There’s something rotten in the house of docs, or so it was declared at last week’s Independent Filmmaker Conference panel discussion entitled "Cage Match: Filmmaking or Social Activism?," expertly moderated by POV’s very own Yance Ford.
Ford kicked things off with the question, "Is the medium in an identity crisis?" And panelist Nick Fraser, of BBC Storyville, took the ball and ran with it, replying that the situation is far more dire than that, that it is in fact heading toward the can.
Deborah Zimmerman, Nick Fraser and Yance Ford at the Independent Film Week Conference panel: Cage Match: Filmmaking or Social Activism. Photo Credit: Perla de Leon
The culprit, according to Fraser, is the liberal establishment which now finances a vast majority of documentary film and which has absolutely no appreciation for form, aesthetics, storytelling, or, as he put it, anything that is not "butt-clenchingly boring."
Fraser continued; "Doc makers are so desperate that if Goebbels was providing funding, there’d be a queue lined up around the block." Which is to say that Fraser led by example by showing that a panel about documentary film can indeed be entertaining and a hell of a lot of fun.
But how true is it? The audience, which was about 95-percent filmmaker, seemed to be in agreement, as was fellow panelist Deborah Zimmerman. I couldn’t quite make out the opinion of Motto Pictures’ Julie Goldman, the other panelist, but maybe that’s because I think she had been positioned as the one possible defender of social activism. And yet, she didn’t quite articulate that defense when she described The Cove (which I believe she worked on in some capacity), referring to it as initially a 4-hour bore about overfishing the ocean. The fact that The Cove was reedited and turned into an energized, dynamic film about a dolphin slaughter was dismissed as an aberration.
But is The Cove alone? What about Winnebago Man? Waiting for Superman? The Tillman Story? Racing Dreams? Restrepo? Deep Water (a little while ago, I know, but one of my personal favorites)? Someone keeps giving Errol Morris money to make his movies. Alex Gibney is no hack, and he gets funding. Michael Moore, anyone?
Fraser makes the point that there are fewer entertaining documentaries being made now than there were five years ago. He may be right. He certainly knows better than I do. But I wouldn’t say we’re sunk. In fact, there are plenty of brand new revenue streams from all of these cable networks and online platforms hungry for reality-based programming. And there have indeed been some quality docs that have financing from the liberal establishment (The Cove and War/Dance are the first two that come to my mind.)
I am the last person to defend dull, uninspired documentaries that parrot their patron foundation’s mandate, but I was confounded that there wasn’t a little more positivity in the room. Am I wrong? Are things really so grim? Or is it time for Mr. Fraser to release those cheeks?
