What Makes A Dynamite Documentary? We Chat With Master Filmmaker Alex Holmes!

This year’s Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival saw a wildly popular winner of its Audience Award – the wonderful Maiden, a documentary about an all-female crew who took on one of the toughest sailing races in the world. And when it came time to choose a movie for our special Secret Screening event at the Stella Theatre during the summer, well, it was a pretty easy decision!

 

We had the honour of welcoming director Alex Holmes and producer Victoria Gregory, who took part in an interview and Q&A session after the screening – and while Alex was about, we couldn’t resist picking his brain about what makes a deadly documentary. You can find the whole interview in PLAY magazine – but find a taste of what to expect below!

 

We’ve all got video cameras on our phones now - so can we all make amazing films?

 

“Well, I always advise filmmakers to stop thinking about making a film, and instead get up and make it! But while everything might be caught on camera these days, a lot of it is bland, or doesn’t get under the skin in the right way.

 

 

“Great material will have emotional intelligence and sensibility, and how something is shot changes everything. There’s still an absolute skill to put a lens on something in a revealing way, rather than just pointing a camera. They’re totally different things – and produce totally different results...”

 

To read the whole interview, find it in PLAY Magazine right here!