Craft of Documentary: Camera Masterclass

UPDATE: Sorry guys, a few hours after publishing this post the event has sold out. However, you can still buy tickets for the next masterclass on 19 January by DocHouse which will focus on sound. Speakers for this course are yet to be announced but please check the DocHouse website for more information.

As ever, aiming to support, inform and inspire, DocHouse have organised a day full of documentary goodness. Taking place at the Rich Mix in Bethnal Green on 24 November, it features three in-depth sessions with leading documentary cinematographers, discussing their work, experience, approach and processes.

Here’s what you can expect:

10.30am: Molly Dineen

Famous for her films of British institutions under threat, acclaimed filmmaker Molly Dineen is one of the pioneering Director/Camera students to graduate from the National Film School. She has directed, shot and produced her own work for over 20 years and has developed a unique style – ‘a firm but tender voice behind the camera lens – allowing her subjects to unveil themselves’. In 2003 Molly was awarded The Grierson Memorial Trust Award for outstanding contribution to the art of documentary. She first won the Flaherty Documentary Award for Home from the Hill (1987) followed by an RTS Award for The Heart of the Angel (1989), a BAFTA for her first TV series The Ark (1993), and both a BAFTA and a Grierson for The Lie of the Land in 2007. She made the controversial film Geri (1999) and among her other films documenting British institutions at risk of change or extinction are The Lords Tale (2002) and In the Company of Men (1995).

12.30pm: Roger Chapman

Roger Chapman is one of the UK’s leading documentary cinematographers, widely recognised for his strength as a classic observational cameraman, but also for his versatility in working across genre, including commercials and television dramas. He has worked on more than forty documentaries mostly for the BBC and Channel 4 and has received numerous awards including the RTS Documentary Cameraman Award for The Last Peasants (2003) and a Cameraman’s Guild Award for Geldof in Africa (2005). Directors he has worked with include Angus MacQueen on the multi-award-winning Hostage in the Jungle (2010), Brian Hill (Climate of Change, 2010), Ken Loach (The Flickering Flame, 1998) and Leslie Woodhead (How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, 2009). Roger has also worked with Kevin Macdonald on commercials and in 2011 he shot Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing’s first feature film, Self Made.

3pm: Joan Churchill

One of the most influential and well-known documentary cinematographers, Joan Churchill played an important role in shaping verité filmmaking, and is famous for a subjective camera style that establishes a unique intimacy with those she films. Churchill has shot over 200 non-fiction films and in 2005 won the IDA award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography. Joan’s long-term collaboration with Nick Broomfield began with Juvenile Liaison (1976) and over the following three decades they have worked together on such seminal documentaries as Soldier Girls – which she co-directed, BAFTA-winning Biggie & Tupac (2002), Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003), and most recently Sarah Palin: You Betcha! (2011) – with her both filming and co-directing the latter two titles. Other directors Joan has worked with include the Maysles (Gimme Shelter, 1970), Peter Watkins (Punishment Park, 1971) and Barbara Kopple (Bearing Witness, 2005).