Some misguided directors think the message of “see how awful it is” will spur audiences into actionable awareness. But viewers can get paralyzed by bad news. Thankfully, when co-producers Shannon and Patricio Cohn asked me for a story consultation, they already had a name for this problem: “suffering fatigue”. Below the Belt (2022) is a well-directed, verite-style documentary. It follows four women seeking treatment for endometriosis, a painful chronic condition. In Act Three of their f...
All content for The Art of Documentary Storytelling is the property of Karen Everett and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Some misguided directors think the message of “see how awful it is” will spur audiences into actionable awareness. But viewers can get paralyzed by bad news. Thankfully, when co-producers Shannon and Patricio Cohn asked me for a story consultation, they already had a name for this problem: “suffering fatigue”. Below the Belt (2022) is a well-directed, verite-style documentary. It follows four women seeking treatment for endometriosis, a painful chronic condition. In Act Three of their f...
Ep #3 - The Truth Cannot Be Cancelled: Editing A Personal Documentary
The Art of Documentary Storytelling
36 minutes
3 years ago
Ep #3 - The Truth Cannot Be Cancelled: Editing A Personal Documentary
In this special episode, my staff editor and I collaborate on four calls with the director of The Boys In Red Hats (2021). He had hired New Doc Editing to edit his personal documentary, one that traversed hyper-polarized terrain. This is the story of a man who became woke—while staying true to the positive values of his conservative past. In 2019, a politically-charged video went viral. It showed students wearing red MAGA hats confronting a Native American elder in DC. The image of young Ni...
The Art of Documentary Storytelling
Some misguided directors think the message of “see how awful it is” will spur audiences into actionable awareness. But viewers can get paralyzed by bad news. Thankfully, when co-producers Shannon and Patricio Cohn asked me for a story consultation, they already had a name for this problem: “suffering fatigue”. Below the Belt (2022) is a well-directed, verite-style documentary. It follows four women seeking treatment for endometriosis, a painful chronic condition. In Act Three of their f...
