Documentaries give a voice to those who might not be heard, says ABC’s Head of Factual and Culture.

Paul Dalgarno ScreenHub 8 Mar 2022

Hi Jennifer, can you tell us a bit about yourself and what your role as Head of Factual and Culture involves? 

‘I’m an exec of 30 years experience. I’ve enjoyed a rewarding career at the ABC, where I’ve worked across all genres of production, scripted and unscripted, from producing to executive producing, and then into management roles.  I left the ABC from the role of Head of Entertainment, previously having been Head of Factual/Documentaries. I was Head of Non-Scripted at Screentime, followed by Director of Content at Fremantle, and now back at the ABC as Head of Factual and Culture. 

‘In this role, I’m responsible for commissioning over 100 hours of factual and documentary content each year, across Science, Natural History, History, Religion and Ethics, Arts and Contemporary. I also have responsibility for internal teams at Radio National, Catalyst, Compass, and Artworks.’

Why are documentaries important? What can they do that other genres can’t?

‘Documentaries are our stories. As the biggest commissioner of documentaries in Australia, ABC documentaries give a voice to those who may not otherwise be heard. Documentaries can ignite national conversations, foster understanding, and create real and meaningful change. They feature Australian voices, places, and stories. Most importantly they not only reflect our lives, they can educate, shape, and enrich our lives.

‘From documentaries like Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra, to The School That Tried To End Racism, Love on the Spectrum to Australia’s Ocean Odyssey they are entertaining, diverse, and intelligent and they bring in large audiences to the ABC. What they can do, that other genres can’t, is provide a depth to a topic. Documentaries can explore an issue in a deeper way, analysing, reflecting, and often triggering change.’

Can you tell us about any upcoming productions on your slate that you’re excited about?

‘What I love about our slate for 2022 is the diversity of the content. But what they all have in common is real public value. It’s not solely entertainment – it’s public broadcasting at its best. We’ve got new spin-offs to much loved formats such as Old People’s Home for Teenagers and Back in Time for the Corner Shop. We have really innovative original formats like Tiny Oz, which marries arts and history. Tiny Oz celebrates the extraordinary miniature art movement where artists lovingly obsess over teensy details, as they re-create remarkable moments in our nation’s history. It’s original, innovative and the visual effects are extraordinary.

‘We have Space 22, hosted by Natalie Bassingthwaite – a brand-new social experiment where we see whether the power of art can make a difference to one’s mental well-being. And spoiler alert – of course it does … Many Australians are struggling with their mental health following the pandemic and this program provides positivity and hope. It’s got genuine warmth and heart.

‘And then we have high end Science documentaries like Carbon: The Unauthorised Biography, narrated by Sarah Snook and again incredible visual effects as well as event TV with Southern Ocean Live, hosted by Hamish McDonald and Dr Ann Jones from the largest Little Penguin colony in the world at Phillip Island.’

What are the pressures on filmmakers to capture an audience in this age of information overload?

‘Producers have definitely become more innovative in the way they tell their stories. The subjects and themes are equally important, but now it needs to be more than just a fascinating topic. If it isn’t served up in an accessible and interesting way commissioners won’t get hooked and nor will audiences. There are less thesis led documentaries, but having said that, the depth is still there, it’s just presented in new ways.

‘Most definitely, and thankfully, we’re seeing more diversity both on and off screen. We’re seeing big budget high production values in the science programming in particular, which is really bringing those stories to life for a broader audience.’

What do you predict some major documentary themes will be, say, five years from now? 

‘One of the first things we ask of filmmakers when pitched documentaries is Why Now?, why is it important for this story to be told at this point in time. I don’t think anyone knows what the burning issues will be in five years but what I do hope is that in five years we’re seeing more ideas come in with other public broadcasters on board tackling big issues together – whether that’s climate change documentaries, natural history stories or other contemporary issues.’

Jennifer Collins is speaking at the Australian International Documentary Conference 2022.

Paul Dalgarno

Paul Dalgarno is a journalist and author of the novel Poly (2020), memoir And You May Find Yourself (2015) and forthcoming creative non-fiction Prudish Nation (2023). He joined ScreenHub as Managing Editor in 2022. Twitter: @pauldalgarno. Insta: @narrativefriction

by Sean Slatter IF magazine March 8, 2022

In a climate of change, Screen Australia’s documentary department will attempt to provide stability for producers, announcing only a slight change to its funding programs at the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) on Monday.

Head of documentary Alex West and CEO Graeme Mason took to the stage to outline the direction of the agency’s support, while also introducing department members Cieron Cody, Sally Chesher, Daniella Ortega, and Jeni McMahon.

There were also contributions from Lee Naimo and Elise Adams from the online department, and head of Indigenous Angela Bates.

West, who took over from Bernadime Lim in the middle of last year, told IF in January that any announced tweaks to the funding programs would be about providing simplicity for the sector following the disruption of COVID and the looming threat of changes to the Producer Offset.

On Monday, he signalled his intention to keep the development, producer, and commissioned programs mostly as they were, albeit with a streamlined one-stage application process for the producer program, which previously required a two-step submission.

“We’re still trying to understand the COVID-not-being-over environment and what that means, as well as the arrival of the SVODs with a new set of deal parameters and a new forms of marketing,” he said.

“It’s not my temperament to smash the system, particularly after two years of the most intense change in lived experience I think we’ve ever gone through collectively.

“My thought here, although not a spectacular announcement of new changes, is to provide stability and to look, see and observe, talk, and dialogue about what the current conditions are and where they are going, particularly because the legislative changes are now enacted and are imminent in terms of guidelines.”

Prior to the onset of COVID, there had been plans to revise the documentary funding programs, as well as a proposal to replace the Producer Equity Program (PEP), which provides a direct payment of funds to producers of eligible low-budget Australian documentaries, in favour of a creatively-assessed completion fund.

West said that while the department “loved PEP”, there were “relatively minor” issues with the program that the department had looked into.

“Daniella and I have done an analysis and we were a bit concerned about an issue the definition of documentary in the space and that we were seeing completed projects and brand-funded entertainment,” he said.

“We’ve closed whatever loops there were on that and we feel that right now, PEP is in working order.”

During his presentation, West also outlined the criteria Screen Australia used for funding, which include creative strength, cultural value, market viability of the project, team, pathway to audience, and diversity of slate.

He said the mix of the team involved was also important in identifying opportunities for emerging industry members.

“We are here to help have discussions about how that best work, but I believe we’re all in that together and that we keep our sector and industry healthy by finding ways to bring on the next generation of practitioners. I think its particularly important for those that are established to do that,” he said.

Both West and Mason used the session to emphasise the importance of factual storytelling in the current environment, while also paying tribute to the work that had been done in the past couple of years.

The former said there had never been a more vital time for the sector.

“Information used to be oil and gas and water, but information and facts are contested resources in this world, which is why it’s absolutely central that, together, we try to find pathways where information with veracity and engagement for audiences can actually do the work we do, which for me is change work, however and at what scale that means,” he said.

“This is why our screens evolve and as technology and form evolves, it’s really important for us to be in the space.”

In his introduction, Mason reminded producers that Screen Australia “had their best interests at heart” and said he wanted “to keep the team spirit going”.

“On our side, what we’re very keen to think about with you is the great stories you’ve got that you want to tell in factual and documentary, which are more important now than ever because news and journalism is under such threat,” he said.

“Particularly the ability to get stories that shape us and change us, inform us and educate us is moving more and more into your world, so we’ve got to really think about that.”

We’re beyond thrilled to unveil the AIDC 2022 program which features a stellar line up of speakers, sessions, screenings, industry initiatives and networking events designed to celebrate and elevate our nonfiction screen industry.

Across 40-plus sessions from 90-plus speakers – including four 2022 Academy Award®-shortlisted filmmakers, and speakers from as far and wide as the USA, Denmark, India, the UK and New Zealand – the AIDC 2022 program has something for everyone.

This year’s highly anticipated return to ACMI, Melbourne will feature spotlight sessions with extraordinary global talents like Jonas Poher Rasmussen, director of the multi-award-winning and Oscar®-shortlisted Flee; Netflix docuseries titans the Way Brothers (Wild Wild Country, Untold), Oscar-winning Australian documentarian Eva Orner (Burning, Taxi to the Dark Side), immersive storytelling evangelist Loren Hammonds (TIME Studios, NY), trailblazing independent producer Ted Hope (ex-Amazon Studios), and a special in-conversation with Darren Dale and Jacob Hickey of prolific Australian production house Blackfella Films – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Other session highlights include an exploration of journalism and documentary with leading investigative filmmaker Nanfu Wang, director of the Oscar®-shortlisted In the Same Breath, Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas, makers of the Oscar®-shortlisted Writing with Fire, and Australian journalist and filmmaker Yaara Bou Melham; plus a deep dive into the art of the interview in audio documentary with Osman Faruqi, Marc Fennell, Ruby Jones and Camille Bianchi; and a special International Women’s Day session focusing on women making waves in specialist factual with Janet Han Vissering (Nat Geo Wild), Colette Beaudry (SeaLight Productions), and Bettina Dalton (Wildbear Entertainment).

There’s also a range of sessions focusing on specialist topics such as Indigenous storytelling, music documentary, observational documentary, social experiments in factual television, and the digital creator economy, alongside AIDC-exclusive sessions with Australian streamer Stan and philanthropic organisations the Judith Neilson Institute and Shark Island Foundation announcing major new initiatives for nonfiction screen creators. 

The 2022 conference presents an unparalleled opportunity to learn from, network, and do business with some of the most interesting creators and movers and shakers in the worlds of nonfiction screen and digital media.

To provide the widest possible access, AIDC 2022 has been designed for the first time ever as a hybrid event, giving delegates the choice to attend in-person at ACMI, or to participate entirely online – with passes available for all preferences.

And so, we welcome you to come and explore this year’s theme with us, Bearing Witness, acknowledging the tireless work of documentarians to bring us stories from the frontline, the margins and underground. We recognise that it’s been a tough time for our sector and it’s been a long time since we got together, and we’re so looking forward to welcoming you to AIDC 2022.

EXPLORE THE PROGRAM:

BY MONA TABBARA Screen Daily 28 JANUARY 2022

Steering the ship for the 29th edition of UK documentary festival Sheffield DocFest (June 23-28) is an exacting task, even for a veteran such as Clare Stewart, who is the interim CEO of the event for this edition.

SOURCE: UDALL EVANS

CLARE STEWART

The Australia-born Stewart has previously worked as festival director of the Sydney Film Festival and of the BFI London Film Festival. She has now relocated to Sheffield where she will be predominantly based for her one-year tenure and is working closely with Asif Kapadia, who is the guest curator for this year. 

“I’ve come in deliberately as interim CEO, I’ve not come in as festival director,” says Stewart. “I have a distinct purpose, and that purpose is to help build a five-year strategy and bring together the people who will forge the creative platform for the festival.”

Part of the plan is to ensure DocFest is positioned as an international hub, unfettered by Brexit. “We’re still global in our focus, and we’re going to play very strongly into that broader church that Sheffield has been historically in the documentary ecosystem. Europe still very much looks to the UK as a gateway to the US, and we’re certainly hearing a lot from our US delegates about their interest in returning to live market meet-ups.

”There’s a vibrant role for the festival to play in its marketplace context – it’s the only UK film festival that has a substantive marketplace at all.”

Diversity of form is another way in which Stewart plans to make DocFest distinctive. “Some of our European colleagues in this arena have been leaning more heavily to artistic films with stylistic ambition. That’s still very much the kind of film that will be welcome in our programming context, but we also have space to move into other kinds of documentary films, some with more broad appeal, some that are pushing more into the investigative journalist space, and those that are also rougher around the edges and potentially finding it difficult to land a festival platform.”

Stewart is not looking to disentangle DocFest from the behemoth UK broadcasters, and increasingly the US streamers. “Balance is an important word and it is definitely what’s being aimed at in programming terms,” she says.

“I see broadcast as playing a very vital role in the shape that documentary takes internationally, and streamers are taking an important role in that space as well. It’s about being format agnostic, as well as funding agnostic. Do I see that independent filmmaking should be valued as highly as any other contributor in the documentary space? Of course I feel that. Our role is to create the context for coexistence and dialogue.”

Controversial few years 

Stewart got her feet under the table in early November and an intensive first three months followed as she made sure she was up to speed on where Sheffield DocFest is at following a two-year pandemic cycle. It took place online in 2020 and as a hybrid event in 2021. 

“We’re gunning for an in-person event in June,” Stewart explains. “It’s interesting to look at the likes of Cop26 doing a lot of events outdoors – it’s about playing to those strengths about where we are in the calendar and looking at alternative ways to do things in an outdoor space.”

It is not just Covid that has brought the festival into an era of uncertainty – DocFest has been plagued with senior staffing issues, including the departure of festival director Cíntia Gil in August of last year over what the festival termed “artistic differences”. At the end of that month, the programming team issued an open letter criticising the festival’s board of trustees following the departure of Gil and the way in which their own contracts had been terminated, questioning in the letter “the purpose and ethics of festivals run by boards predominantly made up of broadcasters and commissioners with a vested interest in showcasing projects whose distribution future is already predetermined”.

Luke Moody, the festival’s former director of programming, also left on difficult terms in 2019.

“I have every respect for the creative leadership of Cíntia, and also I have a great deal of empathy for the challenge of doing a festival in the pandemic. The message I want to convey is one of reassurance,” affirms Stewart, pointing towards the “incredible skillset of our recent appointments” as evidence that the festival is moving in a positive direction.

“Asif [Kapadia’s] curatorial approach is going to be really interesting because it’s spread across all facets of what it is to be in that documentary space from both the programme to filmmaker contributions.”

Punching above its weight

The biggest challenge that Stewart believes the festival faces is resource. “Coming into this festival, I felt it’s been punching above its weight for a long time in terms of its resource portfolio,” admits Stewart. “It’s extremely tenacious, in a good way. There are partnerships in place that have stood by the festival in a complicated set of conditions, but we’re down on Creative Europe money and also our three-year partnership with Wellcome Trust has come to a close. Wellcome Trust was supporting a fantastic programme called Exchange, which was underwriting a lot of free, community-driven events.

“We’re looking at our position and thinking, How can we be ambitious about the build back up, look at alternative ways of doing things in outdoor space and, at the same time, fill a space that has opened up, around especially that Creative Europe money? It’s complicated.”

IF Magazine January 20, 2022, by Sean Slatter

Incoming head of documentary at Screen Australia believes the sector is strong, despite COVID. In part, this is due to the sector’s success in retaining the Gallipoli clause allowing overseas shoots, and keeping the threshold for qualifying Australian production expenditure at $500,000 rather than $1 million.

West told IF the documentary department was working on reforms within the existing funding programs that reflected the state of the sector in 2022.

“Those changes will be a response to some of the things that have been going down and will be about providing simplicity,” he said.

Prior to the onset of COVID and the introduction of the federal offset reform, Screen Australia planned to revise the documentary funding programs, including alterations to the development, producer, and Ccommissioned programs.

There was also a proposal to replace the Producer Equity Program (PEP), which provides a direct payment of funds to producers of eligible low-budget Australian documentaries, in favour of a creatively-assessed completion fund.

It came after funds for the PEP were exhausted well before the end of the 2018-19 financial year, leading Screen Australia to cease processing applications in April 2019.

Having initially been scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2020, the revisions were pushed back until 2021 as a result of the pandemic, with the existing versions of the programs remaining in place last year as the sector faced more uncertainty.

West said that although the agency as a whole was evolving its guidelines, he was not “the kind of character who blows in and needs to smash things around”.

“As a practitioner, I was always conscious that you could do a project that you spend a year getting up, where you go through the system and you get funded, and then you go back for another project that you are developing and the rules have changed,” he said.

“I’m quite conscious of not changing rules for the sake of changing rules.”

In regards to the PEP, he said the issue of funds being exhausted too early was “problem on all budgets”, noting the agency’s job was to “constantly apply the things we have to the demand we receive”.

“At the moment, the fund is ticking along quite nicely and there is the fundamental [argument] underlying everything that there never was, is, or will be enough resources to fund [projects] in a subsidy-based system because demand and creativity is so high,” he said.

“But if you take that as a given, I’m not looking to introduce any massive changes on PEP because what I really like about it is that it was developed in response to filmmakers’ desires for a low intervention measure that covers the more indie end of the spectrum and enables people doing their own work on their own projects to send them in.

“I think that’s a setting which is extremely valuable and one that the industry wanted going back quite some time.”

West may be relatively new to the role, but he has more than 25 years of screen experience, having worked as a documentary producer, filmmaker, writer, and director, as well as in screen agency investment program management.

Speaking about his own experience with Australian documentary production, he said the sector had never been in a stronger position, craft-wise or creatively.

“It’s amazing to see the titles that we’ve seen released in the past couple of years and the stuff that’s coming through in the next few months, as well as the creative capability and insight the producers and directors have.

“For me, the films speak to the health of the creative elements of the sector; the practitioning and creation have never been better.

“We enter this phase with more money in the pot, a strong sense of creative agency amongst producers, and a sector that is becoming ever more diverse.”