A documentary swarm is one of the terms used for the technique of creating audio/video media content that combines documentary film, and citizen journalism. The concept was first utilized by Martin Kunert and Eric Manes's 2004 theatrcial film Voices of Iraq where 150 DV cameras were sent to Iraq during the war and used by Iraqis to film themselves.
The technique uses a number of inexpensive digital video cameras and distributes them into a group of people who produce the footage that will later be edited into one or more packages of content. The raw footage is edited by a single person, a group of people, or edited into multiple media texts by multiple participants.
The earliest reference to the idea of a documentary swarm is possibly on a blog by 'Raccoon', although it is similar in nature to such projects as Zana Briski's Kids With Cameras.
Famous quotes containing the words documentary and/or swarm:
“If you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you’ve got to find a language. Which goes for film as well as prose, for documentary as well as autobiography. Use the wrong language, and you’re dumb and blind.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1948)
“Bees don’t swarm in a mango grove for nothing.
Where can you see a wisp of smoke
without a fire?”
—Hla Stavhana (c. 50 A.D.)