Buck, which chronicles ‘horse whisperer’ Buck Brannaman, took $4m in the US
expectations,” says Fischer. “With more than 77,000 people attending last year, the documentary genre is proven to be alive and kicking.” When it comes to standing out in a shrill world
of reality TV and user-generated content, nothing quite beats the big screen. The media attention and critical appraisal that comes with festival glory and a decent run at the box office can reverberate long into a documentary’s on-demand afterlife.
Sustained theatrical demand Fortunately, the number of films that achieve such theatrical nirvana is still surprisingly healthy — resilient enough, in fact, for distributors to start talk- ing about a sustained marketplace for theatrical documentaries as opposed to one of its periodic ren- aissances. With each success, the industry is learn- ing which documentaries work best at the box office. “These things have tended to go in cycles,”
observes Josh Braun, whose New York-based sales and production company Submarine Entertainment has found itself thrust into the midst of several late- night festival negotiations for documentary titles. “In 2008 theatrical distributors were hesitant to
consider Valentino: The Last Emperor and Food, Inc,” he says. “Of course, they were both significant hits and helped pave the way for films like Cave Of Forgotten Dreams and Buck to trigger bidding wars a few years later. And of course those films were significant hits which paved the way for interest in films this year such as Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, The Queen Of Versailles and Searching For Sugar Man.” This wave of theatrical interest has carried over
to the UK, where Senna has raced to nearly $5m in gross receipts for Universal Pictures International, making it the third highest-performing documen- tary in the territory behind Fahrenheit 9/11 and March Of The Penguins. Kevin Macdonald’s Bob Marley documentary Marley was also popular. But it is not just studio-released celebrity biogra-
phies that are grabbing the market. UK documen- tary specialist Dogwoof grossed around $484,000 (£300,000) with Dreams Of A Life, a partially re- enacted portrait of the life of a woman who lay dead in her London flat for three years before being found in 2003.
n 24 Screen International at Cannes May 22, 2012 Room 237 probes Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining These are not isolated success stories, believes
Dogwoof founder and chairman Andy Whittaker. “The big difference between now and, say, the pre- vious mini-booms for documentary is the audience sees documentaries as theatrical films now,” he suggests. “And they are as likely to go to a cinema to watch a documentary as they would a foreign-language
film. Mainly it is down to the simple fact film-mak- ers are making better docs. Think The Interrupters, Food, Inc., Catfish, Pina, Senna. “These are interesting times, so much so that we
are putting our money where our mouths are and setting up a production fund. The aim is to fund more films like Dreams Of A Life, Bill Cunningham New York and Tabloid.” Dogwoof ’s move into production financing is a
response to a new market dynamic dictating which documentaries are being backed. With fewer inter- national television slots for documentary features, it has been left to foundations and NGOs to pick up the slack and offset the decline in available TV money. But while such deep new pockets are wel- come, they come with agendas. “If a film is not issue-based, then film-makers
are now struggling to find funding,” says Whit- taker. “This has created a gap for film-makers with a great story and characters. And it’s these films that audiences want to see, as the box-office hits have shown. In these recessionary times, audiences are looking for more escapism, so films like Search- ing For Sugar Man and Marley will do well theatri- cally. I expect a natural balance will evolve.” “It’s up and down, as it always seems to be in
this industry. New doors opening as others close,” notes Julie Goldman, the New York producer of Buck who maintains close strategic ties with two of the UK’s highest-profile documentary production houses, Passion Pictures and Red Box Films, through her Motto Pictures. “My sense is founda- tions are getting much more involved and are often putting money into the same projects. They are communicating with each other more and becom- ing more sophisticated in their decision making.” This herding instinct among foundations has
not only funnelled money in narrower directions, it also means film-makers are doing more and more of the heavy lifting in terms of outreach and advo- cacy efforts. Submarine’s Braun says: “As far as funding goes,
it seems harder than ever to find independent financ- ing for feature documentaries perhaps with the exception of cause and issue films like Bully that tapped into a wide range of funds and soft dollars. Ironically, there seems to be more money out there to
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