Programming Profile

A host of broadcasters, producers, distributors and festival organisers told us about their favourite documentaries of the past year, what made them so good and what they suggest about current industry trends.

The past 12 months have seen an impressive crop of new documentaries produced, as the term ‘premium factual’ enters the industry lexicon. We asked executives from across the factual sector about their favourite ones and, from the array of responses, one title stood out.

The Rescue is a 2021 documentary film directed and produced by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. Produced by National Geographic Documentary Films, Ventureland, Storyteller Productions, Little Monster Films and Passion Pictures, it follows the Tham Luang cave rescue in 2018 which saved a junior football team from an underwater cave.

“I was transfixed by how people with different backgrounds and specialities could hatch a plan, in extremely dangerous conditions, with limited time and unrelenting monsoon rains working against them,” says Julie Chang, exec VP of international coproductions at Canada’s Blue Ant Media, singling out the film as her documentary favourite of the past year.

“The stress was palpable, but it was truly inspiring to watch the mental/physical endurance and courage that was required to save those boys. It renewed my faith in mankind and how magnificent human beings can be.”

The Nat Geo film also struck a chord with Hayley Babcock, CEO of LA-based Hayley Babcock Media and former head of formats, international programming and production at A+E Networks. “Astonishingly, the edge-of-your-seat story is crafted using only third-party footage, beautifully produced re-enactments, top-tier graphics and interviews shot via Zoom. It is a story of hope, triumph and humanity,” she says.

But what are the broader industry trends to be taken from the success of this title?

From cave divers to surfers in 100 Foot Wave to the mountain climber in The Alpinist, the basketball players in Last Chance U: Basketball and the race car drivers in Drive to Survive, it is clear there is narrative drama every bit as compelling as scripted programming or true crime stories to be found in the world of sports.

“Expect to see more drama, action, mystery and emotion come into the mainstream via awe-inspiring documentaries from the world of sports. You don’t have to be a sports fan to love these stories, you just have to be a fan of the human spirit,” predicts Babcock.

For Jamie Brown, CEO and exec producer at UK prodco Frantic Films, The Rescue is a “stress-inducing, tension-filled but ultimately very rewarding experience – even knowing the outcome.”

He adds: “It was an inspiring example of many people and countries coming together to accomplish what seemed impossible. We’re seeing something similar in Ukraine right now, and I’m desperately hoping we can beat the odds there as well. I’m not sure it’s part of a trend, but it was a relief to enjoy a show that left me feeling good about the world.”

Natalie Humphreys, MD and founder at Storyboard Studios, says: “As a viewer, other than the access, one of the best things about the film is how we were able to play ‘armchair witness,’ piecing more of the picture together as the story went on, coming to terms with the grim reality of this near-impenetrable cave system, the details gradually becoming clearer to us viewers in line with how the rescue team themselves were learning new information.”

A documentary with a very different look and feel also caught the eyes of our factual folk. The Beatles: Get Back is a 2021 documentary series directed and produced by Peter Jackson. It covers the making of the Beatles’ 1970 album Let It Be and was produced by Apple Corps and WingNut Films for Disney+.

“I’ve always liked Beatles music but never been a huge fan, but seeing this documentary series has turned me into one for so many reasons,” says Fiona Gilroy, content sales and acquisitions director at Flame Distribution. “I was in awe of their immense talent, and of the insights the film gave to the dynamics between the four band members.

“Peter Jackson is a master filmmaker, of course. How beautifully he has put together the wonderfully restored footage. It’s testament to the importance of documenting everything for the future so we can look back and reinterpret moments which may have seemed ordinary at the time but go on to make a big impact.”

For James Anderson, sales manager at DCD Rights, The Beatles: Get Back is “an amazing immersive experience of archive content as The Beatles write and rehearse in the lead-up to their iconic final rooftop concert, allowing you a unique insight into their creative process.”

He adds: “It was fascinating to see the band politics and dynamics play out in real-time at a particularly turbulent point in their history and is also an amazing time capsule. It’s worth watching for George Harrison’s collection of coats and footwear alone. Peter Jackson has raised the bar on what a music documentary can be, but it also shows the evergreen appeal of telling the story of classic artists and how great music was created.”

The Disney+ series was also selected as the best of the past year by Kate Beal, CEO at Woodcut Media. “I love the Beatles, social history and archive,” she explains. “Over the course of nearly nine hours, Jackson combined all of these elements into a masterpiece of storytelling. The technical quality was so extraordinary I had to keep reminding myself I was watching a documentary, not a purposely filmed drama.”

Although The Rescue and The Beatles: Get Back ticked boxes for many execs, other titles also stood out. Navalny is a 2022 film directed by Daniel Roher that revolves around Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny and events related to his poisoning. It was produced by Cottage M, Fishbowl Films, RaeFilm Studios and CNN Films for CNN+ and HBO Max.

Peter Raymont, president of White Pine Pictures, describes it as “a gripping, timely thriller, a compelling weave of exclusive access cinema verité, news footage and interview. The filmmaker won the trust of the brave and heroic Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.”

Navalny, distributed by Warner Brothers, is destined for Oscar contention, adds Raymont. “Daniel calls Navalny ‘lighting in a bottle’ – that magic moment when promise and opportunity meet. People have always been drawn to verité filmmaking, a window into a world they could never otherwise enter. The film’s timing is extraordinary. Weeks after its Sundance premiere, the man who tried to murder Navalny, Vladimir Putin, appalled us all by invading Ukraine.”

For Willem Pruijssers, CEO at DFW International, the best doc of the year was Netflix’s My Octopus Teacher. The Oscar winner was directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed and follows the year filmmaker Craig Foster spent forging a relationship with an octopus in a South African kelp forest.

Pruijssers says: “Seemingly a simple nature documentary, the filmmaker, Craig Foster, really draws you into believing he gets to forge a special bond, a friendship, with an octopus. Although the verdict is still out as to whether an octopus feels on an emotional level in the same way humans do, this guy really makes it so believable that the octopus makes a true connection with him, and that their friendship is mutual. It’s an incredibly moving film.”

Another Netflix doc caught the eye of Donovan Chan, creative director at Beach House Pictures. Downfall: The Case Against Boeing is a 2022 doc from Imagine Documentaries directed by Rory Kennedy that looks into the events that led to the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, both Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

“This is an important film that debunks rumours that the Indonesian and Ethiopia pilots operating the aircraft were poorly trained, while highlighting the many missteps and assumptions by the Boeing company. It’s a sad tale where greed and capitalism triumph over excellence in craft and design – and most importantly, aircraft construction and safety,” says Chan.

“Films like this tap into a growing trend of alternate premium crime stories that are either noisy non-violent crimes (big frauds, white collar) or non-conventional crimes that are so weird and wide-ranging that they attract a wider audience profile than, say, a serial killer doc.”

Netflix isn’t the only streamer making waves in the doc space. Hulu’s Summer of Soul was well received and highlighted by Lilla Hurst, joint MD at Drive. The 2021 film from Searchlight Pictures is directed by Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson and is about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.

“In August 2021, people were timidly returning to collective events, burnt by repeated Covid protocol u-turns, we were all a little out of practice,” explains Hurst.

“What I love about this film is how seamlessly the social history of the time is intertwined with the footage of the live event, never jarring and always adding to the potent atmosphere. The dynamic figure of Tony Lawrence, the festival organiser, wowing both the crowd and the parade of talent, makes you want to have him come back to save us in 2022 and be president.”

Paul Islwyn Thomas, CEO at Wildflame, also points to a Netflix title. 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible is a 2021 mountaineering film directed by Torquil Jones and produced by Jones, Noah Media Group and Little Monster Films. “The film is captured entirely in the moment and almost entirely by the climbers themselves, which is a huge achievement in itself,” he says.

“But this wonderful film strives to do much more than ‘just’ capture the epic physical journey. Torquil Jones deftly weaves rich and complex contributions to broaden out the narrative arc of the film. Perfectly judged animation is then introduced forging layers of visual narrative creating a fine and detailed Nepalese tapestry.”

Alan Clements, MD at Two Rivers Media, couldn’t pick out just one title as best doc of the past year. “I am going to be greedy and select two. On the face of it, they are entirely different, but they share some DNA, which tells us something both about trends and also audience desire.

“9/11: Inside The President’s War Room for Apple TV+ and BBC One was, for me, the most fascinating and moving of the slew of documentaries marking the 20th anniversary of that dark day, and The Tinder Swindler, Raw TV’s brilliant film on Netflix, was a compellingly edited and hugely entertaining tale of an international scam.

“Very different subjects and treatments, of course, but both share key qualities. Most important, they had the fantastic first-person testimony of those involved, which draws attention more than any expert view. Second, they both had visual moments that stayed long in the memory. Finally, they had a confidence and command in their storytelling that carried you along and left you wanting more.”

Netflix again cropped up in the selection of Karen Willis, director of development at Collective Media Group. She went for Sophie: A Murder in West Cork, a 2021 series about the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

“What strikes me is how the filmmaker takes care in telling the viewer who Sophie Toscan du Plantier was over the three episodes. We get a real sense of what her spirit was like, her achievements and what she meant to her loved ones,” she says.

“I can’t see the trend for true crime slowing down, but I’d like to think there’s a change in how we’re making them. At Collective Media, this is baked in from the top down. The women in our stories should never just be the footnote, or just ‘the victim.’”

Rounding out our list of factual execs’ top docs are Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry (Apple TV+) and Uprising (BBC One). The first, directed by RJ Cutler and centered on singer-songwriter Billie Eilish, was selected by Vicky Ryan, chief operating officer at Rainmaker Content.

“I don’t particularly enjoy concert movies and often artists have a ‘behind-the-scenes’ documentary which is just pro-shot footage of their tours, whereas this had hours of footage spanning a number of years and all the performance moments had a narrative purpose,” says Ryan.

“It truly speaks to the growing need for documentaries to have that authenticity and connect with the viewers on an emotional level.”

Uprising, meanwhile, is a three-part doc made for the BBC by Steve McQueen and James Rogan about the tragedy and aftermath of events in London in 1981, which it argues would go on to define race relations for a generation.

Adam Jacobs, creative director at Quintus Studios, describes the series as “an extremely powerful and emotive viewing experience that opened my eyes to an horrific event that I was not previously aware of, namely the New Cross fire of 1981 that claimed 13 lives.”

He adds: “Not only did this shine a light on a piece of black modern history that had been somewhat overlooked from a documentary perspective, it did so simply using archive newsreel footage and personal, first person testimony. I say simply although the execution is exquisite, as those that were there tell their story to camera, answering difficult questions with dignity and, as to be expected, occasionally anger.”