Iris Ng, documentary cinematographer of Stories We Tell, Shirkers, Making a Murderer, and more

As primarily a documentary cinematographer, Iris Ng always asks
where the camera should be at a given moment and how is it supposed
to behave. She approaches a project asking about the perspective-
is it supposed to be deeply personal, from within the lived
experience of the person it's about, or more observational and
objective, from the outside looking in? Quite a few of the
documentaries Iris has worked on are deeply personal stories. Her
first big feature was on fellow Canadian Sarah Polley's film,
Stories We Tell. The film integrated Sarah's family home movies,
shot on Super 8, into contemporary interviews with Sarah's family
members, and reenactments shot on Super 8 with actors in 70's and
80's era costumes. Iris ended up using several Super 8 cameras to
shoot with, since the film cartridges are so short and the cameras
had to be constantly swapped out and reloaded. Stories We Tell
required a great deal of sensitivity as each person told their
story of Sarah's mother, Diane, a charismatic actor with many
secrets who passed away in 1990. The documentary was critically
acclaimed and received an Oscar nomination. Iris took a similar
approach to the documentary Shirkers. Like Stories We Tell,
Shirkers uses personal excavations and film material from the past
to examine it for answers. As a teen, writer/director Sandi Tan and
her friends had made an indie film in Singapore called Shirkers.
Their film teacher disappeared with all the footage once shooting
had wrapped, and Sandi wanted to tell the story about tracking down
what happened to the film through interviews with friends while
going back to retrace the experience. They chose interesting setups
and locations for interviews, and Iris would often turn the camera
on Sandi to capture her reactions as she was reliving her past. For
the Netflix documentary series Making A Murderer, Iris had a
different challenge. Iris came to the project on year nine of
filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos' ten year process of
shooting the series, and used her artistic eye to help elevate and
add to the the previously shot footage. Each of the two seasons was
10 episodes long, so it was a matter of ensuring that there was
enough coverage and angles, such as the exteriors of the Manitowoc
County Courthouse for the filmmakers to work with. Iris Ng is
currently shooting more narrative projects, such as the web series
Hey Lady for CBC Gem. Find Iris Ng: http://iriscinematography.com/
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