The Documentary Film Council: Building a new infrastructure for UK nonfiction film

Lead Research Organisation: University of the West of England
Department Name: Fac of Arts Creative Ind and Education

Abstract

This application is to support impact and engagement activities resulting from Dr Steve Presence's AHRC ECR grant, 'UK Feature Docs: Studying the Feature Documentary Film Industry' (2018-2020, from here 'UKFD'). The application proposes the creation of a new national organisation for UK documentary - the Documentary Film Council (DFC) - that has been co-conceived by the research team in collaboration with the leading organisations in the industry.

The DFC will consist of a range of working groups that address the different needs and represent the different sub-sectors in the documentary industry. The specific aim of this project is to target Follow-on Funding at key elements of this proposed organisational infrastructure: the core work required to establish the DFC, and the specific activities of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Mental Health working groups. This strategic use of funds will directly support the foundations of the DFC and address two of the most pressing industry-wide issues - diversity and mental health - while also animating the DFC's broader organisational infrastructure and stimulating activity across all the DFC's proposed working groups.

The UKFD project was primarily a work of cultural history that explored the evolution of documentary as a cinematic form over the past two decades. However, the project also included a more future-facing research strand that aimed to investigate the challenges faced by those working in the sector today. This strand of the project expanded well beyond its original scope following high levels of stakeholder engagement and the formation of close relationships with leading industry bodies. As the research developed, it emerged that policymakers in the film and television industries alike had, for various reasons, largely overlooked the unique needs of the nonfiction sector. As a result, UK documentary was suffering from a range of problems that stemmed from a long-standing lack of tailored support. This work thus exposed an urgent and unforeseen need for widespread policy intervention across the documentary industry.

Responding to this need, the UKFD research team scaled-up their originally modest plans to explore challenges in the sector. In partnership with Doc Society - the lead body for documentary in England - and with additional 0.4 RA support, funded by UWE in recognition of this expanded remit, in April 2019 the UKFD team launched what became the largest survey ever conducted of UK documentary producers and directors. The results were published by the UKFD team in June, which in turn became the basis for an extensive sector-wide consultation in summer and autumn 2020, the results of which were published in a second major UKFD report in January 2021.

This Follow-On Funding bid is the product of this unanticipated and unforeseeable research trajectory. The proposed project builds on the original UKFD research and takes it in a significant, innovative and exciting new direction. The proposed structure and reach of the DFC is without precedent in the UK screen sector. It will generate a range of creative, innovative and evidence-based interventions across the documentary industry, and will attract national and international attention, engaging a genuinely diverse range of new audiences and user communities. As evidenced by the UKFD project research, many of the issues and challenges facing the documentary industry can only be addressed via sustained and collective commitment to the problems at hand. A secure and sustainable cross-sector infrastructure is a precondition to building and maintaining such commitment. With support from the AHRC at this crucial stage, this project will provide that infrastructure to the UK documentary sector, delivering significant cultural, economic and social benefits to the sector and its audiences and ensuring the impact of AHRC-funded research is felt across the UK screen sector and beyond for years to come.
 
Title Documentary Film Council Showreel 2023 
Description This is a showreel we developed to showcase the best independent UK documentary and promote the existence of the DFC. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact It's hard to gauge the extent to which this has impacted the sector. Most views will have taken place on our website rather than on the YouTube platform. However, it has been played before all our events and is a key element of our remit to promote the sector and its work. 
URL https://documentaryfilmcouncil.co.uk/
 
Description This award was for impact and engagement rather than research but there were nevertheless some key findings that arose from the project, which was to establish a new body to represent UK documentary film called the Documentary Film Council (DFC). These findings include, at their most basic, a re-affirmation of the urgent need for an independent national body to represent this sector. Many organisations in the screen industries, including policymakers and executives at the highest levels, still do not recognise the independent documentary sector as a distinct sector, with its own infrastructures, organisations, community, value chain and challenges. These do of course overlap with their equivalents in the film and television industries but they are also distinct from them in important ways, many of which stem from the nature of making films with real people and about the real world.

Consequently, the documentary sector faces unique challenges that cannot be addressed by a film policy that is geared almost exclusively to drama, and by a television sector in which documentary consists largely of formatted and factual entertainment. The independent documentary sector - as evidenced in the research project I led that preceded this award, and by others elsewhere in the world - is facing an existential threat. We cannot begin to address that without a national organisation with a remit to represent the sector, hence the establishment of the DFC.

During the course of the project, as well as liaising with national screen sector organisations such as the DCMS, the British Film Institute, the British Screen Forum, Creative UK and others, we have also been working with several international organisations including the Documentary Association of Europe and the US-based International Documentary Association. Our innovative governance structure - the DFC is a co-operative that is owned and run democratically by its members, and as such is unique in the UK screen industries - has been received with great interest and admiration by these and other organisations.
Exploitation Route The DFC is the result of the policy-oriented work package of the UK Feature Docs project. This project was mostly a cultural history of the sector but the policy-focused work looked to the future, and explored the challenges and problems faced by organisations and individuals working in the sector. We used a range of methods to explore these questions, including surveys, interviews and focus groups, which were complemented throughout by numerous meetings and conversations. Each stage in this process comprised of a kind of feedback loop that ensured our publications reflected the concerns of the community and fed into the next round of discussion. In this way, the DFC is an example of genuine, grassroots stakeholder-led policy research and development that may well be of use to a range of other sectors, both in arts and culture and beyond.

As noted above, our democratic governance structure is also ground-breaking. Co-operatives are not new, but they are rare - albeit much needed - in the UK creative industries, and the DFC is the first national trade body in the UK screen industries to incorporate in this way. These kinds of structures are essential if we are to address the many well-documented problems facing the creative industries, from workforce precarity to the rapidly expanded commercial forces that are wiping out the independent sector and its essential contribution to art and culture.
Sectors Creative Economy

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Government

Democracy and Justice

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

URL https://documentaryfilmcouncil.co.uk/
 
Description The Documentary Film Council developed from 'UK Feature Docs' research project, which was an AHRC-funded study of the independent documentary film industry (2018-21, AHP0138051). Some of the key findings from that project were that this sector lacked coordinated and transparency, and was overlooked by policymakers partly because it has never had a national representative organisation to advocate in its interests. The DFC developed directly from these findings and the policy-focused work package of the research project that preceded it. The DFC is the first national member-led body for UK documentary film. The DFC is also the first trade body in the UK screen industries to incorporate as a co-operative, and thus to be aligned with the co-operative values and principles. When the DFC membership elects its first board in spring 2024, that board will be the first democratically elected representatives of the sector in UK documentary film history.
First Year Of Impact 2023
Sector Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

Policy & public services

 
Description Briefing re: UK documentary film sector
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
URL https://docs.google.com/document/d/101X677KGu-8pkiknRUmZA_i-X4HcZELCE67y1e7fY80/edit?usp=sharing
 
Description Cited in Doc Society evidence to parliament
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7859/british-film-and-highend-television/publications/written-...
 
Description DFC Response to DCMS Inquiry into British Film and High-End Television
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://documentaryfilmcouncil.co.uk/news-updates/dcms-survey/
 
Description Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival 
Organisation Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution I submitted a Session Proposal to the festival which directly addresses the work of the AHRC-funded network project, and it was accepted. The event is a panel discussion in the main programme of the festival, and will take place in addition to the event we are hosting in collaboration with Sheffield Hallam University.
Collaborator Contribution They have accepted the Session Proposal and it will feature throughout the festival's extensive publicity material and in its programme. They will also cover the costs of bringing all the UK-based speakers to the event as well as the costs of some of the international speakers. Doc/Fest has also added the RFN to its list of affiliated organisations, as a result of which RFN members benefit from reduced price passes to the festival each year.
Impact The outcomes of this event include relationships formed between the PI and the festival team, which have fed into another research project (AH/P013805/1). The festival also provide discounted passes to RFN members each year as a result of this event.
Start Year 2016
 
Company Name Documentary Film Council Limited 
Description The Documentary Film Council is a membership-based organization that supports and represents the UK documentary film industry, providing resources, networking opportunities, and a talent directory for its members. 
Year Established 2023 
Impact It is too early in the DFC's history for much of its impact to have been realised, but it has already unified what was a fragmented and disjointed sector of the British film industry. We have established a membership of 500 people - with a newsletter audience of more than 1400 - and at the time of writing are preparing to elect our first board. We are also actively engaged in policy work, including the ongoing parliamentary inquiry into British film and high-end TV.
Website https://documentaryfilmcouncil.co.uk/
 
Description 'Documentary Utopias: Rebuilding the UK Feature Doc Landscape Post-Pandemic' 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact A panel session at Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival based on the findings of Keeping It Real, our research report on conditions in the UK independent documentary film industry. The event was chaired by Mia Bayes (BFI). Speakers included the UK Feature Docs Principal Investigator, Dr Steve Presence and a range of producers, directors, distributors and policymakers responding to the findings of the report.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://ukfd.org.uk/policy-reports/
 
Description An open letter to the UK screen industries: Independent documentary is at risk 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The DFC published an open letter in the film and TV trade press drawing attention to the serious challenges facing this sector. It was signed by 494 people and was covered extensively in the media.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://documentaryfilmcouncil.co.uk/news-updates/dfc-open-letter/
 
Description DFC Members' meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was the first DFC Members' Meeting. It was attended by approximately 55 people and consisted of an update from the leadership team followed by structured discussion and breakout groups with members.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://documentaryfilmcouncil.co.uk/news-updates/newsletter-5-thank-you-and-happy-holidays-from-the...
 
Description It's Real! The Documentary Film Council Open Assembly 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was the launch event and first annual DFC 'Open Assembly' at Sheffield DocFest - an international in-person meeting of everyone involved in the UK documentary film industry. 200 people attended. The event consisted of a presentation followed by a facilitated workshop address policy priorities for the sector.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://documentaryfilmcouncil.co.uk/news-updates/newsletter-1-next-steps-for-the-dfc/
 
Description Keeping it Real Consultation Session 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact This was a series of 12 themed focus groups that took place as part of the consultation that followed the publication of our Keeping It Real report on conditions in the UK's independent documentary film sector. Approximately 80 people took part. It resulted in the subsequent policy report, Making It Real, which provided a roadmap for the industry to address the key challenges identified by participants in this and other policy-focused activities we carried out during the project. The major outcome was the formation formation of the Documentary Film Council and the Follow-on Funding bid we recently submitted to support that work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://ukfd.org.uk/policy-reports/
 
Description The inaugural meeting of the Documentary Film Council 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact This was a meeting of representatives from the proposed working groups in the Documentary Film Council, a new, sector-wide industry body designed to enable the documentary sector to speak with one voice on the issues that matter. It is a direct result of the two policy-orientated reports - and the associated consultation - we produced as part of this project, but particularly the second report, Making it Real.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://ukfd.org.uk/policy-reports/