Documentary Film Lecture Series with Nicole Opper

"Redefining Collaborations in the New Era of Documentary"

There’s a quiet revolution that’s happening in documentary, as its tentacles reach outside the familiar tropes of linear filmmaking and into the interactive, collaborative and participatory realm. Yet the key to this revolution might just be a foundational element of documentary practice: the collaboration between the subject and filmmaker. So how is this complicated by power dynamics in instances where your subject-collaborator is a minor? What is the ethical protocol in these situations, and who governs that? Documentarians talk about the importance of “trust” to the point of fetishization, but how do we measure the value of trust in young people who are expected to give it freely to caring adults?  Opper will explore the question of “collaborative authenticity” that she has been confronted with throughout her practice of making films about young people. She will also discuss the ongoing tension in the public imagination about the ever-blurring line between fiction films and documentaries that tend toward the abstract, the impressionistic, or the performative.

Nicole Opper directed and produced the Emmy‐nominated feature documentary Off and Running which was an Audience Favorite at Tribeca, won ten festival awards, and aired on P.O.V. She’s currently finishing her second feature documentary, Búscame, which is supported by a Fulbright Fellowship, New York State Council on the Arts, Chicken & Egg Pictures and The Independent Television Service. Opper has produced films for The Discovery Channel and Here TV, and was selected for Filmmaker Magazine’s annual “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” As a film educator, she has lectured at The UPAEP in Puebla, Mexico, and at San Francisco State University. She also teaches filmmaking at The Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC). Prior to moving to the Bay Area, Opper taught at the School of Creative and Performing Arts in Los Angeles and mentored youth at Brooklyn Reel Works. She studied filmmaking at New York University.

Image caption: Still from Búscame, forthcoming 2015, Nicole Opper