How to Make a Music Documentary

Few filmmakers are better positioned to answer that question than Doug Blush. An award-winning director, producer, editor, writer, and cinematographer with over 200 feature and television projects to his name, Blush has been behind some of the most celebrated documentaries of the last decade. His credits include, as supervising editor, the Grammy and Oscar-winning 20 Feet from Stardom (2013), and as Executive Producer on multiple Academy Award-winning films: Icarus (2018), Period. End of Sentence (2019), The Elephant Whisperers (2023), and the Critic's Choice and Peabody Award-winning Mr. Soul! (2020).

His latest project brings him back to Woods Hole: Los Lobos Native Sons, a documentary about the legendary East LA band that Blush is co-directing, screening at this year's festival.

In this hands-on workshop, Blush will dig into the unique storytelling challenges of the feature-length music documentary — how to structure a film around sound and performance, how to capture a band's essence on screen, and how to balance biography, music, and cultural context into a cohesive and compelling whole. He'll draw directly on his experience making Los Lobos Native Sons to illustrate the creative decisions, the pitfalls, and the possibilities that define the genre.

Whether you're developing a music doc of your own or simply want a masterclass in nonfiction storytelling from one of the field's most accomplished practitioners, this workshop is not to be missed.