Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://archive.gijn.org/tag/documentaries/)
Each year the jury for the DIG Festival scours hundreds of submissions to find the best investigative films and podcasts from around the world. This year 25 documentaries and six podcasts, from more than 400 entries, were shortlisted, featuring films or audio from Myanmar, Italy, the Philippines, and the Nordic countries.
In “Under Poisoned Skies,” an award-winning investigation from BBC News Arabic, reporters headed to southern Iraq to explore the impact of gas flaring on the environment and public health. GIJN spoke to the director and producer of the documentary to hear how they did it.
From a film investigating the attempted murder of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny to a stark cautionary tale about how climate change is playing out on the Arctic coast, see the Oscar-nominated documentary shortlists.
Films that captured ‘the death of democracy’ headlined the 2022 Double Exposure documentary festival in the US. In a parallel symposium, investigative reporters and directors stressed the importance of visual storytelling to describe the current, global erosion of democratic freedoms, and shared tips on how to capture this mass theft of human rights.
In 2022, many of GIJN’s original stories focused on reporting techniques relevant to global threats that grew or emerged this year — including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, democratic decline, growth of far-right populism, the challenge of accountability journalism in the Arabian Gulf, abuse of migrants and minorities, and the exiling, assault, and legal harassment of independent media.
From a one-hour French documentary about the Russian Wagner group of mercenary fighters to a short film about the final, desperate phone calls of a Tunisian president facing an uprising, many of the winning entries from this year’s DIG festival focus on exposing stories about the powerful and what happens behind closed doors.
The 2022 Academy Award nominees for Best Documentary explore a range of global topics, including a forgotten celebration of US Black cultural history, the long-term psychic toll refugees can suffer from human trafficking, and an in-depth look at a groundbreaking investigative journalism project.
Longform video investigations are increasingly seen as a significant vehicle for investigative journalism, and in a GIJC21 session on “Breaking into Documentaries,” a team of award-winning filmmakers and commissioning editors shared tips on how journalists can break into the field.
When 32 outstanding investigative documentaries were showcased at the Double Exposure Festival last week, one common question for attendees was this: How on Earth did the filmmakers persuade all these people to let their video cameras in? Three of the filmmakers shared their access tips.
A jury of 10 veteran journalists assembled by GIJN member DIG (Documentari Inchieste Giornalismi, Italian for Documentaries, Investigation, and Journalism) announced winners in seven categories this week. From betrayals by Western oil companies in Africa to hidden radiation poisoning and collusion between criminals and government spooks, the winning teams tackled tough topics with dogged patience and innovative approaches.