Documentaries are one of the most powerful tools to have come out of the film industry. Creating social justice films is the art of combining the best of cinema and journalism to open our eyes and inspire change. As the acclaimed documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer says:

“The function of journalism is, primarily, to uncover vital new information in the public interest and to put that information in a context so that we can use it to improve the human condition.” 

These are delicate films that must be approached with determination and compassion. Documentary filmmakers are drawn to stories that are often infuriating and shocking to make us better people and cultivate a more just world. 

This style of filmmaking has become more and more popular in recent years, given the complexities of the world we live in. Yet many of us struggle with how to shed light on the stories that we care about. 

In this article, we will focus on the challenges and breakthroughs that independent filmmakers like Joshua Oppenheimer (The Art of Killing) and Jennie Livingston (Paris is Burning) faced – and how you can learn from these experiences to create your own inspiring social justice film and breakthrough into the industry.

Do you have what it takes?

Creating social justice films is a calling. It involves tackling enormous challenges and taking risks. It often requires personal and professional sacrifice. When researching the most impactful documentaries of the 21st century, you’ll see that directors often went up against all odds and fought powerful people and institutions to get at the heart of the story. 

Jennie Livingston’s experience filming Paris is Burning illustrates this well. The film was made at a time when Livingston was, in her words, “up against an entire establishment of people who didn’t want you as a woman making a film, didn’t want to see queer images, and didn’t want to give you the money, which is still an issue for women film-makers and queer film-makers” (The Guardian). 

Livingston faced an uphill battle that may have scared off many less determined filmmakers. Her persistence, however, had profound impacts on those communities – it changed the way the mainstream media saw these marginalized groups and inspired real societal change. 

Before embarking on this journey, know that there are great rewards ahead, but ask yourself if you are prepared to overcome the various roadblocks that will inevitably come your way.

The key is to trust your intuition as a filmmaker when creating social justice films. Many documentarians are so impassioned by a story that they choose to pursue a project without any support or resources. This is a big financial and professional risk, but your vision can pay off. 

Before Joshua Oppenheimer’s great success, he struggled to find a distributor for The Act of Killing. Oppenheimer had taken risks to travel across the world and document dangerous people talking about war crimes. 

The challenges didn’t stop there, though. His talent and bravery helped him get his “break”: after much persistence, he got ten minutes to pitch Werner Herzog in a hotel lobby before the film titan left for the airport. Herzog himself states that he was “not committed at all” to the project before Oppenheimer showed him the footage. Thanks to Oppenheimer’s bravery, devotion, and talent, he was able to publish one of the most stunning documentaries of all time. 

Do not underestimate what it will take to bring your story to life, but trust your intuition if you feel there is a story that needs to be shared with the world. Programs like the San Francisco Film School’s Social Justice Filmmaking Workshop can help provide support and guidance if you are new to documentary filmmaking and don’t know where to start.

Choose your style

Depending on the story you are pursuing, there are several ways to approach creating a social justice film. Some documentarians choose to look back at history and provide viewers with a version of events previously unknown or unexamined. 

Such is the case with documentaries like Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore, which is one of the few nonfiction films to have won the Cannes Film Festival. With this style, the key is providing a lens through which you invite the audience to revisit an issue you believe is misunderstood. 

If your story is unfolding in the present, you may be able to capture it as cinéma vérité, or “truthful cinema”. This style of “direct cinema”, also known as “observational cinema” is powerful because it gives the viewers a front-row seat to events they otherwise would have no way of accessing. 

Such is the case for the Academy Award-nominated film from Romania Collective. Director Alexander Nanau and his team captured interviews with key civilian and political players, press conferences, whistleblowers, and more as the events played out. It resulted in a stunning exposé and showed the world how a single fire upturned an entire nation.

The ingredients of successful social justice films

Commitment to your social justice film is a critical part of making a successful documentary. However, there are other ingredients to consider as well. Some of the most groundbreaking documentaries were made possible only by the director’s timeliness and dedication to follow the story down an unknown path. You cannot effectively document a story from afar, so you must be ready to leave all your comforts to get to the heart of the conflict. 

Such is the case for two-time Academy Award Winner Sean Penn. When the war in Ukraine broke out in March of 2022, he wanted to be a witness to history and decided to cross into the war zone. We don’t know yet what he and his team are witnessing or creating, but we know he has been in contact with many of the key political players and is seeing a side of this story that few of us can understand. 

As a director of a nonfiction film, it is your responsibility to deeply understand the conflict you are documenting so you can do the story justice. Depending on the material, this can be hard to do so from afar. Being on the ground and meeting the key players will make for an infinitely more powerful story than if you were to chronicle the events from afar. 

No matter which format you choose, your priority must be to be true to the subjects of your film. It is your responsibility as a director to tell a well-rounded story that shows the complexities of the conflict at hand. Oppenheimer cautions that “In documentary filmmaking, there’s a tradition of telling stories about victims. We often do that from a very patronizing place, but mostly we do it from a very selfish place, to reassure ourselves that our lives are in sympathy and solidarity with the victims.”

As a director, you must fight against the instinct to inject self-serving narratives and keep the focus on your characters. If not, your audiences will sense prejudices and pandering. Ask yourself why you are telling this story, and be sure to examine your biases before diving in. 

Conclusion 

Creating a social justice film is a bold and brave undertaking. It can require some of the biggest personal and professional risktaking of your life. It can also bring about incredible outcomes for your career and the communities you are profiling. 

Before committing to such a project, be sure you have a realistic understanding of what it will take to see it through to the end. Joshua Oppenheimer was unknown until he made The Act of Killing. He risked his life to do to make this film, and the result was a work of art that has changed the world of cinema. Connect with experienced social justice filmmakers at events and workshops, and research successful documentarians and their journies to produce these films. 

Ultimately, creating a social justice film is a calling, and it is an exploration not just of the story in front of you but of our existence and the choices we make as a society. As directors, we are tasked with telling these profound stories in a way that touches the audience’s heart and inspires action. 

As Oppenheimer says, “Like all art, nonfiction film should invite, seduce, or force us to confront the most difficult, frightening or mysterious aspects of what it means to be human.” Trust your instincts as an artist, and use your courage and voice to break through into the business.

Get Started

Learn more about the Social Justice Filmmaking Workshop by visiting the website here.

If you are serious about a career in the film industry, San Francisco Film School offers multiple degree and certificate programs to get you started!