Overview
Bringing together filmmakers and scholars, this volume unpacks the evolving language of screenwriting in documentary and experimental cinema. Uniting filmmakers and practice-led researchers, Essay Film and Narrative Techniques: Screen-writing Non-fiction explores the evolving language of essay film through various methods of narration, including production diaries, self-critiques, interviews, and theoretical analyses. Including canonical works and unconventional approaches, this collection emphasizes how essay films blur the lines between personal expression and collective storytelling. In this volume, renowned scholars and practitioners unpack the conceptual and contextual dimensions of screenwriting for essay film, considering its role as both a cinematic and research tool. Whether reflecting on the personal camera or hybrid creative methodologies, the essays provide invaluable insights into how essay films are written and realized. With its interdisciplinary scope and innovative approach, this work is a beneficial resource for academics, filmmakers, and students of documentary and experimental cinema, offering a nuanced understanding of how screenwriting shapes nonfiction storytelling.
Full Product Details
Author: Romana Turina (Arts University Bournemouth, UK) ,
Kiki Tianqi Yu (University of Nottingham Ningbo China)
Publisher: Intellect
Imprint: Intellect Books
Dimensions:
Width: 17.00cm
, Height: 1.40cm
, Length: 24.40cm
Weight: 0.548kg
ISBN: 9781835951477
ISBN 10: 1835951473
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 06 October 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Author Information
Romana Turina is Associate Professor at Arts University Bournemouth. She is a writer, filmmaker and historian. While leading research in the ‘Essay Film’ for the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS), Romana engages in the creative processes. Her work includes the essay films Lunch with Family (2016) and San Sabba (2016), shortlisted at the AHRC Research in Film Awards 2018 and awarded at the Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards 2018. In 2024, she completed the essay film Three Sisters in a Sketchbook (2024), selected at the LA Independent Women Film Awards 2024, and the Hollywood Independent Filmmaker Awards and Festivals 2024. Romana received her Ph.D. in Theatre, Film and Television from the University of York, UK. She taught creative writing and screenwriting at the University of Indianapolis, the University of York, and the University of Greenwich. Kiki Tianqi Yu is a writer, filmmaker, curator, and Reader in Cinematic Art at Queen Mary University of London. She is the PI of AHRC funded project 'Daoism, Cinema and Wellbeing' (2025-28), and also working on Sinophone women’s cinema, creative documentary and experimental nonfiction. She is the author of ‘My’ Self on Camera: First Person Documentary Practice in an Individualising China (EUP, 2019), co-editor of China’s iGeneration: Cinema and Moving Image Culture for the 21 Century (Bloomsbury 2014), and her publications appear on Screen, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Studies in Documentary Film, etc. Her films include Memory of Home (2009), China’s van Goghs (2016), and The Two Lives of Li Ermao (2019). Her curatorial projects include the film season Dancing with Water: Women’s cinema from Contemporary China.
