On the off chance that anyone had forgotten about Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock, a pack of flightless waterfowl recently reminded us all that there’s still a surprisingly large and lucrative market out there for good documentaries.

Likewise, about the same time that March of the Penguins was waddling towards its US$77-million domestic box office, a record-demolishing average of 16.8 million viewers tuned in every week to watch tuxedoed B-listers sashay their stuff on ABC – making Dancing with the Stars the most-watched summer series seen on any U.S. network in five years, according to Variety, and putting yet another spin on reality TV.

Both were big nonfiction winners, and yet reality TV (or alternative programming, or factual entertainment, or lifestyle – call it what you will) and straight-up docs still don’t sit well together, which is why organizers of this year’s Realscreen Summit, an offshoot of the non-fiction trade pub realscreen, added a separate, day-long conference about reality-making to their annual nonfiction powwow.

The Realscreen conference – which is run by Playback publisher Brunico Communications – unspools at the Renaissance hotel in Washington, DC from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, in step with the Factual Entertainment Forum on Jan. 30.

The forum will address issues specific to reality shows – including the ethics of ‘engineering’ reality, the ins and outs of product placement, and market-to-market audience response.

‘The issues are so different from your traditional kind of factual documentaries – documentary filmmakers aren’t making Survivor,’ says organizer Nikisha Reyes-Grange. ‘There are people who are doing strictly alternative and reality programming, and we wanted to create something for them.’

The forum opens with a keynote by Bertram van Munster, exec producer and co-creator of The Amazing Race, who will talk about the challenges that lie ahead for the genre. Another talk will feature Real World creator and exec producer John Murray (‘the granddaddy of reality,’ says Reyes-Grange) taking part in a case study of the 16-season hit on MTV.

Both events are putting particular emphasis on audiences – such as Realscreen’s six-way panel talk (‘Engaging the Audience’ on Jan. 31) with execs from PBS, Fox and E!, among others, and its related talk (‘Broad(er)casting,’ Jan. 31) about how a broad or narrow audience focus can affect a channel’s programming, ratings and bottom line.

Realscreen has also tweaked its pitch sessions, adding a third speed-pitching event and doing away with the requirement that pitched shows arrive with development funding already in place.

‘As long as you’ve got a great idea you can put your name in the hat,’ says Reyes-Grange.

This year’s summit also includes two seminars about how to make a good pitch, on Jan. 30 and 31. Previous pitch sessions made it clear, Reyes-Grange notes, diplomatically, that some docmakers have less-than-perfect presentation skills.

www.realscreensummit.com/2006