are enjoying renewed popularity

After years of sitting out the dance, documentaries are once again hot!

Barely two years ago, documentary producers were lamenting the worldwide dearth of markets for their films, but with the growing focus on international marketability of product, documentaries which travel well are enjoying a tremendous resurgence in popularity.

‘There’s a real move back to documentaries around the world,’ says Andy Thomson, president of Edmonton-based distributor Great North Releasing, which deals exclusively in the documentary genre. ‘Conventional broadcasters are realizing that with the proliferation of specialty channels, audiences are beginning to develop an appetite for documentaries.’

Dramatic productions by comparison don’t travel as well, says Thomson, especially in third-world countries. Countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Botswana and most of the Arab world represent a burgeoning market for documentaries because they have broadcasting networks but no production infrastructure of their own, and therefore little or no access to domestic programming.

‘An episode of Cheers or NYPD Blue will have no cultural connection for them, but documentary programming, which is usually very culturally neutral, helps fill the slots,’ he says. ‘For example, we have a documentary series on indigenous peoples of the world entitled From Spirit To Spirit that has relevance everywhere.’

Granted, these are all small markets only paying in the range of $500-$1,500 per hour, says Thomson, but when buyers from these territories pick up 25 hours a pop and it’s all added together, they become quite significant.

At the higher end of the market, in developed countries such as France, Britain, Germany, the u.s., Canada and Japan, documentaries are also experiencing renewed popularity. However, with the move towards niche broadcasting, each of these markets has more clearly defined its programming needs.

The u.s. Discovery Channel, which airs documentaries exclusively, is the biggest buyer. Discovery looks for wildlife, adventure and natural history films that focus on unique and exotic places. Thomson cautions, however, that the service steers clear of any social or environmental issues.

‘We had a documentary on Canada’s national parks, but the moment we brought up the issue of environmental impact they weren’t interested. Several years ago, they had a broader range, but now they appear to be closing in on a narrower niche.’

Arts & Entertainment, another big American buyer of docs, has very specific strands of programming. If you have a film that fits into one of its defined strands, your chances are a lot higher than if you have a standalone documentary, says Thomson. Biographies are hot, as are topics that would fit into the categories of Unexplained Mysteries or In Search OfÉ

The bbc in Britain is more flexible in its programming purchases. It is such a huge operation and has so many time slots for documentaries, almost anything goes – provided it’s of very high quality, says Thomson. He adds standalone docs are of more interest here as the bbc is reluctant to get involved in series production.

Social documentaries and films with a harder edge are more likely to find a home at the u.k.’s Channel Four, where programming is more issues-oriented, according to Thomson. ‘They loved the film In The Gutter and Other Good Places by Canadian filmmaker Cristine Richey, whereas Discovery and a&e weren’t even remotely interested in a film about a bunch of bums eating out of a garbage dump in Calgary.’

France’s Canal + also has a large appetite for documentaries. Like the bbc, it too will purchase films with a broad range of content as long as they are of exceptional quality with strong storytelling.

In Germany, ard and zdf had little interest in documentaries until recently. ard has now created a time slot for natural history films and zdf is now involved in an arts and cultural channel, a coventure between Germany and France’s TF1.

Japan’s nhk, while offering doc producers another large and relatively untapped market, presents more of a cultural challenge. Thomson says the Japanese are most interested in buying long-running series, primarily in the wildlife category, as very few social documentaries can cross the Asian cultural barriers.

The amount these major buyers will pay for documentaries depends on whether it is a presale or an acquisition, says Thomson. Presales allow the broadcaster greater control in shaping the production and provide network recognition through a film credit. Broadcasters will pay upwards of $150,000 for a one-hour documentary to air in their territory, he says. This figure drops considerably, down to $20,000 to $40,000, for an acquisition.

The Canadian market for documentaries has also exploded over the last couple of years.

Three years ago, cbc had very little room on its schedule for independently produced documentaries. What few docs it had on air, it produced in-house.

Now with its Witness series, cbc is commissioning 22 one-hour documentaries from the independent community.

The CTV Television Network has committed to commissioning five original documentaries each year, with a similar number coming from the CanWest Global System. CBC Newsworld’s Rough Cuts series airs 22 to 26 one-hour documentaries per year.

‘All totaled,’ says Thomson, ‘we’re talking about 80 to 90 hours of documentaries being commissioned from the Canadian independent production community that didn’t even exist two years ago, and that doesn’t even include all the new specialty channels.’

Thomson stresses the importance of high production values and also points out several common pitfalls producers can avoid that would rule out an international sale.

‘If the subject is too Canadian or provincial it just doesn’t interest people outside of the country. We had real problems with the Ovide Mercredi documentary, Our Home and Native Land, even though it was a great film. There just wasn’t enough interest to make good sales. It’s important if producers want to tackle the international market that they choose subjects with international appeal.’

Talking heads and on-camera hosts also present a problem because of dubbing and subtitles.

‘Most foreign-language countries would rather have voice-overs in their own language,’ says Thomson. ‘Hosts woven throughout the film, of course, make that almost impossible unless they are only at the head and tail.’

As for theatrical opportunities for documentaries, Thomson is blunt. ‘We ignore it. I think it’s a huge waste of time and money. It’s the same as theatrical distribution of Canadian features. Why spend all the money for promotion and going up to 35mm for such a long shot in the market? Granted there is the odd one that works, like Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, but that was only in the cult theatrical market. It’s too risky.

‘We frequently get into fights with producers who get so enraptured with their material that they want to make it 90 minutes and go theatrical. But the reality is that at 90 it will probably be boring, and then there’s not much of a broadcast market,’ he says.

‘tvÉis reliable and you get your message out to a wider audience, and isn’t that what we’re all after?’

That message for many producers is increasingly being influenced by the recent proliferation of reality-based shows and news/current affairs programming on the networks.

Rudy Buttignol, commissioning editor of documentaries/current affairs for tvontario, believes the trend towards the short sound bite and sensational news stories will result in more room for interesting in-depth documentaries made by filmmakers who really immerse themselves in the story, sometimes taking a year or two to tell it.

But he concedes there are definitely some subjects that have grown in popularity as a result of audiences’ growing appetite for titillation.

Sex, he says, always sells. ‘Anything to do with sexuality or reproduction that would engage a mainstream audience does well.’

Also biographies of famous people. He cites as an example filmmaker Nick Broomfield’s latest documentary in production on Hollywood madam Heidi Fliess that combines both sex and biography, virtually ensuring its marketability.

As testimony to the influence of this market, Buttignol says tvo opened its new strand of documentaries on the Human Edge series with the film Hookers, Hustlers, The Pimps and Their Johns by Bibi Kendren. ‘Needless to say, it was hugely popular,’ he says.

Overall, says Buttignol, the expansion of the broadcast spectrum means television can now cater to more diverse needs. ‘I think in the case of documentaries the need was always there, just not the outlet, and now we’ve got that.’