TORONTO – Canadians seem to love their home grown documentaries, so why is the industry shrinking?
That’s the basis behind the fourth edition of the report ‘Getting Real: an Economic Snapshot of the Canadian Documentary Industry’ set to be released Thursday by The Documentary Organization of Canada / l’Association des documentaristes du Canada (DOC). The comprehensive study provides an in-depth look at the health and volume of documentary production in Canada from the years 2007 to 2009, including feature-length and theatrical documentary production, television documentary production, the non-theatrical educational market and the on-line world of documentary financing and distribution.
The report found that while Canadians continue to be enthusiastic consumers of documentary content, whether in theatres, on television, or on-line, public funding, television commissions, and overall production all declined during the period covered by the report.
“Broadcasters and funders are shutting the door on Canadian documentary production, just as demand for documentary content in our country has never been higher,” said DOC’s executive director, Lisa Fitzgibbons, in the report’s press release. “That’s what was so surprising to us about this study. ‘Getting Real’ has a message for Canadians: unless we find a way to reverse this trend, the documentaries we know and love will become an endangered species in this country.”
