Doc/Fest Blog
Frenching
By Charlie Phillips 01 July, 2009
At Sunnyside last week, it felt like there was a renewed buzz in the European doc market. I'm a sceptic by nature but Sunnyside felt optimistic and ripe for new collaborations - and if I say that it must have been good.
Being in France meant a chance to make links with the French commissioners and funders who we tend to not see elsewhere, in much the same way Doc/Fest is a chance for the world to meet the UK industry. And this is a particularly crucial year to catch up with the French broadcast world because of massive changes at France Télévision.
France Télévisions represents 60% of French broadcasting's total investment in docs, and the news was that its investment is staying steady, despite all France Télévisions channels' documentary departments being in the process of mergi g into one, which will be organised by programming genre. There will be a commissioner for history; another for social issues and politics; another for science, nature and discovery; and one for profiles, while one department will handle doc acquisitions and international copros.
This isn't too unlike the BBC model, and it makes sense in hard economic times, but any big changes to how commissioning normally works is bound to cause commotion. But I think it makes it a lot clearer for us non-French to know who to go to for what for international copros.
Other excitement last week for me was catching up properly on Film London's new Green Screen initiative, which is your guide to saving the world, one film at a time. Leave no trace, except a brilliant film. I love it.
And in the green land of online, there's a new prize for web documentary, from France, and a storm blowing in from Edinburgh after the launch of Vodo, Jamie King and Britdoc's platform for voluntary crowd paying for films. Convinced by it? Take a peek and decide.