Producers, broadcasters and government funding execs agree – docs are hotter than ever. The challenges for producers to secure funding for their projects remain, however, though new sources are materializing.

‘We are seeing a renaissance of documentary production in both Canada and the U.S.,’ says Sandy Crawley, executive director of the Documentary Organization of Canada.

The specialty channels are the primary driver of this boom, explains Laszlo Barna, president of Toronto’s Barna-Alper Productions (Turning Points of History, Frontiers of Construction). ‘In Canada, specialty channels like History Television, Discovery Channel and Life Network have fueled the renaissance of documentaries,’ he says.

‘How important are documentaries to programming our channels? It depends on your definition of what a documentary is,’ says Paul Lewis, president of Discovery Channel Canada. ‘My own definition is that almost every program we broadcast is a documentary.’

Beyond the specialties – and, to some degree, the conventional broadcasters – the feature film market is also driving demand for doc product.

‘Look at Bowling for Columbine, which was executive produced by Canadian Michael Donovan. It broke all kinds of sales and box-office records,’ Barna says. ‘Take a look at The Corporation, which did well theatrically before playing on TVO as a miniseries. It’s clear that there is a tremendous potential ‘return on investment’ for documentary films.’

Jacques Bensimon, National Film Board chair and government film commissioner, says several factors are playing in the format’s favor. The first is the 18 to 40 demographic – raised on channels such as A&E – they ‘have basically grown up with documentary television,’ Bensimon says. He also thinks the current spate of reality programming has whetted the audiences’ appetite for traditional docs.

But doc producers still encounter funding hurdles every time they try to mount a new project. Part of the problem is today’s fractured TV universe and low licence fees. While producers complain about licence fee amounts, broadcasters defend their overall financing efforts. Good news for all sides was the recent announcement that the federal government had restored its $100-million annual contribution to the Canadian Television Fund, at least for 2004 and 2005.

‘CBC contributes a substantial [amount] of its licence fees towards documentary production,’ says Jerry McIntosh, CBC’s director of documentaries. ‘We also rely heavily on the CTF, as do other broadcasters.’

Often, a crucial part of the funding pie comes from international coproducers with content needs of their own, which can also dictate the nature of the content that gets produced.

‘Factual programming lends itself easily to international coproduction,’ Bensimon says. ‘A documentary about the origins of humanity, for instance, plays equally well in any country, because we all share this history.’

The NFB is becoming more of a coproducer on the home front as well, an example being its recent $650,000 HD Shipbreakers doc, about an infamous maritime graveyard in India, produced with Toronto’s Storyline Entertainment.

International sales have been facilitated by the rise of multinational specialties such as Discovery. Besides North America, Discovery can be found in Europe, Japan, Asia, India, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.

‘Our programming genre is universal, being that it is focused on science, technology and nature,’ says Lewis. ‘For Canadian producers, this means that they can access global exposure and substantial budgets by working with us.’

One example is Discovery Channel Canada’s $12-million HD project Race to Mars, which consists of three separate series and is being coproduced by Montreal’s Galafilm Productions, the U.K.’s Mentorn and Toronto’s Snap Media. The net’s largest project to date, Race to Mars will eventually turn up on Discovery Channel outlets worldwide. Interactive websites, videogames and books will garner further revenue for the net and its production partners.

The growing demand for HD content cannot be underestimated, says Bensimon. HD doc productions such as the five-part series Arctic Mission, distributed by the NFB and coproduced by Montreal’s Glacialis Productions and France’s Gedeon Programmes, are the lifeblood of a growing number of HD nets, such as Discovery HD Theater in the U.S. Bensimon adds that similar HD copros are in the works at the NFB.

‘We have also increased our documentary budget to $30 million for 2003/04, which is an increase over the previous year,’ he says.

With the rising profitability of docs, one might wonder why Telefilm Canada doesn’t up its doc funding. In fact it has, according to Telefilm executive director Richard Stursberg.

‘We’ve recently supported the release of feature-length documentaries such as Fix: The Story of an Addicted City and The Corporation,’ Stursberg says. ‘Under our current mandate, we are only allowed to finance the production of feature-length feature films. However, we have said that, within the guidelines, we are perfectly open to supporting the distribution of feature-length documentaries.’

Telefilm’s current funding policies are due to be renewed in 2006, and Stursberg will only say that decisions about the funding formula will be made after the 2000-20005 funding period has been evaluated. He adds that Telefilm is interested in supporting genres that people want to see, citing the successes of Bowling for Columbine and The Corporation.

Rumors abound that Telefilm will announce new support for feature-length docs at the Hot Docs festival. For now, Stursberg says Telefilm would like to help, as long as its support doesn’t cut into that for feature drama funding.

‘To help docs more, we need to change the contribution agreement with the Department of Canadian Heritage,’ he says. ‘In short, we need more money.’