Fremantle’s Mandy Chang Warns Against a ‘Corporate Age’ of Documentary as Streamers Fuel Docmaking Boom

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias Fremantle’s global head of documentaries Mandy Chang insisted on Thursday that “the golden age of documentary is a cliché” and urged filmmakers to avoid “a two-tier system of haves and have nots,” where independent documentaries are crowded out by splashier commercial projects bankrolled by streaming platforms.“Mainstream docs are popular, but not all documentaries are popular or given prominence,” Chang said to an audience in Copenhagen. “And success for me is a golden age not just for the mainstream, but for a plethora of smaller, less expensive, but still important and powerful films made by…a much more diverse group of filmmakers.”The Fremantle executive was speaking during the four-day conference program at the Copenhagen Intl.

Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX), which runs March 23-April 3. During her address, Chang warned against the influence of global streaming giants such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV Plus, whose deep pockets and bidding wars have fueled the perception that the documentary field is booming.“Many platforms are looking for the same thing.

True crime, sports stories, celebrity-driven narratives,” she said. “These kinds of films and series get the lion’s share of the money.