Dialogue: Technology's Role in Documentary Films

How have the affordable yet versatile video cameras and 'laptop' editing systems expanded the genre? For better or worse?

How have the Internet, social media and iPods increased its reach beyond the public broadcasters & schoolrooms?

The field of short films and documentaries was once a pond, but it has now become an ocean with the advent of
digital technology and mobile phones." Kuldeep Sinha, director 2009 Mumbai Film Festival. Mobile phones have
advanced so much they created a category for their festival to include documentaries shot on them.

"It is fascinating to see how much and yet paradoxically how little has changed in non‐fiction film‐making. In
some ways, the internet represents film coming in a full circle: the earliest films were short films and now the
constraints imposed by download time make short films an ideal form for online exhibition." www.bfi.org.uk