Filmmaker Javier Corcuera to  give a workshop on documentary filmmaking as part of the 67th Seminci programme of events

The Goya award-winning filmmaker will teach a course organized by Seminci Campus between October 24 and 28.

The Valladolid International Film Festival, in collaboration with the University of Valladolid (UVa), launches through its educational platform Seminci Campus a five-day workshop given by Peruvian filmmaker Javier Corcuera on documentary filmmaking. This fifteen-hour workshop is part of the programme of events of the Valladolid Festival and will run on October 24-28, and will take place from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, at the Broadway Cinemas in Valladolid.

Javier Corcuera is a renowned documentary filmmaker and the winner among many other distinctions of the Goya for Best Documentary, the Award for Best Documentary Film at the Malaga Film Festival, or the International Critics Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Among his most outstanding films are The Back of the World and Invisibles. His latest feature film, We Are Nothing, a documentary about the Spanish punk band “La Polla Records” premiered in 2021 at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Workshop aims and registration

The seminar ‘Creating a documentary film’ has a duration of 15 hours divided into 5 days. Each class will include the screening of a film followed by the director’s talk about the filmmaking process. During the seminar his documentaries The Back of the World, Winter in Bahgdad, El viaje de Javier Heraud, The Guerilla of Memory and I’m Still-Kachkaniraqmi will be screened.

The seminar teaches different ways and working methods employed when making a documentary film. Drawing on several  experiences, the filmmaker will help us  understand the process of making a documentary —a film genre whose stuff is reality itself—  from the original idea to the final cut.

Syllabus

The following list of topics will be taught during the sessions before and after the screenings, depending on the dynamics of each session:

– What is a documentary?

– Why tell a story straight from  reality?

– Types of documentaries / creative documentary or non-fiction cinema.

– The tools of fiction / the tools of documentary filmmaking.

– The idea and the narrative devices.

– The genre’s freedom / the author’s freedom.

– The documentary producer / the fiction producer.

– Research and documentation work

– With whom to work on documentation? With whom to address the script?

– Pre-scripting interviews/ character selection.

– Working with the characters/ incorporating them into the screenplay.

– Places/locations.

– Writing the script in documentaries/ differences with fiction.

– How to approach a character?

– Types of interviews / conducting an interview.

– Planning. Unrepeatable sequences.

– Does the script disappear?

– Viewings/ the structure/ the actual writing of a script.

– The documentary editor / the fiction editor.

– Adding  new sequences / new shoots.

– The final edit / the final versión.

– How do we know if this is the film we wanted to make?

– Documentary films are not finished when the job is over.

Registration

The registration procedure requires completing the corresponding form and sending it to semincicampus@seminci.com. Instructions  will then be provided so as to proceed with the payment of the registration fee. The course is aimed primarily at students and professionals in the audiovisual world, and also to those amateurs who want to approach the process of creating a documentary.

The registration fee is € 150 including, in addition to workshop attendance , an accreditation to attend festival screenings for the duration of the course.

 As part of the various collaborations between UVa and Seminci, the academic institution offers 18 grants covering  the full cost of the workshop to students enrolled in the 22-23 academic year in the University’s Master’s Degree in Film, Communication and Audiovisual Industries, as well as to  enrolled undergraduates in UVa’s official Degrees, Master’s courses  and doctoral studies in the areas of Audiovisual Communication, Advertising, Journalism, and to alumni from  the University of Valladolid in these areas who have completed their studies in the last three years (2020, 2021, 2022).