Amy, I agree entirely with the ‘uncertainty’ that is documentary and the constant vigilance, like fishing, required to film it. However, I am wary of ‘structural models’ but agree that every film requires to find a form appropriate to its material, so that the audience is held in a dialogue. I also avoid setting anything up, but just to prove that one can be overcome by the opposite of what one believes, of one’s own approach, I saw recently one of the most beautiful shots ever in a documentary film. And clearly it was planned: in Le sens de l’âge (The meaning of ageing – see http://www.lesensdelage.com/) in which an 89 year old man, talking about his life, walks down a staircase in the late afternoon sun. We look at his shadow on a brick wall and the camera pans down as he descends, slowly, until his shadow disappears into the river which runs along the wall… I’ve never experienced any single shot as evocative of the serenity of dying as this.
Thank you for your stimulating journey through this fundamental topic, which we will all encounter one day for ourselves.

Jonathan Robertson