When a US$3-million feature documentary rakes in a reported US$40 million in worldwide box office, it’s bound to cause a stir in the non-fiction world. Granted, Michael Moore’s Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine, brought to life with Canadian prodco Alliance Atlantis, is no average doc. Not many such films are directed by and feature a celebrity with a book (Stupid White Men) on the bestseller shelves. But its success has some debating whether it will help more feature docs achieve a high profile in Canada.

‘Certainly one could argue that audiences [have become] more accepting of reality-based programming, [both on] television and in the theatre,’ notes Tom Alexander, manager of theatrical sales and distribution at Toronto-based Mongrel Media. ‘Witness something like Jackass: The Movie, which is not a documentary in the sense that it has constructed scenarios, but in format and style it resembles a documentary, and audiences are willing to pay a premium price for it on the big screen.’

Beyond being notable as the first doc distributor to put a happy spin on reality TV, Alexander and Mongrel have found successes of their own with titles such as Dogtown and Z-Boys and Trembling before G-d. So what does Alexander consider a successful theatrical release for the average doc? ‘Well… if you don’t lose money on it,’ he replies.

‘Distributors, everyone knows,’ observes Jan Rofekamp of Montreal-based distributor Films Transit, ‘make money on one film, break even on two and lose heavily on eight. That’s standard.’ It isn’t surprising, therefore, that historically the bar hasn’t been set very high for doc features outside of the festival circuit. Although there have been notable exceptions, theatrical runs have been designed to generate press, or create a stir for video/DVD distribution and broadcast sales.

Although Rofekamp believes Moore’s success was just such an exception, he does see hints of a thaw. ‘Before, distributors would say ‘No, we’re not interested.’ Now distributors say ‘Maybe.’ If after Bowling for Columbine there is a series of [doc] successes on the big screen, then you can talk about an improved situation.’ Michael Burns, commissioning editor at The Documentary Channel, agrees. ‘From time to time there is an anomalous success or to some extent anomalous failures that don’t really act as bellwethers.’

The real test, they assert, will be the box-office success of Oscar runners-up Daughter from Danang, Prisoner of Paradise (which, along with Columbine, is being distributed by Odeon Films), Spellbound and Winged Migration. Rofekamp adds Lost in La Mancha to that list – a film he is distributing theatrically outside of North America, and one which should also benefit from celebrity, as it traces recent on-set experiences of Monty Python-cum-director Terry Gilliam.

For his part, Burns foresees Spellbound as the true measure. The Documentary Channel is partnered with Toronto’s THINKFilm to distribute the film in theatres nationally before an on-air premiere in one of the channel’s daily slots for feature docs. Burns has huge belief in the flick and hopes it will score a Big Fat Greek Wedding-style success, something that will be good for both his channel and feature docs in general.

Also notable is the first Documentary Channel commission, Albert Nerenberg’s Stupidity, which will have its world premiere at this year’s Hot Docs and could also hint at the real health of the market.

While traditionally there hasn’t been money to be made in theatres for feature docs, TV doesn’t offer an altogether attractive alternative. Beyond the pain of seeing their work mangled to fit a standard broadcast hour, it’s hard for most producers or distributors to accept the meager licences sometimes offered Canadian films budgeted at $500,000-plus: $1,500-plus for digital, $3,000-plus for cable and around $10,000 for non-network broadcast. (And it remains to be seen what the changes to the CTF and the new priorities will hold for doc makers.)

As a result, many doc makers straddle the line, hoping to remain attractive to both suitors. Note Men of the Deeps, director John Walker’s portrayal of Cape Breton coal miners, which makes its world premiere at Hot Docs – coproduced with the National Film Board and destined for CTV, it was shot on 35mm but runs to a broadcast hour of 51 minutes.

Hot Docs Canadian programmer and longtime industry vet David McIntosh attributes this tightrope to ‘part of the funding condition.’ McIntosh was one of the producers on Brenda Longfellow’s Tina in Mexico, a feature doc shot on film that was meant to be also finished on film until its makers discovered what a money pit that can be. McIntosh notes many filmmakers accept broadcaster money at the start of a project, relegating themselves to television formats that will not work for theatrical, because ‘in many ways the [big screen] just seems so unattainable.’

Hot Docs has done its part in recent years by accommodating film, beta and digital submissions for screening. Festival exec director McDonald says Hot Docs’ ability to mix formats is a direct result of audience interest: ‘Because we were getting such good audiences, we had a bit of a budget and were able to show on [doc makers’] format of choice.’

Tom Perlmutter, director of the English Program at the NFB, notes that experiments in non-traditional forms of theatrical distribution are being tackled outside of Canada. In the Netherlands, for example, the Dutch Film Fund got government financing to refit 10 cinemas around the country with digital projection setups on the proviso that once a week they would screen docs. Dubbed DocuZone, Perlmutter says the effort is so successful that it is being expanded, and similar experiments are being launched in the U.K. and Scotland.

‘One of the interesting things about the digital projection experiment in Holland,’ observes Perlmutter, ‘is that it is linked to a whole marketing campaign. Because it’s digital [and therefore multiple film prints aren’t required], they can have a simultaneous release across the country, which means you can do a promotion that is not dissipated.’

Perlmutter says the NFB and partners are also looking at the possibilities of such a program.

Marketing has long been a problem for docs in theatrical release. Spellbound is the prototypical example. It’s a film about eight kids vying for a 1999 spelling bee – not the type of thing that jumps off the page. Rofekamp, who says he had the chance to become involved with the film before it became an Oscar nominee, says marketability was a consideration for him: ‘I was a little concerned about how people in Finland would deal with a film on English-language spelling.’

Alexander believes there is a simple formula for success: celebrity, a relevant subject and humor (all of which can be found in Columbine), as well as a topic that can find a specific audience. ‘[The most successful] documentary films,’ he notes, ‘have been ones that we can effectively target to an audience, whether it’s an ethnically targetable audience, a sexually targetable audience or a politically targetable audience that gets excited about the film and becomes a committed ticket buyer.’

-www.mongrelmedia.com

-www.filmstransit.com

-www.documentarychannel.ca

-www.hotdocs.ca

-www.nfb.ca