A wide range of new writing from non-fiction and documentary filmmakers who work in the rich space between the academy and industry. These global filmmakers and writers reflect on, interrogate and explicate their filmmaking practices in relation to questions of form, content and process.

The authors included in Constructions of the Real are all researcher-practitioners, who theorise in and through their making using a range of practice-led and practice-based methodologies. This not only shows the complexity of the concept of practice as research in documentary filmmaking but also considers visual and interdisciplinary methods and approaches which help expand the scope of what we mean by documentary practice and, ultimately, by documentary overall.

Constructions of the Real is divided into four sections, each with its own way of exploring documentary practice as research and of defining and redefining the wider context in which the 'practice' takes place. By focusing on the forms of knowledge production that emerge from these different approaches, platforms and perspectives, the book opens up important debates about documentary's multiple facets and styles.