BANFF 2013: Reality vs. Docs

By Bill Roberts

BANFF – When I first started going to the Realscreen Summit in Washington DC, almost 12 years ago, it was documentary Mecca. Today, Realscreen is a Kasbah of reality shows and ever more wacky non-scripted formats. Non-fiction then was not what non-fiction has become. That display of disparity was starkly evident at Banff this week. On the one hand, non-fiction format gurus and their kindred broadcasters had a good yak about what ails them, and the challenges of producing Big Brother Canada on a continent awash in Big Brother, the American original. On the other hand, Canada's National Film Board...