Joyful Recollections of Trauma
Though any memoir could be considered documentary practice, this particular one was inspired by Scheer diving into his own archives (or collections). It's also hilarious and heartbreaking.
Considering the Space-History of your Archive
A list of inspirations that consider space and land as a crucial part of the history and story that we tell.
An Ethical Community-Embedded Artistic Practice
This article, Toolkit for Community-Embedded Artistic Practice by Lane Michael Stanley, offers a toolkit of questions to consider for those who seek to have a community-embedded artistic practice, based on his own experience in recovery housing and his time developing plays with unhoused people.
Writing Alone and with Others
This book has a wealth of memoir writing exercises that can easily be adapted to writing about family and community histories. If your family/community responds better to writing prompts than an oral history interview, this book is an excellent resource to jog memories.
Pictures from Home, Larry Sultan
First published in 1992 to wide critical acclaim, Pictures From Home is Larry Sultan’s pendant to his parents. We often think about archives as something that gets saved, memorialized, put away to be discovered for other generations.
Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University
Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) is dedicated to documentary expression and its role in creating a more just society. CDS teaches, produces and presents the documentary arts across a full range of media — photography, audio, film, writing, experimental and emerging media.
Lives Well Lived
This is a lovely documentary by Sky Bergman, featuring active elderly adults with incredible stories.