Podcast Episode Summary

Podcast: New Books Network – New Books in Film
Episode: Jacob Bricca, "How Documentaries Work" (Oxford UP, 2023)
Date: December 28, 2025
Host: Joel Czerny
Guest: Jacob Bricca, Associate Professor, University of Arizona; Peabody Award-winning filmmaker
Main Theme: An in-depth conversation with Jacob Bricca about his new book, How Documentaries Work, exploring the craft, structure, and evolving language of documentary filmmaking.

Episode Overview

This episode features an engaging interview with Jacob Bricca, a prominent documentary filmmaker and academic, whose new book How Documentaries Work unpacks the mechanics, choices, and nuances behind nonfiction storytelling. Host Joel Czerny and Bricca reflect on the explosion of documentary content in the streaming era, the blending lines between genres, and the importance of critical viewing. The episode provides valuable insights for both casual documentary watchers and educators in film studies.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Jacob Bricca’s Background and Motivation for the Book

• Dual Career: Bricca shares how he began as a documentary filmmaker, later transitioning to documentary editing and ultimately teaching at the university level.
  • “I started as a filmmaker, as a documentary filmmaker, making short documentaries and working, doing editing for other people's films… And then in my late 20s, I had an opportunity to start teaching…” (04:22)
• Differences from First Book: His first book, Documentary Editing Principles and Practice, was more of a technical, instructional resource. The new book is reflective, aiming to teach people how to “digest” and critically interpret what they see on screen.
  • “…this book was a little bit more of a reflective thing. It wasn't trying to teach the reader how to do something… but rather… teaching them how to accomplish the digesting of a film and the understanding when one watches something…” (06:55)

2. Bringing Transparency to the Documentary Form

• Exposing the Craft: Bricca discusses how documentaries are made up of countless decisions that viewers may not notice, but which shape meaning and perception.
• Filling a Gap: Bricca sees his book as breaking new ground—offering a transparent, accessible practitioner's perspective, as opposed to dense academic theory.
  • “I think this is really a new book… It is written from a practitioner's point of view, but with an academic’s mindset…” (10:01)

3. Documentary Language, Tropes, and “Presence Framing”

• Terminology and Tools: The book explains key concepts and helps viewers apply critical vocabulary to what they watch.
• Narrative vs. Nonfiction: Bricca explores how documentaries, though labeled nonfiction, necessarily rely on narrative structuring, manipulation, and selective framing.
• Presence Framing: Bricca introduces and elaborates on “presence framing”—how documentaries define (or obscure) the relationship between the filmmaker and the subjects.
  • “Any documentary is going to have a framing that it gives you in terms of what… the relationship is between the filmmaker and the people who are on screen… those are not random choices, those are deliberate choices.” (13:13)

4. Changing Audience Awareness and Documentary Norms

• Evolving Reception: The conversation references Michael Moore’s Roger & Me and how audience understanding of the documentary “point of view” has shifted.
  • “…they watched it and they immediately saw what he was doing… He's playing a character… and the part, you know, what they referred to as trolling…” (16:12)
• Audience Education: The book encourages viewers to become more aware of the subtle manipulations and claims to “truth” in documentaries.

5. Inclusion of TV and Reality Formats

• Expanding the Definition: Bricca intentionally includes “reality” programming and lifestyle/documentary TV (e.g., Pool Kings, Ugliest House in America) to show the spectrum and shared narrative devices between traditional docs and popular reality formats.
  • “…to think about it in the same critical way, I think is really key. And I think students, young people appreciate that…” (22:40)
• Comparative Analysis: He compares conventions in TV formatting (explicit stakes, fast “hooks”) to those in feature documentaries.

6. The Documentary Series Phenomenon

• Multi-Episode Docs: Bricca and Czerny discuss the rise of documentary series (docuseries), potential for narrative padding, and the lure of including “side stories.” The true crime docuseries The Keepers is cited as a positive example.
• Manipulation of Knowledge: The practice of withholding or revealing facts across episodes is highlighted as a contemporary narrative device.

7. Revealing Production Secrets and Ethics

• Behind the Scenes: Extended discussion of how pre-interviews, production schedules, and other behind-the-scenes processes affect what appears to be “natural” on screen (e.g., Intervention).
  • “…they were essentially performing a form of talk therapy that without sort of meaning to… and so they had to modulate the way that they did their schedule…” (28:50)
• Templates and Formulas: The presence of formulaic structures within episodic docu-TV is explored.

8. Techniques: Editing, Music, Sound, and Archival Material

• Role of B-Roll and Editing: The subtle role of editing, including the use of “B-roll” and the presentation of materials to create or support the narrative, is explored.
• Use of Sound and Music: Bricca dives into how different types of scenes (interviews, reenactments) and formats use music and sound to influence emotional impact and realism.
• Meaning Construction: He details how even mundane elements (such as photo credits or lower-third titles) contribute to layers of meaning, often in ways the viewer does not perceive as constructed.
• Notable Example: The “Bronx Zoo tiger tests positive” headline and photo case is dissected as an illustration of how information is impressively but subtly amalgamated. (39:39)

9. Point of View, Structure, and Narrative Framing

• Filmmaker Presence: The range from invisible directors to films with explicit filmmaker narration (e.g., Alex Gibney, Michael Moore) is discussed, highlighting the effect of each approach.
• Archival-Only Docs: Films like The Atomic Cafe and Mike Wallace is Here are cited as examples of docs with no voiceover, relying entirely on found footage and context.
  • “…they do these really interesting juxtapositions in the film where you get… psychological insight into him as a person and his motivations just by how they insinuate things…” (48:12)

10. Ethics and the Manipulation of Evidence

• Altered Documents: Some editors reorder or redact archival materials for clarity, raising questions about authenticity but justified as aiding audience comprehension (see Helen Kearns discussion at 54:05).
• Reenactments: The use—and controversy—of reenactment in documentaries (e.g., The Thin Blue Line) is acknowledged as an ongoing debate and area ripe for future exploration.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Craft of Docs:
  “There are zillions of decisions that are made in every scene. And those… most viewers it seems relatively transparent what's happening, but there's actually a lot going on behind the scenes that made that what it is.” – Jacob Bricca (06:54)

• On Audience Manipulation:
  “My book is a call for the audience to be aware in every possible way of exactly how they're being manipulated… not to take anything away from the form and its claims to truth, but exactly what kind of truth that is is worth talking about.” – Jacob Bricca (17:37)

• On “Presence Framing”:
  “Any documentary is going to have a framing that it gives you… in terms of what theoretically the relationship is between the filmmaker and the people who are on screen… those are not random choices, those are deliberate choices.” – Jacob Bricca (13:13)

• On Documentary Series Padding:
  “You do see the aspect where… it’s just sort of padded out. It does allow the inclusion of interesting side things… but other series… are just kind of stretching… that is just a commercial imperative.” – Jacob Bricca (27:42)

• On Formulaic TV Docs:
  “[In] Intervention… the intervention is always going to happen in the fourth segment, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That’s the level on which I wanted to try to explain sort of behind-the-scenes stuff…” – Jacob Bricca (33:09)

• On Altered Archival Evidence:
  “It actually was altered. And the facts are not altered… they’re not making you believe something that wasn’t true. And yet the arrangement of the elements on screen [was] slightly rearranged so you could get an instant recognition of exactly what that document meant.” – Jacob Bricca, citing Helen Kearns (54:38)

• On the Accessibility of the Book:
  “It’s about 200 pages in a pretty slim volume… Oxford… initially wanted something even shorter, but once I started writing… they said… you need to make it a little longer. But it’s still approachable… it feels like you could pick it up and get through it without it feeling like… a burden.” (63:29)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:42 | Bricca’s career journey and teaching/industry dual role | | 06:09 | Motivation and conceptual differences between Documentary Editing and How Documentaries Work | | 10:01 | Novelty and practitioner's perspective of the new book | | 12:10 | Classroom use, chapter examples (narrative, “presence framing”), discussion of Bill Nichols’ framework | | 16:12 | Evolving perspectives: “Roger & Me”, filmmaker as character, modern student reactions | | 20:04 | Inclusion and analysis of TV doc and reality formats (e.g., “Pool Kings”) | | 24:52 | Impact of multi-episode docuseries and narrative pacing | | 28:50 | How production and pre-interview process in reality TV shapes outcomes (Intervention example) | | 33:46 | Documentary and fiction film parallels (editing, motifs, Chekhov’s gun analogy) | | 35:32 | Music and sound in documentaries, different approaches and their narrative impact | | 39:39 | News example (“Bronx Zoo Tiger”) illustrating layering of information and meaning construction | | 43:16 | Genesis of documentaries—planning, research, and cases where docs’ focus changed during filming | | 47:28 | All-archival documentaries: “Atomic Cafe”, “Mike Wallace is Here”, narrative creation without narration | | 50:06 | The Staircase: narrative construction, access, titles vs. narration | | 54:05 | Interviews for the book, notable insights (Steve James, Helen Kearns, composers, sound designers) | | 60:44 | Reenactment in documentaries—controversy and normalization post-Thin Blue Line | | 62:03 | Documentary landscape today, documentary lists, accessibility, and the book’s utility |

Engaging Moments / Takeaways

• Critical “Decoder Ring” for Viewers: The book arms lay viewers and students with terminology and frameworks for deconstructing any documentary’s stylistic and structural choices.
• Documentary’s Expanding Territory: The blurred line between festival docs, TV reality formats, and “guilty pleasures” highlights how the genre now encompasses myriad forms, all of which benefit from critical attention.
• Reality of the Medium: Reenactments, manipulated documents, and constructed narratives reveal documentaries’ inescapable subjectivity and constructed nature.
• Accessible Resource: How Documentaries Work is concise, affordable, and filled with images, offering both breadth and depth—suitable for the classroom or casual readers.

Conclusion

Jacob Bricca’s interview provides a rich, behind-the-scenes look at the evolving language of documentaries, emphasizing both transparency in the craft and the importance of critical viewing in the streaming age. As documentaries diversify and proliferate, Bricca’s work—and this episode—offer both fans and educators vital tools to better understand, analyze, and appreciate nonfiction storytelling.