AIDC 2010 preview: small world, big challenges
The Australian International Documentary Conference reaches for global production efforts and foresees new distribution schemes. Cesar Albarran Torres spoke with three international figures who will help make this a ‘smaller world’ for docos.
Under the premise that ours “is a small world after all” the AIDC, that annual get-together of professionals of the factual content industry, is set to take place at the Hilton Adelaide next week, where documentary filmmakers, broadcasters and key decision-makers will gather in order to find ways of getting things done in the globalised and ever-changing scenario of the genre.
Focusing on co-productions, the organisers seek to lay down the foundation of a creative and business network between Australia and other countries.
The emergence of new distribution methods and the role of the web 3.0 in this industry will also be explored, as well as the impact of technologies such as GPS and other mapping devices.
As in past editions, the conference will be host to various events: screenings, master classes, workshops for documentary filmmakers, marketplace initiatives such as pitch sessions and Australia’s first factual film festival, F4.
PARTICIPATORY DISTRIBUTION
The international spirit will be reflected on the list of speakers scheduled to share their experience in the craft of capturing reality on screen, such as longtime producer and filmmaker Wendy Levy, from San Francisco, California.
Levy, director of creative programming at BAVC (Bay Area Video Coalition) and director of the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies, believes that fresh distribution methods constructed over the Internet will help democratise the medium.
“What’s interesting to me is the hybridisation of distribution: people have to really think outside the traditional box by creating new ways to reach core audiences.
“The question is not just how we use the web to send our content to people, but finding patterns in which they can reach in and choose what they want. It is very important that producers, the people that are creating these stories, are the ones who are helping develop those streams.”
Levy recently spoke about new distribution methods at the Sundance Film Festival. But whether at Park City, Utah or Adelaide, South Australia, Levy foresees a generational gap looming over the factual content industry: “Producers who are from the old school want to just make a documentary and give it over to someone else to distribute. If you are going to tell stories you have to be engaged in helping these stories reach audiences.”
Having been invited to take part in the Latino Film Festival in the US and as one of the directors at the board of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Levy envisions factual content as a channel through which otherwise silenced voices can be heard.
“In documentaries, there is so much potential in those stories to aid transformation and to help people living in communities have better lives, because stories incite movement… documentaries will be distributed in so many platforms and it’s all going to be participatory,” she said.
AUDIENCE FINANCING
Jonathan Stack, a two-time Academy Award nominee and recipient of the Emmy Award, will also speak at the event. Throughout his career, he has built a reputation of fearless filmmaking by tackling on dark subjects, such as life inside an Angolan prison (The Farm) or the Colombian militias, with whom he has travelled.
In 2008 Stack joined private equity investor David Deniger and international policy consultant and advocate Mara-Michelle Batlin to form the Highest Common Denominator Media Group, an organisation whose mission is “to harness the universal power of storytelling, to captivate viewers by presenting and celebrating acts of courage and forgiveness, and inspiring others to transform their own narratives.”
When questioned about the imminent future of distribution in the factual content industry, he is quick to agree about the potential of reaching an audience online.
“Most documentaries will be seen in people’s computers. The trend is going to be to tell people about a story before the film is made, get them excited about it and caught up in the narrative.
“We still need cinemas and festivals, but I don’t think it will ever be the primary way people watch documentaries.”
Stack is even more optimistic about the potential role of the web 3.0 in that key and treacherous part of the process: funding.
“Co-production exists because nobody has enough money to pay for the cost of the movie, but the biggest trend will be to build communities that not only help you with the distribution, but also with the funding. When we figure that out we’ll be successful,” he said.
A GLOBAL MENU
Broadcasters were also present, with figures such as Paul Gibbs, head of programs at BBC World. He is responsible for decisions across investment, commissioning, genre and program development. Gibbs also manages the growing business in commercial programming content and, in his opinion, world news channels have reached a critical mass.
“Once CNN and the BBC fought it out, but then along came CNBC, Bloomberg and Al Jazeera. Now every pay-TV home, hotel rooms, cruise ship and airline offer global news channels. It’s an enormous audience, an important, decision-making one that appeals to advertisers and sponsors. How can documentary makers take advantage?”
Asked about the biggest trends in the factual content industry, the scenario is not necessarily a positive one: “On regional or local channels the trend is to opinion, to shock, to author. They have to sit within a menu of soap operas and reality shows, and unless there is some personality, the eyeballs search elsewhere.”
The situation, says Gibbs, is different in other latitudes.“Globally, and perhaps fortunately, the world is probably fed up with western broadcasters who seem to think they are colonial masters. Documentaries on the global menu tend to be more traditional, often not personality-led, but just good, image and research-driven pieces.”
Having worked in both sides of the spectrum, he compared the pros and cons of both government-subsidised and commercially-funded projects.
“Having worked for the publicly-funded BBC terrestrial channels, then for a very generously-funded Arabic channel (Al Jazeera) and now for a completely commercial channel, my conclusion would be that as long your editorial compliance system is in place, legally by the government regulations and ethically by the broadcaster, then go with whichever model gets you the most money.”
