Documentary boom raises questions around paying for access & appetite for risk

LR: Harjeet Chhokar; Jane Root; Patrick Holland; Clare Sillery; Mobeen Azhar; Poppy Dixon

The perception that the documentary sector is experiencing a so-called ‘golden age’ in terms of creativity and a gold rush in terms of deals has raised questions around the ethics of paying for access and concerns around commissioners’ appetite for risk.

The Documentary Debate: How To Succeed in a world of Big Deals and Big Competition, emerged as one of the buzziest panels at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival, with host and executive chairman of Banijay UK, Patrick Holland, kicking off by asking how docs have gone from “niche to a dominant form of the streaming revolution?”

Mobeen Azhar

In contrast to the world of fake news, AI, augmented reality, deep fakes, miss and diss information, former BBC Two controller and CEO of Nutopia Jane Root responded: “Everyone, but young people especially, are interested in ‘the real’, what is actually happening?”

Key to the popularity of docuseries over the last decade is “emotional engagement,” said Harjeet Chhokar, who oversees unscripted for Amazon Studio.

He explained that while All Or Nothing: Arsenal was about wealthy football stars, viewers engaged with the characters in the same way they would the protagonists of any observational work place doc. “You feel you’re in the changing room with them,” he said.

Cash flows

While docs have soared in popularity, so too has the money coming into the sector, with ethical questions at the forefront of the debate in Edinburgh.

By definition a documentary sets out to explore and observe, meaning producers have to leave room for the unexpected to take place. Mobeen Azhar, presenter, journalist and film maker, expressed concern that with the increasingly lucrative nature of the sector, commissioners’ appetite for risk will lessen.

He felt his best work was done when the attitude of the commissioners was: “You don’t know what the end point is but we believe in it.”

Claire Sillery, head of commissioning documentaries at the BBC, reminded the audience that in that scenario, the role of the public broadcaster is “what the BBC is there for.”.

Earlier she had underlined the most important feature of a documentary to be “can I trust it?” and “Is it true?”, with the most controversial element of the debate, paying for access, then taking centre stage.

Just what this means for PSB’s when access is given to those with the biggest cheque books is unclear, but Chhokar pointed out that paying for access can be done “without effecting the final product at all”. Hiolland responded with the direct counter argument, “but it can.”

Judging by the speculation that was taking place across Edinburgh’s bars well into the early hours, this eternal conflict will define the future of documentary making over the next few years.