I am a filmographer. I use this term in an expanded sense, to include all methods of storytelling to deliver a multi-platform, cinematic experience.
A filmographer combines the creative and leadership roles of producer, director, researcher and writer to develop the artistic vision embracing a filmmaking project. A filmographer is also the driving force towards the project's completion.
The term film and filmmaking are anachronisms, but still valid if not taken literally. (Originally, films referred to images on a moving, plastic film projected by a lightsource onto a screen.)
Films are better understood more broadly -- as cultural artifacts, reflecting cultures and affecting them. The visual basis of film gives it a universal power of communication.
The terms filmmaker and filmographer are used interchangeably in Sweden and other parts of Europe, reflecting the influence of auteur theory advocated in 1954 by French film director and critic François Truffaut, a concept focussing on the film director as the person responsible for the artistic vision and holder of the film's copyright.
I use the terms filmographer (for practitioners) and filmography (for the artform) to draw particular attention to the plurality of multi-platform techniques and media to connect emotionally and politically with an audience, utilising a suite of products which have at their heart an audio-visual experience delivering actual scenes captured with a camera. As part of the Internet age, filmmaking projects can include a myriad of platforms, delivery mechanisms and venues -- including installations, interactivity, social media and events.
Another and perhaps more common use of the term filmography refers to a filmmakers body of work, basically a list of all their films, often subdivided by genres. Differing uses of the term are not incompatible, as they refer to different things. A filmographer can practise filmography and have a body of work -- their filmography.
Filmmaking both as an art and as an industry is extremely broad and diverse. As a filmographer and teacher I explore the specific notions behind an expanded view of documentary filmmaking.
What sets the category of documentary films apart from other types of filmmaking? This is best defined by considering the purpose of the film. A documentary film is intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record. More broadly, "Documentary" has been described as a continually evolving "filmmaking practice, cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception" without clear boundaries.
A documentary film presents an argument and backs it with evidence. Sometimes the argument is pure deductive reasoning, persuasive because it is the best argument which fits the facts. Documentary films explore topics in depth, revealing hitherto unknown or inaccessible information. They often have a political dimension -- at least in the sense of searching for truth and the necessity to provide documentary proof (otherwise known as actuality).