This Director Is Dispelling the Myth of Dull Documentaries
“I am drawn to visual narratives with depth, authenticity and a real emotional core. I'm particularly fascinated by the unexplainable, the uncontrollable, the larger-than-life and the bizarre.”
Director Caitlyn Greene, represented by Brooklyn-based production company, Voyager, tells LBB’s Ben Conway that her stories are often rooted in place and explore the ‘power of nature and the presence of the past’ - largely thanks to her upbringing in the American south. “There was a strong tradition of storytelling all around,” she says, “I also like a little darkness, and I’m a romantic.”
Not just a talented director, Caitlyn’s editing work on HBO’s docu-series ‘The Jinx’ has won a Primetime Emmy and ACE Eddie award. Not to mention her Best Editing award at Tribeca Film Festival for the documentary feature ‘When Lambs Become Lions’.
Describing the cutting process as “a hands-on study of film grammar and storytelling structure” she says that much of her work, both self-directed and otherwise, is edited in tandem with another editor - a dynamic she loves. Discovering how different elements feel and move together in the edit, she says the collaborative process is an opportunity to learn closely from other talented filmmakers.
“My earlier entry point to filmmaking informs my process just as much as editing does,” she adds. “My college programme was photo and video journalism, where I reported stories in the field and filmed them as a one-person band. That experience was invaluable. I carry with me that boots-on-the-ground, hands-on, doer attitude in production. That training forced me to be really adaptable.”
Caitlyn’s multimedia career so far has seen her award-winning short films screened at festivals around the world, documentaries for large TV networks, and branded content for the likes of YouTube, Facebook and Mercedes-Benz. “The cross-pollination between those practices often leads to fresh insight and helps me continually evolve my process,” she explains.
Acknowledging they involve different processes and schools of thought, the filmmaker finds that the variety of new skills and opportunities each discipline brings also feed into each other. “In my commercial work, I embrace the opportunity to experiment with new tools and collaborate with larger crews. On the other end of the spectrum, the way I’ve made films has typically been with tiny crews, where we’re finding ways to maximise output with a nimble footprint.”
She continues, “I also love the exercise of navigating different time scales - whether it’s storytelling within a six-second ad or a six-hour series, or handling production timelines from days to years.”
In 2021, Caitlyn’s documentary short ‘The Diamond’ received the Vimeo Staff Pick Award at the Camden International Film Festival and was later acquired by The New Yorker - helping the film find its audience online. She notes that as documentaries have become more popular in recent times, the misconception of documentaries being slow, visually boring and largely historical or interview-based is finally dissipating. “Documentaries can be so many things! It’s an expansive medium (not a genre!) that can be heart-pumping and visually stunning.”
Offering a documentary-making tip, in a word, she says, “Patience. Patience. And then more patience.” This has never been more poignant for the director than on a recent shoot, filming an overnight shrimping trip in the Gulf of Mexico.
“It was planned for two days. But day by day, it extended to five nights. We stretched out our food and supplies and, well, see my comments about patience and adaptability! We rearranged the rest of our shooting schedule on the fly, thanked the captain for his extended hospitality and cruised on through the Gulf. It turned out to be a great adventure.”
Discussing her transition to working in adland, she shares her gratitude for the “highly collaborative teams” of editors, producers and directors that gave her an education in the iterative, creative process while she cut her teeth on series and features. This focus on a shared North Star still guides her today when balancing her own directorial conviction with input from creatives and client voices on commercial projects.
“I learnt a true openness to trying ideas that might not be right, knowing they might lead to territory we would have never found otherwise,” she says. “This process also helped me appreciate the value of understanding the ‘note behind the note’ - a level of understanding that helps expand the thinking around how we might achieve a goal.”
She adds, “I take that collaborative spirit into every project. The important part is then making sure everyone is moving towards the same goal. And when we start to veer away from that, to guide us back, recentring our focus so we can find what best serves the idea.”
Looking ahead to the new year, Caitlyn is currently working on her first documentary feature, titled ‘The River’, which recently secured an IDA grant. Incredibly excited about the visual world being created in the film - now in the production phase - she says that it blends her multimedia experiences more comprehensively than any of her previous projects thus far.
“It combines the range of my experience - the more lyrical nature of my short film work with the story engine of my TV and feature work,” she says, describing it as a departure from ‘The Diamond’. “It will be more plot-driven, immersive and visually dynamic, and will be told on a much larger scale. The films are similar, however, in that they both explore the ways our lives are connected with the landscapes around us and combine individual stories to form a larger narrative.”
“I wish I could share a peek of the footage! I’ll be periodically posting updates via my Instagram and the email list here if you want to stay tuned.”
