Did you hear? Kota Factory Season 3 is soon to be released. With a deep breath, twisted eyebrow, and collecting my internal peace, I sighed. In a world of marketing, promotion, advertising, and huge social media collaboration, the space of filmmaking has entirely changed. This change is beneficial for many filmmakers looking for opportunities. OTT platforms have been a boon, and as long as a series has international appeal, it is most welcome.
However, things are not moving at all for the non-fiction/documentary world. Ask any documentary filmmaker and they will list the problems they face in receiving adequate (forget good) funding, assistance in distribution (a theatrical release is a dream within a dream), technical support, and much more.
Many will disagree and say that’s not true; in the last few years, an Indian documentary film even won an award at the Oscars, and the latest is from Cannes. But the question is, how many, and what is the story behind those documentaries? In a week’s time, we will forget the news of the achievement and our news feed will be bombarded with the upcoming big fat wedding or the election results.
Feature films will continue their course, making films worth crores, while documentary filmmakers will still struggle to find support to make their films. Some give up, while others persist, looking for funding. Some sell their assets, and a lucky/unlucky few manage to get a limited budget to make their film but receive no support for distribution. Audiences are hardly aware that an international submission fee ranges between $20 and $250 (for early submissions). Let me not even go into the expense of making a DCP copy, courier charges, etc., to send the final copy if their films do make it to the final screening. Many filmmakers don’t even travel to the festival, spending all their time on the internet following the festival page for their film review. Some prestigious festivals sponsor travel and accommodation, but
that trend is declining too.
So, why are these films not making it? Is it because the content is not good, the director is not capable, the script is weak, and so on? The answer lies at the audience level. We, as an audience, do not wish to watch anything without a recognizable face. Let’s not be hypocritical by saying that’s not true. How is it that some series have done well? Because they never clicked on the very first day; even the most famous series didn’t have an audience on the first day of release. Word of mouth, immense marketing, promotion, and social media collaboration brought our attention to them and thus followed seasons after.
Did we, as an audience, even know that the best documentaries are now available on YouTube and still not many viewers? Mind you, these are some of the brilliant films screened across festivals and have won awards, yet no viewers. The filmmaker is so passionate about the content that they want the film to reach the audience. They want people to know that something like this is happening around them. Films related to children, child abuse, women empowerment, dowry, education, religion, caste, disability, humanities, archaeology, climate, environment, biography, sexuality, LGBTQ+, and much more have
been made. The Films Division (now part of NFDC) once supported documentary filmmakers. PSBT, for the last twenty years, has supported many first-time and experienced
filmmakers to make films and tried to screen these films across festivals. But with time, even they are vanishing reluctantly.
Hemant Gaba took a year to make the film An Engineered Dream in 2018 on a limited budget. It was screened at many prestigious festivals and won the National Film Award for Best Film in the Non-Feature Category (a category that doesn’t seem fancy enough for anyone). Sadly, the film was out before Kota Factory, yet it is still unknown and hardly watched. I wonder if Hemant Gaba had the same funding and distribution assistance, how beautiful and how many more characters would have been shown through the series. An Engineered Dream is a 72-minute journey featuring real characters speaking as they are.
Nothing romanticized about them—just being them.
The funding and support will continue to be the same, and no one-off rewards and awards will make a difference until we, the audience, acknowledge the stories told to us. Aanchal Kapur is holding EcoReels in New Delhi from June 3rd, showing some of the best documentaries from our country. Do go and watch them. There is no entry fee. Documentary filmmakers still haven’t received paid screening privileges yet.
There are many documentary filmmakers who have made brilliant films that will one day serve as archival footage for future generations to come. Before we need producers, filmmakers need an audience. (Most feature films are based on documentary films made- Trivia).
Link: https://vimeo.com/269297887
