Image: still from On The Bride’s Side
‘Creative documentary’ is one of those phrases which has been around for a while, but rarely comes up in our local language. We prefer the ‘independent documentary’ or ‘the handmade documentary’ or ‘artisanal filmmaking’. These phrases tell us about the production process, but only imply that the aspirations are different from the mainstream marketplace. The ABC and SBS are even blunter. They refer to ‘one-offs’, a term which is so utterly shorn of magic it reminds me of a wet mop.
