BRITDOC FESTIVAL 2008 -TAKE THREE

The third annual Britdoc Festival held 23^rd – 25^th July at Keble College, Oxford, was an inspiring mix of pitching sessions, screenings, master-classes and one-to-one surgeries for expert advice.  Having attended the first festival in 2006, it was clear that this event, sponsored by, among others, More 4 and the Channel 4 Documentary Foundation, has grown in popularity with both commissioners and filmmakers.

Three pitching sessions to panels of commissioning editors and other funding agencies were held over two days. The ‘Short Pitch’, new to Britdoc 08, kicked off first with seven four minute pitches each one accompanied by a three minute trailer.  It soon became clear that producing a professional trailer with well shot and edited footage of key scenes, characters and, in some cases, titles and graphics from the proposed film was not just desirable but essential.  Subjects ranged from the story of an oil rig worker in the North Sea to a young Columbian footballer trying to get a trial with West Ham. The £10,000 prize money was secured by the fifteen minute ‘Shelter in Place’ which documented the effects of releases of toxic chemicals on a local community in Texas.   ‘Shelter in Place’ had a visually stunning trail and was produced by journalist Hannah Patterson, with cinematography by award winning photojournalist Zed Nelson.

The evening opening banquet (in the “Harry Potter” hall of Keble) was followed by a screening of the classic Flaherty documentary ‘Nanook of the North’, accompanied by a live music score.  The next morning the delegates streamed down to the Oxford Playhouse Theatre for the day-long ‘Big Pitch’.  Most delegates stay in the college and have breakfast, lunch and dinner together so the networking opportunities around meal times are amazing.

The Big Pitch gave twelve British (or British-based directors) the opportunity to pitch their projects to a panel of commissioning editors and funders. It provided a not-to-be-missed opportunity  to find out what these industry experts are looking for and what is involved in pulling together co-production deals from international broadcasters.  The panel included representatives from the Sundance Documentary Film Institute, the independent Film Channel, ITVS International, SBS (Australia), NHK (Japan), Participant Media (LA), BBC Storyville, PBS (WNET), MDR (Germany), Al Jazeera English, More 4  and Home Box Office (US).

The first seven minute pitch with trail was ‘Mugabe and the White African’.  This followed the unprecendented case of Mike Campbell, one of Zimbabwe’s last remaining white farmers, against President Robert Mugabe at the international court for illegal racial discrimination.  Next up, the only pitch from a Cornish company, was Tom Eldridge from Ikandi Media Directing and Sevenstones Media Producing, ‘Let Me Walk Again’, a second feature documentary after ‘Alive Day’ (2006).  The first film followed 12 severely injured US soldiers from the war in Iraq on a white-water trip down the Grand Canyon. This latest documentary proposal is the single subject story of Amanda Baxtell who was paralysed in a ski accident twelve years ago and who is currently receiving contraversial  stem-cell treatment in India. The feedback was positive from the panel with More 4 interested in the ‘stem cell tourism’ issue and the transformational element - how much better does she get? Several comments pointed out that there seem to be two stories, the personal journey and the science issue which would fit different strands, for example on PBS the Nova series or the POV series. The Sundance documentary channel was interested in the transnational story.  It is personalised project feedback of this kind plus follow-up meetings with commissioners that makes Britdoc a unique and un-rivalled event in the documentary calendar.  Space doesn’t allow for a full description of all the Big Pitches but the overall winner worth £1000 was ‘Guilty Pleasures’. This was a highly entertaining and amusing trail by director Julie Moggan on the characters who write and consume Mills & Boon romance novels.

In between pitching sessions, a wide variety of screenings and seminars take place. The incredible ‘Man on Wire’, which picked up the best feature award and is now on cinema release, screened with a question and answer session with the producer Simon Chinn.  ‘Up The Yangtze’, a beautifully shot film on the effect of the three gorges dam on the surrounding communities, was shown by director Yung Chang.  However, my favourite documentary for its sheer energy and the hope it conveyed, was ‘Heavy Load’.  This was pitched at Britdoc 2006 and premiered with director Jerry Rothwell and the band in attendance. Following a punk band made up of three adults with learning disabilities and their two support workers, the film is an honest and revealing portrait of the band’s journey and the effect that filmmaking has, not just on the band, but on the director himself.  It picked up the audience award and the band played out the festival on Friday night!

Master-class seminars ranged from how to make killer trailers, the importance of sound and music with composer Michael Nyman -“the most dangerous directors are those that say they know nothing about music” and musician/composer Nithin Sawhey - “ the role of the composer is to create an emotional conduit between the director and the audience”, to Brave New Finance.  The latter covered inventive ways of funding documentaries outside the conventional routes, for example, through methods such as the Enterprise Initiative Scheme, tax credits or online fundraising.

Thursday evening saw the Docfest debate: “this house believes documentaries are too serious” (voting was yes 43% and no 57%) followed by the comedy club and the moustache disco which were provided at the door.  The final afternoon was devoted to the innovative ‘Good Pitch’.  Sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust and the One World Broadcasting Trust, this was an entirely new event at Britdoc and was based on the idea that documentary has the power to create social change. The Good Pitch brought together eight of the most inspiring social-purpose film projects in production with a panel of expert participants from charities, foundations, brands and media who already use film in their work or would like to.  It was refreshing to listen to producers and directors who share the belief that film and television can make a difference.  From ‘The day After Peace’, ‘Pig Business’, ‘Burning Needs’, ‘The Road to Bethlehem’, ‘The Reckoning’, ‘Erasing David’, ‘In the Company of Bees’  to, finally, ‘Resist’,  the range of subject matter and expertise was staggering. The most innovative, ‘Resist’ is fronted by Gael Garcia Bernal (Che in ‘Motor Cycle Diaries’) who “journeys through a landscape of resistance joining those on the frontline for global justice”.  Interestingly the stories are gathered via the internet and the film will be screened initially on the web.

The Britdoc schedule is exhilarating but also exhausting and, on reflection, perhaps too fully-packed.  There is also very little presented by individuals from ethnic minorities or the nations and regions, a point which  Britdoc should perhaps consider when preparing for 2009.

Phil Shingler, Producer/Director ‘Western Exposure’