Name: Finding Story in Documentary Filmmaking
Start: 2025-10-18T10:00:00+03:00
End: 2025-10-18T17:00:00+03:00
Location: Tallink City Hotel

Estonian Screenwriters' Guild and Estonian Documentary Guild present:
A masterclass which demystifies the process of documentary making and examines how narrative structure can come together often out of the very challenges we face as directors and story tellers. Following the process of documentary authorship from development to filming to editing, Emma Davie shares her experience both with her own feature documentary films, each of which has a very different narrative approach, and with other international examples from contemporary documentary film.
Emma Davie is a filmmaker and Professor of Documentary Film at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. Her latest feature documentary The Oil Machine (BBC 2022), has toured extensively provoking debate and discussion with over 350 screenings across 6 continents from Texas to Norway to the Houses of Parliament. Previous features include Becoming Animal (2018), co-directed with Peter Mettler (nominated for Best Documentary at CPH DOX, EIFF and many more) and I Am Breathing, (2012 Film 4) co-directed with Morag MacKinnon (winner of Scottish BAFTA for Best Director, nominated for Best Documentary at IDFA). She speaks or advises on many international workshops including DocEdge Kolkata, Dhaka Doklab, Below Zero and Ex Oriente. She is a member of the Academy and has been on juries including IDFA, Visions du Reel, BAFTA and Docudays Ukraine. She advises on international documentaries including The Brink of Dreams (2024) by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir, which won the Golden Eye Documentary Prize at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.
Language: English
Participation fee:
- Early bird, for members: 34 €
- Early bird, for non-members: 44 €
- Regular, for members: 49 €
- Regular, for non-members: 59 €
Early bird price is valid until September 19, 2025.
Payable to: MTÜ Eesti Stsenaristide Gild, Swedbank EE89 2200 2210 6992 7592.
Please indicate in the registration form if you need an invoice.
Special discounted rates at Tallink City Hotel are available for masterclass participants who need accommodation. Contact us to arrange your booking.