HOT DOCS AT BRITDOC REPORT
Britdoc comes at a very significant time. More and more people are looking to documentary as a way of finding out whats really going on the world. The places that you can watch documentaries are multiplying. The methods of financing and distributing are changing. And documentary authors are thinking in fundamentally different ways about how to get their stories across. The Britdoc Festival promises to be the perfect showcase for this revolution. Its also a great way to meet people who want to do things differently and enjoy themselves while they do it. In other words a documentary party.
As most delegates were staying within the college, the socialising and networking went late-night. There was even croquet during a thunderstorm and a final night punk karaoke session in the bar where even channel commissioners returned to their seventies roots onstage and pogoed in the sweat-drenched audience!
The centrepiece of the festival was the Thursday all-day pitching forum presented by More 4. Over three hundred applications were made for slots and fourteen were short-listed for the live seven-minute presentation. At stake was a 1000 cash prize and also potential pre-sales and co- production investment from the international panel of experts. Unlike the Channel 4 pitching session at the Sheffield Documentary Festival, where a 30,000 commission is up for grabs, there were no British commissioners on the panel and this was a unique opportunity to get experience of the international documentary landscape. The panel members were:-
Nancy Abraham, HBO Vice President Documentaries (USA)
Claire Aguilar, Independent Television Service (PBS USA)
Mark Atkin, SBS Australia Acquisitions & Development
Orlando Bagwell, Ford Foundation Programme Officer
Mark Fishandler, Court TV Commissioning Editor (USA)
Christoph Berg, Arte France Commissioning Editor
Shannon Kelly, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Programme (USA)
Wolfgang Landgraeber, WDR, Head Society & Documentaries (Germany)
Outi Saarikoski, YLE Commissioning Editor (Finland)
Evan Shapiro, IFC Cable network General Manager (USA)
Georgie Weedon, Al Jazeera International Documentary Acquisitions
The programme had invaluable information on what these commissioners are looking for in terms of international documentary co-productions: the slots, budgets and running lengths. For example, Georgie Weedon commissions 22 minute character-led films for Al Jazeera Internationals daily documentary Witness strand hosted by Rageh Omaar: Witness brings together the best documentaries from around the world, and allows airtime for the new breed of access driven video journalist. The problem with a pre-sale, co-production or completion purchase by the channel is that they require global rights and the budgets are low at an average of $1000 per minute. The best way to pitch is to register on their website www.ajicommissioning.net - but not interested in natural history, history, wildlife, science and technology or dramadocs.
What became clear after the fourteen pitches, which varied from an investigation into the rendition and torture of terrorist suspects, Ghost Prisoner to Heavy Load, the story of a punk band with learning difficulties, was the importance of an entertaining, contemporary story that could reach a European/global audience with access to fascinating characters and locations. These were not first time filmmakers but producers and directors with extensive track record. Surprisingly, in my view, the cash prize of 1000 for the best pitch went to a feature length documentary Risky Business 2 about disasters and risk - the risk that big business is prepared to take with our lives. Directed by Mike Bonnano and Andy Bichlbaum, aka the Yes Men , who in their words infiltrate the world of big business and smuggle out stories that are shocking and hilarious. The pitch featured a clip from one of their previous films showing a prank they pulled on Dow Chemical Corporation as well as a visual prank pulled during the pitch itself and was well presented by ex head of BBC Documentaries, now director of Independent Renegade Pictures, Alan Hayling. A global story with a mix of humour and shocking revelation with a very experienced producer, almost half of the 543,000 budget already raised. (If anyone is considering pitching at next years Britdoc, I have notes and programme descriptions for all the pitched projects).
The remainder of the festival was as fascinating, a mix of masterclasses such as Bad Guys and Good Journalism which raised important questions on the need for long form documentaries, the role of the investigative and access documentaries and the compromises made to get the story. Deborah Scranton, first time feature director of The War Tapes and winner of the Britdoc prize for best international feature length documentary, described the long process of placing cameras with three US soldiers serving in Iraq. Tom Roberts discussed Company of Soldiers, October Films embedding of a crew with soldiers in Iraq and Alex Gibney, director of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room revealed the importance of the long form documentary for a story as complex as the Enron Heist.
New Distribution and Documentaries covered the uses of the internet for not only distribution but raising finance - one model mentioned was Robert Greenwalds film on Walmart which raised an online audience and sold 200,000 DVDs on Amazon. Apparently for his next film he raised $350,000 in five days by e-mailing his audience list!
Talking of finance. the Channel 4 Documentary Film Foundation presentation by director Jess Search revealed that they have been funded to the tune of 3.5 million over five years, have already invested over 517,000 in twenty one films and are actively looking for projects. Applications are online at www.britdoc.org, register and login. The turnaround for applications is ten weeks. Over the next year there is a further 500,000 to award to British filmmakers or filmmakers based in the UK. Also if you go to the festival section of the website you can get a visual flavour of the event plus transcriptions of the main sessions and information on a new 35,000 documentary fund launched by the Reform Trust at the festival.
My personal favourite films included Black Gold a beautifully shot and constructed film by two brothers, Nick & Marc Francis, on the impact globalisation has had on small coffee growing co-operatives in Ethiopia. As the poster says - Your coffee will never taste the same and certainly the film gave me hope that there is a new generation of filmmakers making social & political films that are entertaining. This is a triumph of form and content! Entertainment-wise Air Guitar Nation had such amazing energy with a crazy competition between two air guitar maestros for global domination - you have to see it to believe it.
However, overall, the More 4 interview with Albert Mayles, who at nearly eighty showed us clips of pure documentary genius from Kennedy-Primary, Brando, Truman Capote, Salesman and Gimme Shelter, was a privilege. He is still working on five film projects holding to his documentary truth rules of no narration, no lighting, no music, hold shots dont ask questions. For him rapport with the subject is critical and the gaze of the filmmaker is critical, watch any Mayles Brothers films, pure genius! Phil Shingler, Producer/Director Western Exposure.
