From King Charles to Malcolm X, Documentary Filmmaker Tom Jennings Hunts for Big Names, Fresh Footage in Battle With Drama Shows

variety.com:

Ben Croll Leading the news and documentary jury at this year’s Monte-Carlo Television Festival, Peabody and Emmy-winning filmmaker Tom Jennings has seen the non-fiction business trend toward premium offerings with more event series – an evolution shared across much of the larger television landscape and pushed, in no small part, by streamers. “Ten to 15 years ago, we were a ratings driven business,” he tells Variety. “Now, it’s a question of getting people to sign up and stick around because what they like is on a given platform.” For companies likes Jennings’ 1895 Films (named for the year the Lumière brothers screened their first films – all of them non-fiction, he adds) the shifting terrain has resulted in shorter episode order with greater budgets as docs and dramas find themselves showcased alongside one another with little divide. “The call for always having something unique is probably more intense now,” says Jennings. “We have to operate at a very high level in terms quality, because we’re competing with all the blue chip narratives; we have to go toe to toe with those kind of shows, and hopefully ours are fascinating enough to win out.” In the case of “Charles: In His Own Words,” which 1895 Films recently delivered for National Geographic, and in the ongoing “Lost Tapes” series broadcast on the Smithsonian Channel, archival originality has been key. “[Viewers] want access that no one else has,” Jennings grants. “But it’s getting harder to find new material on topics that are big enough and global enough [to warrant this kind of focus.] So I always tell my researchers to think outside the box when looking for footage.