Audience Demand for Documentary Features Grows Across Platforms
Tim Dams Once seen as rather elitist and niche, the documentary feature market is expanding as audience demand for real life stories continues to grow.Documentaries have become a huge genre in their own right, says Lia Devlin, head of distribution at Altitude Films, whose slate includes “Tina,” “Zappa,” “David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet,” and festival hit “Gunda,” which it releases this June.“Audiences have reappraised the documentary genre. They are treated very much now as feature films and a solid entertainment format.”Streamers have played a key part in helping broaden the appeal of feature docs, offering thrilling and emotional real-life stories that are often as dramatic as anything that fiction could dream up.