UK doc specialist outfit Dogwoof came to Cannes ten days ago with realistic expectations of what could be achieved on the Croisette. These may be boom times for documentary with the streamers and pay-TV but Cannes is an event primarily driven by theatrical titles – and no-one can pretend that cinemas are anywhere near their pre-pandemic audience levels.
“With the theatrical figures not looking great anywhere, we knew it was going to be a very tricky market,” Ana Vicente [Dogwoof head of sales] says of the Cannes Marché.
There were other factors softening the market as well. Chinese and Russian distributors aren’t buying at the moment. Inflation in production budget levels has led some sellers to raise prices. At the same time, the offers from the buyers are often lower than they would have been pre-pandemic. They’re also more conservative in what they acquire because they can’t rely on returns from theatrical box-office. In certain territories, for example Latin-America, the market for theatrical docs has all but disappeared. In others, for example Australia, theatrical buying has slowed down noticeably.
Nonetheless, Vicente still sees an upside. Dogwoof has been able to use Cannes to heighten buyer awareness of the new theatrical docs it is financing and pre-selling. One of these is The Sound Of Ice, Tommy Gulliksen’s new project about musician Terje Isungset, who makes ice music using pieces of glaciers. This has some high powered backers on board, among them Wim Wenders’ Road Movies and Oslo Pictures [the outfit behind The Worst Person In The World].
“That was one which many theatrical buyers responded to and we got very good, positive feedback,” Vicente notes of the warmth shown to the ice project on the Riviera last week.
Another Dogwoof project which obviously fit in well in the Cannes environment is Alexandre O Philippe’s Lynch/Oz, which explores the surprising links between MGM’s classic Judy Garland movie, The Wizard Of Oz, and the films made by master surrealist, David Lynch. This will surface at Tribeca shortly and has been selected for Karlovy Vary, Sydney, Melbourne and various other festivals.
“There have been many comments and allegations that have been done by film critics on the world of The Wizard of Oz – the world of The Wizard and the meaning of its themes,” Vicente explains of a doc which includes clips from both the original movies and from Lynch’s famously weird and warped filmography.
Dogwoof is also selling another documentary bound to appeal to cinema lovers, namely Mark Cousins’ My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock. This looks at the celebrated British filmmaker, who directed his first feature, Number 13, 100 years ago in 1922, from an unusual perspective. Cousins comes at Hitchcock through the director’s own, very distinctive voice.
“He [Cousins] has written the script in the first person, as if it was Hitchcock [speaking],” Vicente explains the ingenious approach that the British documentary maker has taken.
The company is already pre-selling the doc, which will be launched later this year. Vicente, though, is keeping her powder dry. She doesn’t plan to announce the deals already struck until the film’s likely premiere at one of the autumn festivals.
There are obvious reasons why docs about classic films and filmmakers have some traction in the marketplace. Distributors who own the rights to films made by the subjects of the docs have a vested interest in acquiring them, if only to enrich their libraries further. And cinephile fans love to discover more about their idols.
Vicente is also optimistic that documentary fans will return to cinemas for films with a big screen aura, among them for example projects like Dan Geller & Dayna Goldfine’s festival hit Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song. This tells the story both of Cohen’s life and career and of one of his most celebrated songs, ‘Hallelujah’, which has been covered multiple times by other artists. The film has been sold very widely. Now, it is due to come out in various markets.
Vicente notes that some trends post-pandemic in the doc world match those in fiction. For example, the titles that are working best in theatres are those that appeal to younger audiences. Even so, Dogwoof has been racking up sales during the Cannes and Hot Docs period. Navalny, directed by Daniel Roher and about the Russian opposition leader, has been released theatrically in certain key territories while being sold to TV all over the world. Sundance title My Old School, telling the bizarre story of the 30-year-old Brandon Lee who pretended he was still a teenager so he could go back to school, has also captured the imagination of buyers. Other new Dogwoof titles like Million Dollar Pigeons, about the esoteric sport of pigeon racing, are also catching buyers’ fancies.
In spite of post-Covid market turbulence, there is, it would seem, plenty to be excited about when it comes to documentaries aimed at cinema audiences.
