Get Close: Lean Team Documentary Film-making

Join us for a two-hour, free workshop sponsored by Social Justice Film Festival & Institute, featuring documentary filmmaker and writer Rustin Thompson, where he will present an overview of his refreshing new approach to documentary filmmaking. Thompson will demonstrate how you can make a feature documentary with a one- or two-person team by eliminating the costly barriers between you and your story; removing the need for bloated crews, flocks of assistants, and executive overseers; and allowing you to get close to your characters and subject matter.

He will show you how to use a few simple, accessible tools and techniques to engage with the aesthetic possibilities of the medium, its creative opportunities and its satisfying rewards of giving back to the world. Thompson will introduce key themes from his book, which includes the conception, planning, producing, storytelling, funding, filming, writing, editing, and distributing of a feature-length documentary. 

The workshop will include short film clips and a brief equipment demo. Copies of Thompson’s book,  Get Close: Lean Team Documentary Filmmaking (OUP, 2019) will be available for purchase or please consider buying from your favorite local independent bookstore. For those looking for a deeper immersion in lean team documentary filmmaking, Thompson is teaching a 5-week course at Seattle Central Community starting Sept. 23rd.

Bio:

Along with his wife and filmmaking partner, writer Ann Hedreen (Her Beautiful Brain), Thompson owns White Noise Productions, where they've made more than 160 short documentaries for non-profit organizations. His feature length films include 30 Frames A Second: The WTO in Seattle (2000), which won several Best Documentary awards, was named one of the Top Ten films of the year by the American Library Association, and one of the Best Undistributed Films of 2001 by The Village Voice. His latest documentary, a memoir film called My Mother Was Here, will have its Northwest premiere at the Local Sightings Film Festival on Sept.21st and screen at the Tacoma International Film Festival in October.  He is currently in production on the essay film Slow Revolution. Other films include Quick Brown Fox: An Alzheimer’s Story, The Church on Dauphine Street, and Zona Intangible. Thompson is also the host of the popular Americana program Road Songs on KBCS.FM. 

Accessibility: Wheelchair lift available at the SW entrance (off Brooklyn Ave).

Max capacity of 550 lbs. Call UHeights staff for assistance at: (206) 235-8567