers as an art form.
“Embodied documentary filmmaking” was developed from IMPRINT Documentary Collective’s research-as-practice from 2020 - 2024. Currently led by Erica Monde and contributed to by over 100 filmmakers internationally, this work has culminated in a forthcoming book on embodied documentary filmmaking practices, reflections, and outcomes.
Embodied documentary filmmaking distinguishes itself from other body-focused filmmaking practices such as screendance, experimental filmmaking, and ethnographic filmmaking/visual ethnography by positioning itself firmly in the subgenre of creative documentary: documentaries that explore and represent the objective, “real world”, without limiting the use of the creative tools available to filmmakers as an art form.
More practically, embodied documentary filmmaking focuses on the subjective, embodied interpretation of the world through our bodies experience of it, by identifying internal, somatic sensations, feelings, and experiences of the filmmaker in relation to the film’s subject, whether self, other, or object.
Embodied documentary filmmaking utilises processes drawn from practices such as (but not limited to) focusing (Gendlin, 1981) and body hermeneutics (Mallin, 1996) to access an awareness of the internal state which then informs the filmmaking practice as an act of ongoing, embodied dialogue between self, subject, and the larger socio-political structures of the body’s place in the world (the body politic). By emphasising in tandem the political and subjective self, the practice of embodied documentary filmmaking lends itself to larger frameworks of queer and feminist filmmaking.
Methodologically, as ongoing, lived research-by-practice, IMPRINT’s research on embodied documentary filmmaking has been contributed to by multiple women, trans, gender non-conforming and non binary filmmakers, artists and researchers in intensive filmmaking workshops, the films from which make up the IMPRINT Documentary Collective’s living, growing, and embodied archive.
To cite:
Monde, Erica and IMPRINT Documentary Collective. “Embodied Documentary Filmmaking.” IMPRINT Documentary Collective, June 2024, imprintdocs.cargo.site/embodied-documentary-filmmaking.
Bibliography
Gendlin, Eugene T. Focusing / Eugene T. Gendlin. Second edition new, revised instructions. New York ; Bantam, 1981. Print.
Mallin, Samuel. Art Line Thought. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 1996
Embodied documentary filmmaking utilises processes drawn from practices such as (but not limited to) focusing (Gendlin, 1981) and body hermeneutics (Mallin, 1996) to access an awareness of the internal state which then informs the filmmaking practice as an act of ongoing, embodied dialogue between self, subject, and the larger socio-political structures of the body’s place in the world (the body politic). By emphasising in tandem the political and subjective self, the practice of embodied documentary filmmaking lends itself to larger frameworks of queer and feminist filmmaking.
Methodologically, as ongoing, lived research-by-practice, IMPRINT’s research on embodied documentary filmmaking has been contributed to by multiple women, trans, gender non-conforming and non binary filmmakers, artists and researchers in intensive filmmaking workshops, the films from which make up the IMPRINT Documentary Collective’s living, growing, and embodied archive.
To cite:
Monde, Erica and IMPRINT Documentary Collective. “Embodied Documentary Filmmaking.” IMPRINT Documentary Collective, June 2024, imprintdocs.cargo.site/embodied-documentary-filmmaking.
Bibliography
Gendlin, Eugene T. Focusing / Eugene T. Gendlin. Second edition new, revised instructions. New York ; Bantam, 1981. Print.
Mallin, Samuel. Art Line Thought. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 1996