Sunny Side Of The Doc Responds To “Moment Of Contraction” In Doc Field With New Opportunities For Co-Production
deadline.comThink of it as the Marché du Film, except just for documentaries. That’s one way to picture Sunny Side of the Doc, the annual gathering of some of the top buyers and sellers of nonfiction content around the world.
The four-day event got underway Monday in La Rochelle, the historic port city on France’s Atlantic coast. Much like the Marché du Film in Cannes, Sunny Side’s exhibition hall presents a maze of booths where countries and companies alike do business along the water: Arte, Canal+, Mediawan, NHK, Terra Mater Factual Studios, Newen Connect, Al Jazeera, National Geographic, PBS, BBC, and more; there’s also space for delegations from China, Chile, Brazil, Nigeria, Australia, and other countries.
During a keynote address Tuesday, Diana El-Osta, senior director, multiplatform development and programming at PBS, noted the challenging environment for so many stakeholders in documentary. “I think there’s pretty broad recognition that we’re in the middle of a moment of contraction across the industry,” El-Osta said. “We’re seeing that across broadcasters — we’re seeing layoffs.
A lot of the media landscape is grappling with what the future will look like and grappling with our business models and how do we remain sustainable.” Co-production has become an increasingly crucial model to finance and create documentary content.
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