Looking Both Near and Far

HBO: Looking Both Near and Far

For the past three nights (May 10 to 12) on HBO, The Alzheimer’s Project has been putting the spotlight on the faces behind the disease, and the forces leading the way to finding a cure.  The initiative is aimed at bringing a new understanding about this devastating form of memory loss, and features a four-part documentary series, 15 short supplemental films, a robust website and a nationwide community-based information and outreach campaign. It is but one example of how HBO is keen on bringing topics of both national and international importance to the forefront with its programming.

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, HBO began to put more emphasis on international themes, looking closely at American politics, the war in Iraq and the Bush administration, says Sheila Nevins, the president of documentary and family programming at HBO, which has won numerous awards for its productions.

Now, however, with a new president in the White House, a growing global economic crisis and a changing public mood, “we are in a real transition period,” she says. “We’re thinking hard about where we want to turn our critical eye.”

This may mean a more domestic focus. “We will probably be doing more things about America, business, poverty and domestic issues, though we haven’t commissioned anything in those areas,” she adds.

HBO airs about 40 factual programs a year in a wide range of topics, from some late-night sex programs based in a brothel in Nevada to more serious political and social documentaries.

“In the more serious vein, we do about 35 films a year, of which about 12 to 15 are original,” Nevins says. About 25 percent of the original films are done in-house; the other 75 percent come from outside producers.

Projects include a film on Senator Ted Kennedy; a look at the First Amendment right of free speech in the U.S.; a film on Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. diplomat who was killed during the Iraq War; and a film with Rosie O’Donnell that will take a lighthearted look at the changing conceptions about what constitutes a family.

As a premium pay channel that takes no advertising, HBO’s documentary programming is driven by “buzz, not ratings,” Nevins says. “We want our subscriber base to feel good about the fact that HBO is bringing them information they really need to know or be interested in.”

For commissioned projects, HBO is particularly keen on “subjects we think no one else will do,” she says. “We have a film about a mother who had a bipolar child and makes a film about her child’s suicide. We think that is something no one else will do, and we want to nurture those kinds of stories.”

The hallmark HBO approach to a subject is to offer viewers fresh perspectives. “We want to make you rethink what you think you already know about the subject.”