‘I've got to STOP writing this (adjective of choice) article and get onto my filmmaking’: documentary filmmaking as university research – some history and case studies

Abstract

This article traces the history of how documentary filmmaking has been treated as research in the Australian University system of the last 25 years. Indicative case studies are key to its methodology, of both the author's documentary filmmaking and also that of several colleagues who have combined this creative practice with full-time employment in universities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Trish FitzSimons is a documentary filmaker and Deputy Head of the Griffith Film School, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. Her work includes documentary production, history, theory and policy. Much of her creative practice explores social and environmental history.

Notes

1. Borgdoff (2009) lays out the ways that these questions have by no means been confined to Australia, but rather have been the subject of much debate in Europe for thirty five years, raising fundamental questions about art and about universities that can only here be touched upon.

2. For further details, go to ddca.edu/au.