Docs As News Panel: An Increasingly Blurred Line

This post was written by DOC NYC bloger Krystal Grow

As the line between news, media and movie-making continues to blur, documentaries are gaining substantial ground in breaking big stories. On Friday, DOC NYC’s first full day of programming, the members of the Docs as News panel attempted to dissect the increasing overlap of journalism and documentary film making.

“Documentary films are breaking news, which wasn’t always how they were intended to function,” said panel moderator Dan Cogan of Impact Partners, an equity firm dedicated to funding and producing documentary films. Panelist Philip Gourevitch of The New Yorker agreed, adding that the integration of documentary films in the realm of journalism also presented some interesting challenges when it comes to ethics, accuracy and the competitive nature of the news business.

“Film makers are finding these earth shaking stories without any of the support that journalists get. We should be acting as an umbrella and pulling them in by finding ways to provide fact checking and legal services,” he said.

Documentary director Andrew Jarecki, whose film CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS chronicled the dramatic case of a family convicted of gruesome child molestation charges that were later overturned, said he struggled with the film and it’s complicated legal and social implications because he was largely pursuing the story on his own volition and backed by little more than his reputation.

“I know that the burden lies on me to paint the most honest, accurate portrait [in my films] without anyone looking over my shoulder,” he said. “On one hand, I love that freedom, but at times it would be nice to be able to say that I had the editorial board of the New York Times backing me up.”

“We’re entering a very interesting era,” said Tom Yellin of DocGroups, who earned his chops as a reporter for network news-supported documentary programs and projects. “We all know that the notion of objectivity is absurd. What really matters is that there’s accountability for doing things inaccurately.”

“I don’t see documentaries and journalism as inherently different,” Gourevitch said, adding that the perspectives filmmakers bring to the field will raise the bar on the way news media across platforms function. “It’s a competitive sport, and I think the new models are going to make the old model more honest.”

Krystal Grow is a freelance arts journalist, arts administrator and photography enthusiast based in NYC.