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FEATURESaturday 24 March 2018
Real stories fuel a ‘golden age’ of documentaries
By MARK KENNEDY This image released by HBO shows a scene from “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of high-brow thing. That never
AP Entertainment Writer interested me. I didn’t care
NEW YORK (AP) — You’re Belief,” available on the HBO app and On Demand. about the life of the univer-
on the couch. It’s been a sity professor. I care about
long day. The remote con- Associated Press his doorman,” she says.
trol is in your hand. What Under Nevins’ watch, HBO
can you watch? dies like “Knocked Up” and pumped out more than
There’s that new CNN 1,200 documentaries, most
documentary series on the “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” recently with such films as
pope. Or maybe you’re the Scientology investiga-
more in the mood for some Said Apatow: “I’ve proba- tion “Going Clear” and
sinners in “Girls Incarcer- the Oscar-winning “Citi-
ated” on Netflix? There bly wanted to make one for zenfour,” about Edward
are cute critters on Hulu’s Snowden. HBO once tried
“March of the Penguins 2: a very long time but didn’t to hide its offerings as “do-
The Next Step” or you could cutainment.” Now it proud-
watch former slugger Da- know how to approach it.” ly has a documentary tab
vid Ortiz as he figures out his on its home page.
next career step on Fusion. In 2016, he teamed up with Nevins credits the new inter-
Keep scrolling? Sure. What est to technology but also
about a new three-part Michael Bonfiglio on “Doc reality TV shows like “Big
documentary about Silicon Brother” for championing
Valley on Science? Or the & Darryl” for ESPN’s “30 for the lives of non-celebrities.
series about gangsters on “It’s the democratization of
Reelz? How about the A&E 30” series and last year’s documentaries, the spot-
series on adults returning light is on regular people
to high school in “Under- “May It Last: A Portrait of and the struggles everyone
cover High”? What about faces,” she says.
some David Bowie or Elvis the Avett Brothers” on HBO. What’s clear is that docu-
on HBO? mentaries have come a
If you’re looking for doc- This month he’s on his own long way since their dusty,
umentaries these days, formulaic and education-
they’re hard to miss. Once This image released by HBO shows a scene from the documentary with a four-hour HBO docu- al ancestors. Malhotra of
considered more medicinal mentary about Garry Shan- Showtime credits today’s
than entertaining and con- “Citizenfour” available on the HBO app and On Demand. documentary-makers with
signed to high-brow places being bolder, innovative
like PBS and art house the- Associated Press dling. “I’m endlessly fasci- and more cinematic.
aters, documentaries are “As we’ve broadened our
scattered across the film has emerged for content- the documentary industry nated by how we all deal horizons in terms of what
and TV spectrum, as well works in a documentary,
as online portals like Face- hungry platforms is often from newer platforms that with this life. Sometimes it’s I think that the filmmak-
book Watch or YouTube ers themselves have also
Red and on video stream- a cheaper alternative to have emerged with interest fun to write about it but evolved quite a bit. I think
ing apps like go90. Even even they’re bored of the
mighty NBC is getting in on scripted films and series. in the form of storytelling — lately I seem much more in- headshot-archive-head-
the act with a documenta- shot-archive type of style,”
ry on Martin Luther King Jr. “The cost of creating these places like Netflix, places terested in trying to capture he said. “We want people
airing Saturday night. shaking up the format.”
“It feels like the golden age stories has come down, I like Amazon, other stream- how different people have One of those is filmmaker
of documentary right now,” Sabaah Folayan, whose
says Josh Koury, a profes- think. The ability to travel ing and tech companies.” chosen to live,” Apatow debut film “Whose Streets?”
sor at Pratt Institute and a exposes the gap between
documentary filmmaker. and to actually be your No wonder recent docu- said. “We’re in an amazing mainstream media cover-
“It’s an amazing time to be age of unrest in Ferguson,
making documentary sto- own investigative journal- mentaries have lately environment where, as a Missouri, in 2014 and what
ries.” Starz, which last fall was happening at the
began offering new docu- ist has become possible. found themselves at the result of all these streaming grassroots. It’s a documen-
mentaries for the first time, tary that’s urgent, angry,
has doubled down by add- And the world has gotten center of popular culture, services and cable stations, visceral — and timely, us-
ing four original docuseries ing cellphone video and
to its summer schedule, ex- smaller through technol- including Ava DuVernay’s they desperately want tweets to tell its story.
ploring everything from the “We’re having a kind of
criminal justice system to ogy,” he said. “So I think “13” on the American pris- great documentaries,” he crisis of logic and a crisis of
the legacy of hip-hop. language where it feels like
Jeffrey Hirsch, chief operat- the opportunity to relive or on system, the Oscar-win- added. “Now we’re get- words don’t mean things
ing officer for Starz, says the anymore and nothing has
boom owes a large part to retell some of these stories ning “O.J.: Made in Ameri- ting incredible documen- to make sense,” she said.
technology, which has al- “People are more thirsty
lowed filmmakers access has become a lot more ac- ca,” ‘’The Jinx” about Rob- taries. I couldn’t be happier for this content. People are
to relatively inexpensive recognizing that they need
high-quality cameras and cessible.” ert Durst, and “Blackfish,” about it.” to know about others and
editing equipment. What this is the way to do it.”q
Showtime also has in- for treatment of orcas. Net- Many thank Sheila Nevins
creased its output of doc- flix scored its first Oscar this for bringing documenta-
umentaries, said Vinnie year with the documentary ries into mainstream popu-
Malhotra, head of docu- “Icarus.” Award-winning lar culture during her 38-
mentary programming for filmmaker Darren Aronof- year tenure at HBO. It was
the network. He marvels at sky has been lured to the Nevins, president of HBO
how much the landscape genre, executive produc- Documentary Films from
has changed from 15 years ing National Geographic’s 2004 until this year, who
ago when docs were inde- 10-episode “One Strange shook up the staid format
pendently financed and Rock” about planet Earth — usually nature shows or
had limited releases. — and he’s brought Will archive footage explained
“There are more outlets for Smith along to narrate. by experts — with such lurid
documentary than there The lure of documentary- shows as “Taxicab Confes-
ever have been before,” making has also recently sions” and “Real Sex.”
he said. “There’s a lot of attracted Judd Apatow, “When I arrived at HBO,
money being fueled into known for scripted come- docs were considered a
