A New Dawn for Documentary Filmmakers

A New Dawn for Documentary Filmmakers

The Documentary New Zealand Trust acknowledges the huge leap of faith by the New Zealand Film Commission in its new documentary development funding support.

Unlike short and feature dramatic films, documentary filmmakers did not have an official route for documentary development and production funding within the NZ Film Commission.

With the global popularity of cinematic and festival documentary genre, there has been an increasing call for a proper structure for funding those documentaries that go beyond the broadcast format supported by NZ On Air. The NZ Film Commission’s latest funding development guidelines will allow documentary project development, production funding and producer’s assistance to festivals and markets.

The Documentary NZ Trust have been single-minded in its pursuit of better support for the documentary industry and through the DOCNZ Film Festival, introduced NZ audiences to the wide and diverse range of festival and cinematic documentaries.

The Trust’s industry initiatives have increased awareness of the position of the documentary genre. The DOCNZ Summit whet the appetite of our filmmakers to want to make internationally successful cinematic and festival documentaries. It also facilitated international funding and co-production opportunities. Through the DOCNZ Pitching Forum, various documentary feature films were launched and funded including ‘Untouchable Girls – The Topp Twins’ and ‘Brother No. 1’.

DOCNZ’s Director Alex Lee says “By supporting documentary films, the NZ Film Commission recognizes the potential of documentary as a viable cinematic expression. It allows New Zealand to come to the international co-production table as an equity partner and will encourage our pool of talented New Zealand filmmakers to compete internationally.”

Dan Shanan, DOCNZ’s Director quips “It’s a huge step in the right direction and we look forward to working with the NZ Film Commission to continue to develop our documentary industry to become world leaders”.

ENDS