Mastering the Documentary Interview is a practical guide to conducting documentary interviews for filmmakers who want to gather authentic stories with skill, care, and confidence.

From research to body language, camera placement, and the power of silence, this book provides a complete interviewing framework. Filmmaker and professor Christine Fugate grounds the method in memory science and conversations with nineteen filmmakers and journalists. They include Academy Award winners Mark Jonathan Harris, Ben Proudfoot, and Roger Ross Williams; Emmy winners R. J. Cutler, Lauren Greenfield, and Sam Pollard; and Peabody winners Dawn Porter, Renee Tajima-Peña, and Ryan White.

At the center is the Three Stories framework, a method for hearing the private story a person lived, the public story they present, and the cultural story the world has assigned them. The book also includes skill-building exercises, question openers, trust-building strategies, the GATES framework for ethical interviewing, and a checklist for examining bias.

Documentary filmmakers, film and journalism students, and instructors will benefit from a book about conducting ethical interviews and creating compelling documentaries.

To further support readers, the book includes a wealth of ancillary materials including worksheets, chapter quizzes, and instructor materials.

Christine Fugate is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and interviewer. Her films have screened in theaters and aired worldwide. She has interviewed Dakota Fanning, Johnny Depp, Julie Andrews, Pete Carroll, and Reggie Bush. Her documentary participants range from Appalachian mothers and tobacco farmers to adult film stars and the members of KISS. Fugate teaches documentary writing and filmmaking at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Her current film and research focus on memory and the Three Stories Framework.