Under Construction, a recent report commissioned by the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, explores the issues facing documentarists in the digital age.

Paul Caulfield, a documentary filmmaker and the man behind the cifc report, says, ‘I think there are two things that are going to happen with the information highway.’

Number one, says Caulfield, is the role of video-on-demand, which he suggests will be used as an alternative distribution system for linear material. ‘Documentary filmmakers are sure to be able to tap into that in some ways,’ he adds.

The second area is multimedia and interactive systems, which Caulfield predicts ‘are going to bring into question the way documentary filmmakers work and how their work will be received.’

As evidenced in the cifc report, new distribution outlets, ranging from cd-roms to broadband networks and vod, will play an increasingly crucial role in the development of pov documentaries.

‘It becomes more a matter of, in some cases, supplying the end users with raw material which they shape into whatever form they like,’ explains Caulfield.

Issues of copyright continue to be complicated. The cifc report does not address copyright, but promises a forthcoming report from the Independent Film and Video Alliance.

Also in the mix is the changing role of broadcasters. The cifc study posits if the infobahn develops with the same principles that govern the World Wide Web, broadcasters will no longer be an exclusive few, but anyone with a file server.

Some of these issues are likely to be little more than hypothetical as promises of new technologies crash and burn on the I-way. For example, as Under Construction reports, vod trials have been, for the most part, unsuccessful.

There is another issue at hand: how much demand is out there for anything outside of commercial, mainstream material?

Robert Forget, the National Film Board’s executive in charge of new media developments, is quoted in the report as estimating a mere 10% of the nfb’s 9,000-title collection is popular enough to justify the cost of digitization.

The Internet is proving to be a prudent tool for sending global messages about Canadian product.

Devoted Internetter Ron Mann’s next documentary project, Grass, is licensed for the Internet and plans are to release the film as a serial called The Perils of Mary Jane.

Glen Salzman’s Montreal-based production and distribution house Cineflix is one of four independent companies that has created the Virtual Film Festival, a Web site (set to launch later this month) devoted to the promotion of Canadian film.

In the cifc report, Salzman says the premise is to create a virtual space that will provide weekly film listings, stills, gossip, bios, video clips and reviews. Also, the wired fest-goer will receive info on how to order a vhs copy of a film.

Plans are to start with Canadian titles but eventually include product from around the world.

Salzman says, ‘it’s a new distribution mechanism for filmmakers.’

The net fest will feature a screening room, a pitch room, a cafe and a symposium where filmmakers can meet to find new money for projects.

Mercure is a planned Web site designed in Quebec to serve artists who are not represented on traditional tv. Mercure’s cyberparents, Productions Independent Realisations, Montreal, are aiming one day to secure a fiber optic home for the project on the infobahn. Part of the plan is to allow artists to create collaborative projects online.

The video dialtone could become the source for what the cifc report calls ‘virtual studios,’ whereby a film could be developed online across distances at a much lower rate than the VideoRoute tariffs now charged by Stentor. ‘All that’s needed is a fiber-optic atm switchable network, at reasonable rates,’ Caulfield’s report states.

There is also the very useful opportunity inherent in repurposing existing linear material for new distribution systems. In total, Mann has produced four titles for Voyager Company.

Caulfield warns readers of the report: ‘Our audiences, who for years, have sat passively watching our programming, are now going to step forward and take control, twisting and turning our material to suit their needs – as opposed to our perception of their needs. Whether that’s good or bad, is for you to decide.’