BIG vs SMALL tells the inspirational story of Joana Andrade, the first Portuguese woman to surf the giant, bone-crushing waves of Nazaré. Finnish director and producer Minna Dufton’s debut feature documentary was released in late 2020, and so far has enjoyed premieres at nine top global festivals including DOC NYC and PÖFF. BIG vs SMALL …
BBC director general Tim Davie yesterday mounted a spirited defense of the pubcaster’s value to British audiences versus the streamers led by Netflix. His presentation and white paper BBC Value for Audiences gained wide coverage in the business media, where the initial focus was on $556 million in proposed cuts. Cut Documentaries Davie later spoke …
For last week’s World Congress of Science and Factual Producers I reached out to Ed Hersh, industry vet and consultant, to share his top takeaways. It’s always been one of the go-to gatherings of documentary producers, commissioning editors, and funding foundations, but this year it was online instead of in some exotic global city. We …
Meet Chris Schmidt and Julia Cort, Executive Producers of NOVA, and Melanie Wallace, Senior Series Producer. They joined me at this year’s Sunny Side of the Doc for a revealing MEET THE EXECUTIVE presentation, including clips of program highlights. Watch the NOVA / Sunny Side video here: And don’t miss my detailed coverage of NOVA …
I turned my spotlight on to the NOVA strand in time for next week’s virtual World Congress of Science & Factual Producers. NOVA is PBS‘s science documentary powerhouse brand. Now enjoying its 5th decade on broadcast, NOVA is expanding across multiple digital platforms including YouTube, podcasting and more. Read more here about NOVA’s pipeline, funders, co-pro …
Mandy Chang, commissioning editor BBC-STORYVILLE recently joined my panel at Taiwan’s virtual CCDF-CNEX Documentary Conference. In this post, we recap Mandy’s valuable insights into the legendary STORYVILLE stand, and the impact of COVID on the BBC’s documentary commissioning process. Our fellow expert panelists were: Hong Kong-based, Phoenix TV exec Haibo Huang And from Washington DC, veteran …
Humboldt: Epic Explorer is a historical dramatized documentary about the scientist Alexander von Humboldt and his pioneering work in South America. The project was sparked by Andrea Wulf’s best-selling biography, and developed by veteran producer Tilman Remme. It was successfully pitched to European and American commissioning editors at the Science Producers’ Congress 2018 in Stockholm. by …
Netflix is steadily expanding its programming appetites in the feature documentary, popular Factual and Reality Formats. Follow recent reports from the field, and in my new and expanded guide NETFLIX 2021: What You Need To Know Now! True Crime: Netflix is launching the original True Crime documentary American Murder: The Family Next Door. The feature …