Performative documentary as practice

This research project explores new ways of making documentary films by focusing on 
co-laboration and co-authorship. Traditionally, documentaries have been shaped to 
maximize the impact of the story through how they are framed, filmed, and edited. 
Participants usually contribute their experiences but have little influence on how these 
are represented within the cinematic whole. Even when invited to “tell their own story”, 
their onscreen presence becomes material to be used by the film production, rather 
than an active co-creation or mutual exchange. 
Our project asks: what happens when documentary filmmaking becomes an explicitly 
collaborative process, where participants and film workers share creative decision making? To explore this, we will develop and test working methods that include
reenactment, generative scriptwriting, and articulated models for collaboration that
allow participants to actively shape how their stories are constructed. The project will 
challenge common film industry infrastructure, and at the same time reveal the 
filmmaking process itself, showing audiences not only the finished film but also the 
collaborative negotiations behind it.
The outcomes include several films, workshops, and methodological propositions. 
Together, they will help build a more transparent, inclusive, and ethically grounded 
documentary practice, relevant to both the professional film industry and film 
education.