Funding for Docs to Take Flight

The Canwest-Hot Docs Documentary Fund recently selected the recipients for its fifth round of disbursements. Sean Farnel, the director of programming at Hot Docs, talks to TV Real Weekly about the new projects and the overall aim of allotting this funding.

Twelve projects have been selected to receive a total of C$251,000 in grants and no-interest loans from the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and Canwest. This is the fifth round of disbursements from the Canwest-Hot Docs Documentary Fund, which was set up in 2008 with a C$3 million completion fund and a C$1 million development fund.

Sean Farnel, the director of programming at Hot Docs, says that the desire to have a fund for Canadian documentaries goes back a few years before its actual establishment, "when we realized that documentary funding was in a state of peril." He explains, "Part of our mission as an organization was to help sustain the kinds of films that we like to screen at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. One of the ways to do that was funding."

Fortunately, Canwest came on board as a partner to help provide much-needed financial support to filmmakers facing financing gaps at critical stages in their projects. Thus far the Canwest-Hot Docs Funds have supported 55 Canadian documentary projects with C$1,010,000 in completion grants and C$359,000 in no-interest loans.

"The demand has been huge," says Farnel. "Some of the initial projects that have come out of the funding have been great."

Past recipients include Act of God, which screened at Hot Docs in 2009 as the opening night film. The feature documentary is about the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning. Cat Ladies, also screened at Hot Docs 2009, tells the real story behind the often-ridiculed "cat lady," creating a portrait of women whose lives and self-worth have become intractably linked to cats.

From the 2008 round of funding, Last Train Home premiered at Doc Soup, Hot Docs’ monthly film series, in January 2010. The film is set amidst the world’s largest regular human migration, and follows a family over two years as their relationships are torn apart by years of separation in an era of "labor export" and urban migration. Land, which depicts the age-old fight between Pueblo and Imperialistas, was screened at Hot Docs 2010.

The fund is divided up into two different segments: the completion fund and the development fund. As Farnel explains, the development fund is more content-focused. "We start by looking at the project itself, then we look at the team involved with it—the track record of the filmmakers—then we also think about market viability." He notes that the development fund is where a little bit more risk is taken, to reward interesting content on a conceptual level. "We want to reward those projects that may have a harder time getting some of that early seed money in the market but could turn out to be really great work."

The completion fund looks at works-in-progress and films that are getting into or are already in post-production, helping them with funding gaps they may have late in the game. "There, along with the content, the market viability of the film is a bigger part," says Farnel. "If we’re going to invest in a film that late in the stages, we want to see that it’s going to have an audience, not just in Canada but ideally it’s going to travel—and not just at film festivals, but also has commercial viability."

In this latest round of funding, six projects received completion grants totaling C$182,000. They are Les films du tricycle’s At Night, They Dance, about belly dancers in Cairo; Primitive Entertainment’s Beauty Day, a personal history of one-time cable television star Ralph Zavadil; High Definition Pictures’ Cuda; Family Portrait Productions’ Family Portrait in Black and White; Cave 7 Productions’ Recessionize! For Fun and Profit; and Primitive Thunder Productions’ Ron Hynes: Man of a Thousand Songs. Six additional projects received C$69,000 in development funds.

Farnel says that the breadth of subjects is something that stands out about this round’s selections. "The first thing that we’re looking to do is to reward different types of films, filmmaking approaches and styles, with a diversity of content. All these films are quite different from one another. We have an amazing character-driven narrative in Beauty Day; we have a more classical verité observational film in At Night, They Dance; we have a current-events topical film in Recessionize!; and a great musical biography in Ron Hynes."

He continues: "They’re all very different types of films. That’s intentional. Just like we do with the festival, we want to fund documentaries that are showing us everything that documentaries can do. It’s very democratic in that sense. We really want to make sure the way we fund documentaries reflects the way we program them at the festival, which is with a wide swath of tastes, styles and content."

Hot Docs is currently two years into its seven-year partnership with Canwest. Farnel emphasizes that over the next rounds of disbursements the plan is to continue to explore how the funds can make an impact in their native of Canada, but that he’s also keen to bring this to an international playing field. "We’re an international film festival and I think more and more we want to see our reach with funding expand, whether it’s throughout North America to begin with or wide open internationally."

He adds, "Certainly, our fundraising team here is working really hard to see if we can connect some of the money that’s out there and be matchmakers with that money and independent producers."

Applications for the second round of 2010 disbursements will be accepted starting in the fall, with a deadline of October 27. Applications for the first round of 2011 disbursements will be accepted beginning in late winter/early spring, with a deadline of May 25.

To watch clips from past recipients of the Canwest-Hot Docs Documentary Fund, please click here.