Here's Tom Zubrycki in the SMH going on about how governments need to spend more money to support film makers like... him. Last I checked, he seemed to get a nice chunk of change out of the funding bodies at a semi-regular rate that would make most film makers in this country, well, envious.
The state agencies have a key role, so do the public broadcasters. They should set aside their fixation about ratings and be proactive in supporting and nourishing a vibrant documentary sector. One idea would be to reinstate the half-hour documentary slot - perhaps along the lines of Inside Australia, axed by SBS but which produced many memorable documentaries and gave many filmmakers a break.
At the other end of the spectrum there is the feature documentary. It hurts to make cut-downs to suit requirements of schedulers and sales agents, when these films are sold-out at festivals. My plea is for flexibility from schedulers to allow for the occasional feature-length documentary slot at prime time.
Recently the ABC screened Australian feature films, such as Samson & Delilah, on a weekend evening. Would it not be a good idea to feature documentaries in similar slots?
I recall a meeting at Paddington Town Hall of independent filmmakers many years ago; it must have been the late '70s or early '80s. I remember it as noisy, fiery and passionate. We voiced our indignation that apart from a couple of exceptions, our films were not picked up by television. We could get our films screened at the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op cinema in Kings Cross, and even the Opera House for a while. The tide of protest worked and the ABC opened its doors.
None of us expected, however, the ABC and SBS would gradually set the agenda for the documentary sector as a whole and leave filmmakers with fewer options to get our films commissioned. This is still the case, with new pay channels such as National Geographic.
Don't get me wrong. We are pleased public broadcasters are commissioning our ideas but is this concentration of decision-making good for the industry, for diversity?
Dude, do we even care? Somebody's always footing the bill. Better the commercial bodies than the Screen Australia mob who seem to preferentially fund Tom.
But there's more:
It's here that agencies such as Screen Australia have a vital role to play. We must radically expand the special documentary fund. Without its support, it is extremely difficult to produce documentary work unconstrained by the imperatives of the broadcasters. Ironically, many films supported through this ''back door'' end up being sold back to the broadcasters that rejected them in the first place.
The fund is one of the few places filmmakers can get support for projects largely shot overseas with no obvious Australian connection.
As filmmakers, we've been good at holding up a mirror to our own society but increasingly we're driven by a curiosity about what's happening outside our borders.
It's all very self-serving but I guess that's the nature of speeches given when they hand out an award. Pardon me if I find this much less than courageous.
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