Documentary producer, Katherine Crawley, has a lot to thank Michael Moore for.
Long gone are the days when documentaries were perceived as fusty, tired and boring. The popularity of feature length documentary hits like Bowling for Columbine, Super Size Me and An Inconvenient Truth has paved the way for documentary producers worldwide.
And Katherine, along with many of her counterparts, is capitalising upon the form’s revived popularity. For the first time in cinema history, feature length documentaries now draw in the crowds.
As a co-founder of the production house, DOCFactory, Katherine is passionate about documentary and its capacity for change. Katherine established DOCfactory last year as a production house but, she says “It is more than just production. We oversee the distribution, we manage publicity and marketing and we tie the film’s release into campaigns – for fundraising, or raising awareness, or for change.” This wholistic approach to filmmaking is evident in DOCFactory’s current release, Black Gold.
Black Gold focuses on the winners and losers in the coffee trade – using Ethiopia as an example of a country where farmers struggle for basic survival, living on a breathtakingly low income dictated by some of the world’s biggest companies.
Released in UK cinemas this month, the film is building upon the successes it enjoyed on the international film festival circuit. Black Gold premiered at Sundance in 2006. Katherine believes the international festival circuit is crucial to a documentary’s success or failure. “It’s a showcase. You build momentum and interest and word of mouth on the circuit.”
DOCFactory used the momentum to build what Katherine terms a campaign for change. “There was growing interest in the film, a lot of talk around it, so we used the buzz to bring on board support.” Support has come from several corners, including coffee company AMT.
Katherine believes the film has, and will continue to, open up the debate about fair trade. “We want to use the film to raise public awareness – make the public think about asking coffee companies to pay a fair price. Or to consider lobbying politicians. We’re trying to tackle issues at the grass roots level.”
Accessibility, Katherine says, is crucial to change. “Michael Moore clearly popularised documentaries. Suddenly they became fashionable – something people wanted to see at the cinema.” And, Katherine says, “It’s crucial because TV documentary budgets are forever being cut.”
So how did DOCFactory come into existence?
As a Co-Founder, Katherine was inspired by personal experience. “I had worked and lived in a number of third world countries and needless to say the experience was eye-opening.”
In fact, Katherine spent time in West Africa, Europe and South America, immersing herself in diverse cultures. “I saw first hand the relationship between big business and the struggles of the local people – and the clear conflict between the two.”
Katherine then worked as an Associate Producer on KZ, a Rex Bloomstein documentary which screened at Sundance, and during that time she decided to establish DOCFactory.
She then teamed up with what she terms as “Filmanthropists” – a new breed of film investors. “Like-minded investors who are more interested in social change than they are in profits.”
But she is not naïve by any means to the power of money in filmmaking. “Certainly, filmmakers like Michael Moore have proven to cinemas that documentaries do have the ability to get crowds in front of screens. The popular a documentary is, the bigger the audience and the wider the message spreads.”
DOCFactory is now branching into production itself. Their latest project is the doc-feature News For Sale, which analyses the effects of corporate media on local communities. Katherine is facilitating the production for filmmakers Gary Graham, Dan Cantagallo and Jean-Phillipe Tremblay.
Once again, the focus is on social change. Through exposing the power a handful of media giants have over the industry, the film tracks the corporate drive for profits at the expense of public interest.
News For Sale represents a new milestone for DOCFactory as it is their first production guided from initial conception through production and next year, distribution.
Katherine is naturally excited. “It’s incredibly satisfying.” And modest, “Obviously, I’m a facilitator for the filmmakers,” she says. But as one of the current drivers in changing the business model for documentary films – transforming a production into a campaign for change – that modesty seems misplaced.