Fools rush in … exploring the use of documentary films as qualitative data

Documentary films potentially provide a rich source of secondary data on societal phenomena. As novices and ‘fools’ we first used documentary films as secondary data during the extended COVID lockdown. We describe in detail the methods used in two case studies. Each focuses on a different environmental theme and one uses documentary films to supplement two additional sources of secondary data while the other uses films as secondary data to compliment primary data. As novices we made many mistakes, most notably failing to engage with the rich literature and theorising on documentary films. However, we learned much from the process, including that documentary films as secondary data provide valuable insights on social issues being researched.