The digital revolution has Canadian documentary producers and distributors running to close windows.

The emerging strategy is to reduce the time separating the theatrical, DVD and broadcast windows for documentaries sold into the Canadian market. Following the lead of Hollywood auteur Steven Soderbergh, whose recent dramatic release Bubble was made available simultaneously in theaters and on cable – and three days later on DVD – some in the industry are looking to collapse Canadian release windows altogether.

The case of director Stuart Samuel’s forthcoming rock-legend documentary 27, financed by CBC, Rogers Communications and Telefilm Canada as part of a joint pilot program, provides a sense of where things seem to be heading. The feature will air on the Ceeb no later than six months after its festival and theatrical runs, in order to exploit initial buzz and media attention.

‘It’s a challenge, no question. But we believe this film will do well in the theater, and then have a continuing life on TV,’ says Jerry McIntosh, executive producer of CBC Newsworld documentaries.

New technologies are helping to upend traditional release patterns for docs in other ways as well.

For example, 100 Films & a Funeral, a feature doc about the rise and fall of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, will be released only in digital cinemas to save on print costs, says producer Judy Holm of Toronto’s Markham Street Films. The title will then forego a pay-TV window and bow on the small screen soon afterward on The Documentary Channel, looking to benefit from whatever press is generated by its theatrical run.

The National Film Board is also eyeing D-cinema – as well as near-simultaneous theatrical, DTV and cable rollouts – as viable distribution platforms.

‘On a marketing level, it can make sense, because you’re capitalizing your money for the theatrical release and carrying it forward to DVD and cable,’ says Heather Wyer, the NFB’s head of international sales and distribution.

She adds that D-cinema can also help theatrical documentaries get seen without the expense of blowing them up to 35mm.

Collapsing windows also plays well with Michael Burns, director of programming at The Documentary Channel, which, along with Mongrel Media, has begun licensing foreign documentaries such as Gunner Palace and Into Great Silence to go straight from theatrical to cable, bypassing a pay window.

‘The old [model] has had a pretty good run,’ Burns says. ‘We’re all thinking that there might be new and better ways.’

Meanwhile, conventional broadcasters insist they will only diverge from licensing one-off, one-hour documentaries to help accommodate a theatrical run in exceptional circumstances.

‘We can always find a two-hour slot,’ says Christine Shipton, VP of original programming at CanWest MediaWorks. ‘It may be a Saturday night. But that’s been rare.’

It’s just as difficult to get CTV on board for a theatrical release.

‘We’re always looking to be as accommodating as we can, but our priority is to make a great TV program,’ says Bob Culbert, CTV VP of documentaries.

What’s more, releasing a documentary on DVD and TV soon after it leaves the cinema doesn’t always make sense, especially if you anticipate huge theatrical crowds.

Andrew Austin, senior VP at ThinkFilm, a major doc distributor, echoes major exhibitors in arguing that collapsed windows potentially limit key cinema revenues.

Austin points to ThinkFilm’s Spellbound, which took in nearly US$6 million at the North American box office, arguing that it would have grossed only a fraction of that had it gone with a Bubble-like day-and-date release.

‘I have no idea that releasing a film in that manner will enhance DVD sales, or benefit your broadcast licences. All I can tell you is your money arrives quicker, but not whether it’s more or less,’ he says.

The traditional sequential release certainly worked for Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, which grossed $150,000 at the Canadian box office for Seville Pictures on its way to successful runs on VOD and pay-per-view, ultimately landing at CHUM, which has the free TV rights to the heavy-metal homage.

‘This was a profitable film, which will cover its costs, which you don’t tend to see in Canada,’ says Seville president David Reckziegel.

All of which leaves docmakers with few easy options for market success, aside from entrepreneurial zeal.

Vancouver-based Velcrow Ripper did his own heavy lifting to release his documentary ScaredSacred in theaters before Mongrel Media and Zeitgeist Films in the U.S. recently stepped in to stick-handle the May 23 DVD release of the film, which nabbed the best doc Genie Award.

‘For Mongrel, it’s like picking a plum. Theatrical is a loss leader. It gets the publicity. The place the money will be made is DVD,’ Ripper says.