From Imagining Reality by Pawel Pawlikowski.

1. Documentaries shouldn’t be used as recorders of an objective reality, rather they should be instilled with the directors own personal vision. A director has the power to, and should, manipulate the subjects through various stylistic choices in order to establish a specific form. The subject of a documentary is most important and the filmmaker must be able to understand the world of the subject through their eyes.

2. The institution of TV and its instant and disposable framework is threatening the future of documentaries. The verite style of filmmaking is stagnant, boring and uncreative yet it is the style which is the most marketable and convenient to the television model. It is getting harder to tell real stories about real people as by financing coming from TV means expectations do not allow for the kind of scope required to produce such documentaries.