Directing the Documentary

Michael Rabiger began in the cutting rooms of England's Pinewood and Shepperton Studios, became an editor and BBC director of documentaries, and then specialized for many years in the US as a production and aesthetics educator. At Columbia College Chicago he was co-founder, then chair of the Film/Video Department and founded the Michael Rabiger Center for Documentary. He directed or edited more than 35 films, gave workshops in many countries, designed and led a multinational European documentary workshop for CILECT, won the International Documentary Association's Scholarship and Preservation Award, and was also awarded the Genius/Career Achievement Award by the Chicago International Documentary Festival. He is the author of Developing Story Ideas and co-author of the enormously successful Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics.

Courtney Hermann is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and Associate Professor of Film at Portland State University. Her films are distributed by the Public Broadcasting Service and its affiliates, through educational film catalogs, at film festivals, and via impact distribution to community partners. Her filmmaking centers ethical collaboration and amplifies stories and communities underrepresented in mainstream media. Her documentaries include Standing Silent Nation (2007), Exotic World and the Burlesque Revival (2012), Crying Earth Rise Up (2015), Burton Before and After (2018), and Outliers and Outlaws (2024).