Ep. 275 - Documentary making with Jan Schmidt Garre (Part 1)

“In feature films, the director is God; in documentary films, God is the director.” Alfred Hitchcock.

Welcome to this 2 part series with Jan Schmidt Garre. First part is about “Making a documentary” and second part is his latest Documentary on Late Ar. B.V.Doshi called the “The Promise – Architect BV Doshi”.

Jan Schmidt-Garre founded PARS MEDIA in 1988. It’s a production company for high-quality documentaries and feature films with a focus on classical music, dance, and the fine arts. His films have been broadcasted in over thirty countries.

 

Questions

1. How true are things if they are not documented anywhere?
2. How do you define private and public? (While documenting)
3. How objective is / should be documentation?
4. What are the rules or framework or principles while making a documentary? How you keep the purity and innocence of the moment or the story? Avoid colouring from the past and your own judgement?
5. What qualifies to be documented? How does one start? 
6. Is there a limit to what can be said in audio-visual format or film making?
7. Can documentaries be dangerous?
8. What’s more effective for story telling, making believable? when you witnessing and being part of the documentary or dramatising sections which you couldn’t be a part of?
9. What are the top 3 attributes of a good documentary?
10. (Personal) Since your documentaries are on Art, Music and dance, don’t you feel that you are missing out on actual moments of witnessing the event as oppose to filming it?

We’ll continue this topic in part 2 since I wish to talk about film, The Promise, B.V. Doshi

 

Reference links

• https://www.parsmedia.com
• https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/jan_schmidtgarre
• https://www.instagram.com/janschmidtgarre/
• https://www.delage-artists.com/en/artist/jan-schmidt-garre/biography/
• https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0773272/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Schmidt-Garre