FourDocs films provide a porthole into other people's lives.  We want to piece together what it's really like across the UK, from a host of inside reporters - you!  Where did you grow up?  What's it like now?  How did it shape you as a person? 

FourDocs is always stressing the notion of innovation in form.  Well, this time we want you to take the challenge to the next level, and make a REALLY experimental documentary.  Somewhere to start for inspiration is Patrick Keiller's surrealist and political film London, http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/archive/london.html which you can watch on FourDocs for free. 

A series of tripod mounted shots and accompanying narration from the never-seen Robinson, forces you to imagine to the action.  Chris Marker is another famous experimental documentarian.  His beautiful travel montage San Soleil blurs fact and fiction with philosophical comments and a dreamy pace, as does .  Guy Maddin (Canada's answer to David Lynch) has just made a docu-fantasia film which is a "love/hate/goodbye letter to his hometown of Winnipeg".  Watch these films to give you ideas on how to create emotional and artistic documentaries that push boundaries.

We want to know who you are and why you're making this film, unless of course anonymity is the point!  Similarly, try to avoid talking heads, unless you are turning them on their own heads for a certain effect.  Decide what you want to convey to the audience about your own home town, be it love, bitterness, anguish, recalling an event or a carefree period, before you work out the best style (or hybrid mix) to make it in.  Use traditional observational footage, archive pictures, and animation, but also or instead incorporate fragments of memories from any artifacts you find, or clever ideas you have.

The deadline for this opportunity is the end of August, and as well as getting your film played on Channel 4 and receiving £1500, there is another great prize in store