Documentary journalism professor tells students to watch more movies

Students interested in documentary journalism should watch a lot of movies, said Stacey Woelfel, an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and director of the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism.

“They should watch documentaries, of course, but any movie helps train you in the language of cinema,” Woelfel said.

The Jonathan B. Murray Center will use the Missouri Method to teach students hands-on to artfully tell true stories in the documentary fashion. Woelfel and his colleagues will begin teaching courses in the new center in the fall.

Woelfel said even Netflix can allow students to interact with documentaries more often. The website is currently streaming 609 documentaries. Woelfel’s favorites include The Thin Blue Line; Particle Fever; and Actress, which was directed by Murray Center Filmmaker-in-Chief Robert Greene.

Woelfel said the best thing a young journalist can do to improve in the field of documentary journalism is to go out and starting making stories.

“Most students have phones that can shoot video, or DSLR that does video is very easy to get,” he said. “Students should go out and start telling character-driven stories.”

At it’s core, Woelfel said documentary journalism is all about storytelling.

“Each documentary tells a story, and as journalists, we go out to report that story with all the tools at our disposal, eventually telling it in a rich, full and meaningful way using the tools of the documentary filmmaker,” Woelfel said.

In documentaries, Woelfel said audiences see the subjects actually living whatever story the documentary is about. He said documentary journalism now has an important role in the relentless pressure of the 24-hour news cycle.

“As more and more people consume shorter and shorter bits of news and information, whether on their phones, computers, TVs or anywhere else, those people are missing a lot of facts and details in information they receive,” Woelfel said.

Woelfel said documentaries and other long-form efforts of journalism and storytelling balance out the brevity of most other media sources. This allows audience members to slow down and digest what they’re seeing and hearing in a way some stories were just meant to be seen and heard.

“Documentaries can often take years to produce, and that’s because the filmmaker wants to tell the story as he or she sees it,” he said.

Woelfel said the lack of documentary deadlines also help keep the filmmaker’s vision intact.

At the documentary journalism program at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Woelfel said students have the opportunity to take seven documentary courses, along with other journalism and liberal arts courses.

“The program is built on the Missouri Method, the Missouri School of Journalism’s 107-year-old approach to teaching journalism by doing journalism,” he said.

The program is an interest area in the school, meaning undergrads will complete their final two years in the program. Graduate students can enroll in a two-year master’s degree program. For more information on the program and curriculum, please visit their website.

For more documentaries, check out last year’s Sight and Sound list of the greatest documentaries or Paste Magazine’s list of the 100 best documentaries of all time.